Administrative Law†
Agency
Antitrust and Competition Law
Banking Systems
Capital Markets
Constitutional Theory and Design†
Construction and Engineering
Corporate Services and Corporate Governance
Education Law†
Environmental Law
First Amendment and Social Movements†
International Trade and Development Law†
Labor Law and Human Resources
Legislation and Law Reform†
Media and Publishing
Medical Law and Research Ethics
Offshore Trusts
Outsourcing†
Money Laundering
Pharmaceuticals
Project Finance
Privatization
Public Contracts†
Public Health
Public International Law
Real Estate
Retail and Wholesale Trade
Technology
Telecommunications
Transportation
Administrative Law†
This practice area includes the nature
and process of various administrative agencies of government, federal, state
and local. Considered a substantial branch of public law, administrative law
can include rulemaking, quasi-adjudicative functions, implementation of extant
regulations and self-executing statutes, and the area of enforcement. We help
our clients navigate through national and cross-border regulatory systems,
including the formulation of private law regimes between and among private
parties and government organs from multiple jurisdictions.
On the national level, we can help clients deal with administrative courts and regulations involving such areas as transportation, communication, manufacturing, environment, international trade and consumer protection.
The broad field of administrative law has rapidly expanded-indeed, it continues to expand-in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as policy makers are increasingly in favor of the propagation of government agencies and expand the reach of rules and regulations over increasingly complex social, political, and economic activities across the globe. Our firsthand experience with court systems design, court management and anti-corruption programs make us a leading expert in this field of public law.
Agency
This practice area deals with commercial
agreements and transactions between principals and agents. The principal-agent
relationship is perhaps the most ubiquitous field of private law, normally
subsumed under larger contractual or quasi-contractual dealings where one
receives the authority to act for the benefit of another. Agency relationships
can be found in real estate transactions, employment law (including independent
contractual relationships), banking and finance, and even under the law of
public officers.
Antitrust and Competition Law
Here we provide a wide range of antitrust
advice and oversight, including the coordination and defense of antitrust
raids occurring sequentially or concurrently in several jurisdictions, responding
to regulators and non-state investigating bodies, identifying and auditing
anti-competitive activity, research and development of best practices, reduction
of national, regional, and transnational sanctions, and negotiation and cooperation
with relevant authorities as to compliance issues and sanctions. We advise
our clients on the aspects of free trade restriction and competition, anti-competitive
practices and market dominance, and cartel behavior.
Banking Systems
We are cognizant of the inherently
dynamic interaction between and among financial regimes and the convergence
of regulatory standards across jurisdictions. In rendering advice, we find
it necessary to pinpoint the causes and determinants of the liberalization
of financial markets, and the paths they will likely take in the medium term
before we proceed to analyze and apply existing banking regulations to the
circumstances of our clients.
We advise our clients on how to strategize in the face of ongoing financial reforms, taking into account the progressive liberalization of key sectors of the global banking industry. We rely principally on qualitative analysis to chart cross-border capital flows and predict the responses from jurisdictions which are significantly affected by such flows. While we concede that there is a convergence of banking systems, norms, and practices, we also recognize the possibility that the same may diverge or split into multi-tiered regimes that coexist with one another, operate relatively autonomously within larger banking regulatory frameworks, even competing with each other and accordingly influencing otherwise settled banking norms.
We conduct studies on both proposed and existing banking regulations, conventional and alternative financial practices, public agents and intermediaries as well as analyze the general interaction between and among banks and their customer base.
Capital Markets
We recognize that capital markets are increasingly
becoming virtual markets, progressing hand in hand with the growth and reach
of e-resources, the World Wide Web, and advanced internet infrastructure.
While physical markets do retain their roles in the 21st century, there is
no question that the sale and exchange of debt and equity instruments, commodities,
and other forms of investments progressively take place in electronic markets.
If you go online to trade or engage the services of a brokerage firm, you
become an actor in a capital market. If your corporation seeks to raise funds
through the issuance of stocks and bonds, whether through a public offering
or through private channels, you are entering the capital market, in turn
filled with institutional investors such as mutual funds, hedge funds, and
other investment firms.
