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Digitalization empowers law firm as it moves beyond 25th year

Published Feb 13, 2023 02:22 pm

Now on its 25th year and with a workforce of approximately 50 people and a growing client base, The Ocampo & Manalo Law Firm (OMLAW), also known as The Law Firm of Ocampo, Manalo, Valdez, and Lim, has embarked on a digital transformation journey to make things more efficient.

“When I learned the potential of digitalization, which is not just to store information but to provide solutions by using platforms, I was blown away. I started to research on what were the best practices. We have a system that reduces the need for a mindless activity or makes things quicker, nimbler, and more accurate. We can arrange information any way we want. We are still looking for areas for improvement. By leveraging our technology, we can keep up with the best practices abroad. We can keep up with the demands and requirements of our clients abroad. It is a reflection that the Philippines is on the cutting edge, so we like to stay sharp,” said Atty. Carlos “Caloy” Ocampo, the founding partner of OMLAW.

“One of our partners goes through no less than two to three contracts per week for one client in the health sector because they are transitioning. This whole group is converting to digital platforms. Everything changed, and now she must review the contracts per week. It was just an idea two years ago,” he added.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, OMLAW adjusted its work setup to ensure business continuity. It became possible given the right size of the law firm and the help of digitalization.

“We have each other. Clients do not see what happens behind the scenes. There is always checking and rechecking, and collaboration which I thought was impossible because we were not in the same place during the lockdowns. We can still collaborate without being in the office, so we tend to keep the work-from-home setup. The lawyers have proven their trustworthiness and worth in the darkest times when we do not see each other. We trust them enough that they work from home one day a week. It is not much, but it is our token that we trust them enough that the collective output will not suffer,” Ocampo explained.

From aviation, OMLAW successfully expanded the sectors it covers through the years. The law firm heavily skewed in favor of airlines three to four years ago. Today it is much more balanced. It now has a good portfolio of clients, ranging from mutual funds, insurance, manufacturing, construction, retail, telco, and energy companies. Digitalization helped OMLAW continue doing business with its clients during the lockdowns.

“We had clients who were having trouble paying wages, and we had to update them with the latest issues with the Department of Labor and Employment regarding work arrangements. With that advice, we avoided any possible lawsuits because what they were doing was according to a DOLE memorandum. Later on, we told them: ‘OK, when it is open already, we cannot do this anymore, so we have to ease back to the new normal,” said Atty. Juan Victor Valdez, a partner at OMLAW.

A nimble law firm

Apart from digitalization, the size of its organization has helped OMLAW easily adopt new practices and adapt accordingly, especially during disruptive scenarios such as the pandemic. 

“I think we are just the right size, and over the years, it served us well and offered us some flexibility if we need to adjust somewhere. One of our clients, the chief legal officer of Ayala Corporation, Atty. Mon Hermosura, referred a client to us by e-mail. In his introductory message, he called us a nimble law firm, which is a good quality to have for their needs,” said Atty. Manolito “Manix” Manalo.

Moving beyond 25 years, OMLAW commits to doing its share for the country’s nation-building process amid the ongoing pandemic. OMLAW has been promoting the country by familiarizing affiliates in other countries with how business is done in the Philippines.

“We made a deliberate move about six or seven years ago where we started to speak for law conferences. We learned through our colleagues and affiliates in Asia that there is a great interest in the Philippines. However, they do not know anything about our business laws. They do not know enough about the business climate to move and become a foreign direct investor. Hence, we went out and shared what we know about the Philippines. It felt like we were promoting the Philippines like in a trade show. It felt good, and what we picked up in the last seven years of doing, something is stopping them from coming in because they do not know if they would get help when they come in here. Another discovery, we should embrace the fact that we are a developing country. We have a lot of activities over the next several years, given our very young workforce. Most of our population will be producers. We owned our skills and made ourselves better at industries that have to do with development,” said Ocampo.

OMLAW wants to share the vision of contributing to nation-building with other law firms and businesses in the country.   

“We want to be a part of recovery after the pandemic. The impact we make is not on a one-to-one basis or one person-to-one lawyer. When we do things, it can affect hundreds to thousands of people. When we do something, chances are there is a multiplier effect. We would want more law firms to share our mission, and maybe law students can also take this approach. There is more than enough room, and this is not a cutthroat competition. When everybody succeeds, we also succeed. It is not a zero-sum game,” said Ocampo.

“We are very open to collaborating with other friends. We have a good number of projects where that is happening. There might be this impression that lawyers are combative. There is a lot of room for collaborative work among lawyers,” Manalo continued.

“To get the economy on its feet right now, it helps us if we are more because we cannot do it alone. We need the companies to work on their corporate governance, and the law firms to up their game and get the companies more viable in this environment. We need more firms like this to attract more investors,” Ocampo concluded.

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