WHAT do you do when you need to recharge your batteries? In lawyer Benedicta Du-Baladad’s case, she opened BDB Law in 2009, which since then has become a full-service law firm that counts multinational companies and conglomerates among its many clients. Talk about recharging.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Du-Baladad shares her vision, plans and advocacies and also talks about her dynamic partnership with lawyer Fulvio Dawilan.

What motivated you and Atty. Dawilan to put up the BDB Law Office?

When BDB Law Office was created, it was initially conceptualized as an outfit to provide litigation services for clients wanting us to handle their tax needs in a comprehensive manner, which would include representing them in court, if and when the intervention of a court is necessary.

At that time, I was the head of the tax advisory and compliance department of Punongbayan and Araullo (P&A), one of the big auditing firms in the country. Atty. Fulvio Dawilan, who was then one of the tax partners in that firm, and a CPA-lawyer, was made a partner of BDB Law.

It was initially named Benedicta Du-Baladad Law Office, hence the name BDB Law, taken after my initials. Shortly thereafter, Fulvio resigned from P&A to take his chances in the bar exams in New York. Fulvio did pass the bar exams in New York.

In 2009 I decided to slow down in my career. I resigned from P&A but wanted to maintain a small consultancy office to keep me abreast with the profession. P&A and I then agreed that I continue with BDB Law considering that P&A, as an auditing firm, cannot handle litigation services. Besides, the law firm carries my name.

The law firm that I thought would be my semi-vacation place eventually became the full-service law firm that it is today, and my intention to work on a lighter schedule ended.

Clients kept coming in. Even conglomerates and multinationals, unexpectedly, came asking for my services. It was then that I called Fulvio and asked him to come home, to join me and help me run the firm.

At that time, there were issues about conflict of interest that caused anomalies in auditing firms. There were demands for separation of service providers for audit and tax services to avoid potential conflict of interest. BDB Law was at the right time and place, offering itself as a competent, service-oriented, disciplined alternative to the big guys. The rest, with God’s grace, is reflected in what we are today.

Today, BDB Law is a full-service tax and corporate law firm.  We offer a wide range of services that include eight major services: (1) tax litigation; (2) tax defense (assessments and refund); (3) tax advisory and tax planning; (4) tax compliance and returns preparation; (5) mergers, acquisitions, corporate restructuring; (6) international tax advisory (transfer pricing and tax treaty applications); (7) incentives availment assistance; (8) corporate services (incorporation, dissolution, corporate secretarial services).

Beginning 2011, BDB Law became a member of WTS (World Tax Service) Alliance, an international network of independent tax, business consulting and legal services firms in more than 90 countries.  Because of this affiliation, BDB Law may soon be drawn to expand its services to include business consulting and other legal services.  The core business of WTS Alliance is categorized into tax, business consulting and legal.

What were the initial challenges encountered by the firm during its fledgling days? How did it handle these challenges?

Surprisingly, we did not have a problem on how to get clients. With the limited number of tax lawyers we had—we had four trained associates plus two partners at the time—we had more than enough on our plate. Our problem was how we can get trained people or how we can quickly train younger ones and be able to make them ready to handle the work with the same level of quality that BDB Law is known for.  This is still a problem up to now.

What are the most popular services among the clients? Why?

In response to the very aggressive approach of the BIR under its new Commissioner Kim Henares in going after tax leakages, services related to tax assessments have become a most sought-after service. Likewise, as a preventive measure to tax assessments, tax compliance review which involves reviewing the level of compliance, identifying lapses before an actual investigation is made by the BIR, has become a second popular service. Tax advisory is in the upswing also.

My projection is that litigation services will also be in demand in the coming days, especially those related to assessments and refunds. Because of over-eagerness in the issuance of assessments by the BIR, there are increasing lapses in procedural and substantive matters which may need the court’s intervention to resolve. There are also increasing numbers of questionable and baseless assessments being issued.

How does the firm project itself?

We want to project BDB Law as a tax law firm that can offer the most reliable and practical solutions to all of your tax needs through competent representation, customized and innovative solutions, dedication to quality and ethical practice.

We want to present BDB Law as the best alternative to the big law firms and the Big 4 auditing firms in terms of providing tax services.

How does the firm deal with the government regarding tax issues?

My being a former official of the BIR has given the firm a good insight of the culture, the working arrangements, procedures and the way tax issues are being handled by the BIR. This has somehow given us an advantage in the handling of tax cases with the government agencies. It gave us a better understanding of things. We are able to effectively respond to the issues being raised against our clients.

What are the plans of the BDB in the next five years?

We want to be able to develop BDB Law as a brand known for and respected in its area of expertise: taxation.

What are the tax advocacies being pursued by BDB Law Office?

Our advocacy is for simple, fair and just taxation, both in terms of tax structure and its implementation. It is only when we have this kind of tax system that people are encouraged to voluntarily and honestly pay their taxes. Of course, this may mean losing our business as people may need less of our services, but this is the cost we have to pay for an ethical, taxpaying and organized society.

Are there plans to develop BDB into a global brand? How?

Not on the drawing board yet. We plan to be global through our international affiliation, the WTS Alliance.

How do you and Atty. Dawilan work together?

Our management style, preferences as well as personalities are very much different from each other but perfectly complementary. Our differences somehow provide the balance in the way we work, the way we look at things, the way we make decisions for our cases and the way we run our business. We are able to capitalize on our differences in maximizing the opportunities that come our way.

For example, I concentrate on building relationships with clients while Fulvio concentrates on nourishing and maintaining those relationships through his caring attitude toward clients. In designing solutions or advice to clients, I provide the macro perspective, the long-range effect and the practical considerations, while Fulvio supplies the technical and more humane considerations.

There are two common factors that bind us, though. First is our love and dedication to our professional calling as CPA-lawyers; and second, our desire to provide the best service to our clients. BDB Law’s aim is to be able to consistently provide that kind of service way above our clients’ expectations.

What are the other services BDB plans to introduce in the market? Why?

Because of our international affiliation with WTS Alliance, we may be forced to expand our services to align with that of WTS. WTS is into three major categories of services: tax, business consulting and legal.

We foresee that in the next year or so, we will be expanding our service offerings to business consulting. Likewise, we may expand our legal services from purely tax-related corporate services to a wider range of corporate legal matters.

Atty. Benedicta Du-Baladad, managing partner at Du-Baladad and Associates, and Atty. Fulvio Dawilan