As our client, you can commission us to study
key segments of the world capital market.
By fully tapping into and deploying our e-resources, we advise clients in
sundry areas, from obtaining and analyzing financial information, investment
services, derivative and hedging services, securitization and underwriting,
cash management, foreign exchange, to studying endemic problems on information
asymmetry, transparency, and corporate (non)disclosure. We likewise consider
emergent trends, regulatory developments, transnational capital flows, capital
accumulation, investor protection and investor confidence, and rating agencies
and their criteria. Only a holistic understanding, and no less, of the nature
and trends of capital markets is required for giving the best possible legal
and policy advice for our clients.
Constitutional Theory and Design†
The dramatic global expansion of constitutionalism
has brought with it new theories of constitutional interpretation and borrowing.
In the resolution of core political and moral questions, legislatures, constitutional
commissions, and constitutional courts today increasingly turn to foreign
and international jurisprudence to explain and justify their constitutional
proposal, text and practice. Moreover, in designing their first liberal constitutions
post-conflict societies and transitional democracies have found it essential
to engage in the comparative study of constitutional systems of developed
countries. We help our clients engage in the comparative study of constitutional
structure, design, and jurisprudence in selected countries such as South Africa,
Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Israel, India, Philippines, Japan, and the
United States. Our proven expertise in U.S. constitutional law and our essentially
comparative approach make us well equipped to assist our clients in designing
and reforming matters of constitutional significance. In drawing from the
constitutional insights of other countries, we are capable of exploring a
full range of topics that include the protections of civil liberties, equality,
human dignity, the positive or protective duties of the state (including socioeconomic
rights), and the entrenchment of international human rights norms in a catalogue
of rights and their constitutional interpretation.
We have also conducted comparative studies between and among countries in
Central and Eastern Europe and East Asia. Despite substantial differences
situated in time and place, the constitutional courts of East Asia and Eastern
Europe have progressively turned to more sophisticated comparative analysis
as well as reciprocal lesson-drawing. What could or should be the role of
constitutional judges and policymakers in emerging and transitional democracies
in East Asia and Eastern Europe? Have the institutionalization of judicial
review and the entrenchment of human rights norms led to the advancement or
curtailment of democracy and human development in these countries? We base
our advice on case studies in East Asia, namely, South Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan,
and the Philippines, as well as selected transitional polities in Eastern
Europe, namely, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Turkey. We have addressed areas
of comparative legal and political development; epistemic constitutional borrowing
and avoidance; judicial review during democratization and economic development;
strategic theory in the adoption and exercise of judicial review powers; the
tension between the constitutional learning of the rule of law and cultural
relativism; and the tension between the porosity or receptivity of these societies
to foreign, supranational and international legal norms.
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Construction and Engineering
Here we recognize a mixed bag of archaic
legal norms operating alongside superimposed modern regimes of statutory,
civil, and progressive common law. We are accustomed to dealing with an intricate
sea of facts and figures, an array of specialized professionals including
engineers, tradesmen, insurers, bondsmen, suppliers, architects, interior
designers, and surveyors, among many others, and multiple contractual and
tort relationships, as the case may be. The interaction among special public
duties that have emerged through time and private rights and duties, as well
as principles of equity and agency, all make the law on construction and engineering
a fascinating area of practice. We also advise our clients on adjunct fields
such as arbitration, mediation, and other forms of alternative dispute resolution,
licensing laws, building codes, public safety risks, and the processes of
quasi-judicial agencies and review boards.
Corporate Services and Corporate Governance
At the crux of advanced corporate services
is the question of global governance in a global political economy. We embed
our clients right into the heart of the global decision-making process. We
understand the urgent requirements of instantaneous corporate action. Accordingly,
we make sure to bridge the time and distance otherwise lying between our clients'
actual decisions and their intended legal outcomes, specifically by designing
corporate institutions and their systems to wield global control capability.
We are at the cutting edge of information management.
We are aware of money laundering practices, FATF rules, and the nuances of dummy or shell corporations, and we integrate these matters into our advice. We also provide routine corporate legal services in the areas of administration, multijurisdictional regulatory compliance, reportorial requirements, registration of agents and offices, and shareholder activism along with the regulation of the conduct of directors and officers.
