By Felicia Recto & Mia Rodriguez / Special to the BusinessMirror
SINCE 1972, Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Firm (ACCRALAW) has maintained its status as one of the country’s notable law firms nationwide and internationally. While the firm has made its mark in its base in Manila, it is no surprise that ACCRALAW’s expertise has extended to their regional clients, especially in Cebu and Davao. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the firm’s branch in Davao.
According to Emerico de Guzman, managing partner at the Manila head office, ACCRALAW began its expansion in Davao in 1996 in response to the expansion of their bigger clients, including Philips and San Miguel Corp. in this region.
“I think the acceptance of ACCRALAW in these areas Cebu and Davao came about because for the most part, many of our referrals were a result of our clients from out of Manila,” de Guzman said. “Since there are cases to be handled in Cebu and Davao, we had to handle them from out of these offices.”
Supervising Senior Partner of the Davao Branch Iolanda Abella said this expansion was in-line with the firm’s original plan.
“The vision of the founding partners was really to have a nationwide firm and we had seen growth in the provinces. So they first wanted to have a feel of what it was like in Davao,” she said, “People also knew it was time for the standard to be raised.”
The Davao branch, instituted by ACCRALAW partners Piping Capili and Romulo Espaldon Jr., has come a long way since it began operations in 1996.
Myra Montecalvo-Quintalan, resident partner at the Davao branch, said clients used to call on lawyers mostly for litigation or only when disputes have started. Nowadays, though, clients are more focused on “streamlining their businesses to avoid litigation,” which calls more for aid in the daily operations of the clients’ businesses.
“I think many businessmen have come to realize it’s best to be following the rules of the game up-front, instead of being at the receiving end of litigation at some point in time later,” de Guzman said.
Because of the region’s specialization in agriculture, ACCRALAW’s Davao Branch mostly handles cases related to agribusiness and agrarian reform.
Unlike their other regional branch in Cebu, which was met with resistance by the Cebuano lawyers, Davao was more welcoming of the competition. In fact, ACCRALAW’s establishment in Davao raised the bar for the entire legal field in more ways than one.
“I think they also welcomed our presence because when certain clients were up against us, they said we were up against a Manila-based law firm, so the rates they charged were higher, probably sort of welcomed the competition and upgrading the level of competition including the fees,” ACCRALAW Consul Victor Lazatin said.
With the success of the Cebu and Davao branches, ACCRALAW is now looking into growing even bigger and better, especially through the use of technology. Currently, ACCRALAW is doing very well in all parts of the Philippines even without solid representation everywhere.
“Now, with the ease of telecommunications, the presence to be in a locality is not that much. We think we can service our clients from here. It is only in litigation work where we need to send warm bodies,” Lazatin said.
The firm also uses technology to connect with the regional branches, especially for research. For example, the Manila branch can tap into the Davao branch for information on agrarian reform, while the Davao branch can inquire the Manila branch on the intellectual property law.
Even with the changing playing field, de Guzman said ACCRALAW will always have the same level of quality given by all branches of the firm.
“We would like to maintain the quality and the value that we render to our clients, that we hope they realize, comes from professionals who have the law at heart and who view service to the client consciously, but knowing full well that we have to be reasonable in our pricing,” he said.
De Guzman said ACCRALAW started with less than 10 lawyers and has now grown to a total of 156 of the best lawyers from the best schools. The firm was also named the “Philippines Law Firm of the Year” in 2013 and 2014 by international rating publication Chambers.
The Davao branch is testament to the ever-growing success of ACCRALAW in the Philippines and, according to Abella, the new administration is sure to make things even better.
“With the new administration, I think it’s just a portrait of good things to come. If there is more infrastructure and there are more businesses going to that area in the country, then, of course, the legal service will also follow,” she said. “I think we are positioned well in the sense that we have been there, we know the locality, and now that there might be more resources poured into that area, then we should be able to help the people.”