Jose Florante M. Pamfilo

Jose Florante M. Pamfilo is a partner at SyCipLaw. He is a former member of the Firm’s Executive Committee and the chair of its Responsible Business Committee. He also heads the Firm’s Sustainability and ESG practice development initiative.

Jose has a diverse practice that spans various aspects of corporate and commercial law.

In the mergers and acquisitions space, he has acted for both buyers and sellers, in asset sale transactions and share sale transactions, involving private as well as public companies. He has assisted foreign investors structure their investments and joint ventures in areas such as renewable energy, retail, financial services and real estate development.

In the financing space, he has acted for both lenders and borrowers in local and cross-border loan transactions, including in acquisition financing, project financing and commercial lending. He has worked on issuances of debt securities and equity-linked securities.

In the banking and financial services sector, he has advised foreign and local banks and non-bank financial institutions on various issues relating to the offering of financial services in the Philippines, and has provided assistance in regulatory investigations conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippine central bank). He has worked on mergers and acquisitions transactions involving universal, commercial, thrift and rural banks, financing companies, stock brokerage companies and insurance companies.

In connection with his international trade law practice, Jose acted as counsel for the Philippine distilled spirits industry in a GATT dispute involving the Republic of the Philippines before the Appellate Body and dispute settlement panel of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

Jose regularly contributes to multi-jurisdictional publications on sustainability reporting, sustainable finance, impact investing, and carbon transition, and has spoken at various public fora on the same topics. He is a member of the Climate Policy Monitor Legal Expert Network of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

He is one of the Firm’s leading advocates for pro bono legal services and counts among his pro bono clients international environmental NGOs such as Conservation International and WildAid Inc. He worked previously for the Ateneo School of Government as Legal Specialist and Research Fellow and volunteered as Legal Officer for the Palawan NGO Network, Inc. and the Environmental Legal Assistance Center – Palawan.

He holds a certification on Sustainable Capitalism & ESG from Berkeley Law.