Education Law†
Embroiled in the academic setting are questions
of free speech and academic freedom. We help our clients analyze existing
campus free speech codes and design them in ways that would protect interested
parties from speech otherwise considered offensive or hateful by an apparent
social majority. We draw from the latest commentaries on the First Amendment,
social movements, and civil rights advocacy. We also help our clients craft
risk-averse, university-wide antidiscrimination or anti-harassment principles
and policies pursuant to local law, federal regulation, and relevant international
norms and agreements.
Environmental Law
The advent of emissions trading regimes
has turned environmental law to an even more complex melting pot of international
and municipal law. We help our clients hurdle through environmental protection
and compliance laws. We deal with issues such as regulatory taking, judicial
review of the decisions and rulings of environmental agencies, toxic torts,
water, clean air and emissions trading, energy deregulation and privatization,
climate change, clean technology, biodiversity, ancestral domain and ancestral
land of indigenous peoples, and environmental justice. Because of the inherently
interdisciplinary leanings of environmental law coupled with our interdisciplinary
approach to the sciences, economics, social norms, and legal systems, our
clients can stand to benefit immensely from our legal intervention.
First Amendment and Social Movements†
We predicate our advice on the recognition
that legal criteria deployed to identify the bounds of protected and unprotected
speech are not socially neutral; that these legal norms are shaped by advocacy
as much as they themselves shape the ground rules for debate; and that the
arguments we may fashion are outcome determinative of whether free speech
jurisprudence may in the end apply. Our proven expertise on First Amendment
issues, on comparative constitutional law and politics, and on the nuances
arising between civil law and common law constitutional law traditions assures
you of a well informed decision over whether to proceed with litigation. Likewise
at the core of free speech doctrine are the great public policy questions
of the day, oftentimes defining and spurring political and social movements
of great historical consequence. In rendering advice we take into account
the dynamics between the public sphere and legal institutions, as well as
the calculus involved in weighing the costs and benefits of the conduct sought
to be proscribed, the private rights at stake, and the interests of the legislature.
As politically relevant interveners dispersed in the public sphere, we are
aware that our advice to you today may emerge as an institutionalized concept
tomorrow.
International Trade and Development Law†
How do legal rules shape economic development? How might some legal systems
further or obstruct economic development more than others? We advise clients
on the newfound roles of constitutions and constitutional courts in economic
development; the relationship among human rights norms, international instruments,
and balanced economic growth; and the roles of international bodies such as
the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. We
have paid special attention to the role of the judiciaries in transitional
democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, the emerging democracies in East
Asia, and post-conflict societies in sub-Saharan Africa. We are equipped with
analytical tools to develop and formulate international development policy,
legal strategy, and practical legal solutions in the resolution of complex
socio-economic issues. We believe that the vast area of international trade
and development law requires a thorough understanding of economics, public
international law, and comparative public law and policy. Our combined scholarship,
teaching, and practical experience on these fields add to our expertise.
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Labor Law and Human Resources
Emerging trends in labor law and human
resource law point to a bifurcated shift away from comprehensive national
labor codes and toward both the internationalization and constitutionalization
of labor law norms. These trends however do not signal any marked increase
in the density of formal provisions of statutes or regulatory activities of
labor courts; rather, we are convinced that the continued deregulation of
the labor market will generally be the case. These observations have led us
to think more in terms of standards than rules, of principles and policies
than strict black letter law categories. We thus predicate our advice to our
clients on the extralegal aspects of labor law, the behavior of labor markets
and market competition, and other methods of economic analysis. We analyze
labor markets in terms of who may be the actors and interveners in such markets
and of the ways in which they can strategically intervene in settings of principled
or partial legal indeterminacy.
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Legislation and Law Reform†
We help our clients by considering fundamental
causal claims that arise between an observed social problem and a proposition
or solution that may be implied from that social problem. By taking causality
seriously, we become confident that our legal advice is grounded beyond mere
plausibility and takes on a real, empirical "bite." In addition,
in converting social claims to legislative reform, we draw from our experience
and expertise on international political economy as well as on the relationship
between law and development, particularly human development. We are well qualified
to field our own discussion papers, undertake expert or popular consultations,
and draft law reform documents in the form of, say, a new property regime
or code, upon which government action may be based. We understand the nature,
processes, and arrangements of federal, state, and local governments, unitary
governments, and regional political unions. This understanding, along with
our intimate knowledge of comparative constitutionalism, political theory
and constitutional design, all make us exceptionally qualified for the task.
Media and Publishing
We assist our clients on the workings of
the media system, including print and broadcast media as well as cable networks.
Being authors and writers ourselves, we are attentive of the needs of like-minded
clients as well as the demands of the media industry as a whole. Hence, we
advise our clients on matters of royalty and licensing, trademark and copyright,
as well as complex contractual arrangements involving creative work, production,
marketing, and general corporate compliance.
Medical Law and Research Ethics
Among the recurring issues in this field
of law are the right of autonomy and the decision-making capacity of individuals.
Much of contemporary discourse has been shaped by the international human
rights dialogue and international clinical research ethics. These, in turn,
translate into regulatory structures implemented by research ethics committees
and review bodies. We predicate our legal advice on international and comparative
analyses concerning medical ethics, research, and health law scholarship.
We are aware of the rapid advancements of these fields, keeping in mind the
extant norms under the Declaration of Helsinki and various European protocols.
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Offshore Trusts
We help our clients design and manage offshore
companies, trusts, and other corporate vehicles. Our clients range from wealthy
individuals and their families, private investors, expatriates, to professional
firms, governments and publicly listed companies. We provide legal support
on related fields such as asset management, wealth protection, private equity,
international tax, ship registration, intellectual property, and other cross-border
business matters. Our expertise in international economic systems and banking
regulations make us well qualified for all these matters.
Outsourcing†
Always a political hot button issue, outsourcing
or offshoring pertains to the practice of fanning out portions of one's business
to foreign labor markets whose workers demand substantially lower costs for
the same or substantially similar work. Firms benefitting from such practices
gain considerable competitive advantage with little risk, provided of course
that the work outsourced is adequately supervised and controlled by the firms
themselves. Beginning with manufacturing, outsourcing marched steadily into
the fields of information technology, and then to the professionals such as
accountants, consultants, and lawyers. Contemporary economic theory would
generally approve of these measures since ultimately it is the consumer who
will stand to benefit. But the displacement of local jobs has turned an otherwise
simple business process into an item in political agendas. We help our clients
navigate through an increasingly expanding area of law and regulation as lobbyists
and business groups clamor to restrict the outsourcing industry. As outsourcing
continues exponentially, we believe that regulators will have much room for
legal experimentation and will respond accordingly.
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Money laundering is the process by which
one seeks to legitimize ill-gotten wealth, or wealth acquired from criminal
activity such as drug trafficking or arms dealing. We help our clients understand
the nature and purposes of anti-money laundering regulations and international
measures. In doing so, we hope to enforce these frameworks through our own
legal practice.
Pharmaceuticals
We help our clients navigate through drug
approval procedures, licensing requirements, clinical trial requirements,
and drug quality criteria. We also help our clients deal with legal matters
on manufacturing, marketing, exporting, and importing pharmaceuticals.
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Project Finance
We advise clients on the general aspects
of project finance, or the financing of capital intensive industrial facilities
and infrastructure, as well as the ways in which project financing structures
(including special purpose vehicles) may be deployed to further the project
as a whole. In moving across jurisdictions, we aim to coordinate work with
all sponsors, investors, banks, and stakeholders of the project, optimize
the use of debt and equity in the financing process, and help our clients
identify social, economic, and political risks, distribute these risks, and
allocate resources accordingly without jeopardizing the profitability of each
component of the project.
We oversee revenue generation under those contracts tied to the project; we design, register, and enforce liens on project assets, and undertake targeted interventions in behalf of the client in case the project or the project company encounters compliance issues with loan stipulations or cross-border regimes. Among the industries we work with are mining, oil, and other natural resources; chemical facilities; sources of power and its distribution; aircraft and vessels; transportation; defense; utilities and quasi-public entities.
Privatization
Privatization is the process by which title
over assets or services supported by public taxes are transferred to private
firms competing in a free market. Through privatization, the roles and functions
of government and public administration are reduced as free market mechanisms
are made to work. Economies in transition usually regard privatization as
a way to foster a market economy and spur economic development, while freeing
up limited state resources for more pressing concerns.
Privatization requires the design and implementation
of key institutional, if not regional fiscal frameworks. We help clients throughout
the process of transferring legal title over assets incrementally and under
a controlled legal environment. We assist by restructuring state enterprises
into limited liability companies and joint ventures. Our experience and expertise
on the nature of contracts and obligations as understood under both civil
and common law traditions enable our lawyers to structure and design effective
ways of transferring title over valuable assets dispersed in various jurisdictions.
We also aim to ensure their effective management once state control over these
assets phases out and entrepreneurial spirit sets in.
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Public Contracts†
Parties to public contracts must be informed
of the regulatory and statutory conditions that may pervade throughout the
contractual relationship. These conditions and regulations include the requirement
for contractors to certify that they will not knowingly employ aliens or foreign
entities (usually in the name of nationalization or public interest), the
registration and signing of memoranda of understanding which set forth the
responsibilities and duties between and among private and state parties, notification
requirements, periodic submission of documentation, termination of public
contracts, and cooperation with key government bodies. Failure to keep many
of these conditions gives cause for government bodies to terminate or rescind
the public contract and hold the contractor liable for damages the government
may suffer as a result of the termination.
We assist our clients, government and private,
throughout the negotiation process of public contracts. We also provide contract
management services in which we encode, administer, and advise our clients
on contractual obligations in a database and present these findings in matrix-form
for easy reading, use, and dissemination.
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Public Health
In this field, we help our clients navigate
through the complexities of medicine and personal health care services, clinical
trials and processes, privacy and consent issues, among many core questions.
We are cognizant of the essential features of public health law, namely, (1)
the special responsibility of the government for public health activities;
(2) the focus on the health of populations; (3) the relationship between the
state and the population or between the state and individuals or private enterprises
that places the greater community at risk; (4) the provision by the government
of population-based services grounded in the scientific methodologies of public
health; and (5) the power of the government to coerce individuals and private
enterprises in order to protect the larger community from health risks. Our
expertise in constitutional theory and comparative public law enables us to
take a broader, holistic perspective on what otherwise might appear too technical
a field.
Public International Law
We approach public international law under
the perspective of actors involved in commerce. We are aware of how public
international law is applied in a classical sense and yet analyze its doctrines
in terms by which market actors engage market frameworks and strike arms-length
private transactions. Seen in this light, maintaining the classical approach
to public international law, in contrast to critical legal studies, may work
to the benefit of private economic actors and their dealings. International
economic law, for instance, is still generally perceived as "hard,"
science-like law especially when analyzed under the lens of law and economics.
Our clients stand to benefit from our expertise in institutional economics and international trade and development law. We analyze public international law in a consequentialist perspective. Specifically, we predicate our advice on the legitimacy of formal and informal norms and mechanisms operating throughout international legal regimes. The legitimacy of these norms and mechanisms in turn guide and shape transaction costs which our clients may encounter in all international dealings.
Real Estate
We help our clients throughout the negotiation
and closing stages in all real estate dealings. We analyze the quality of
title over their property, search and examine titles, deeds, notes and mortgages,
property insurance policies and other documents affecting one's legal title,
and assist in all aspects of property administration. We advise clients on
compliance issues under sundry property codes and special laws. Our experience
in real estate contracts and real estate litigation gives us the confidence
that our clients will continue to make informed choices.
Retail and Wholesale Trade
In this field, we help our clients in all
aspects of the sale of merchandise, commodities, or goods to the general public.
In jurisdictions with foreign ownership restrictions and related foreign investment
laws, we structure transactions in ways that would comply with these and other
special laws and existing constitutional requirements. Our background in economics
and business transactions make us well equipped for the task.
Technology
This diverse area of law is concerned with
the use of technology, including information technology, biotechnology (usually
subsumed under medical law), and media. While "Internet Law" has
gained currency among legal scholars and professionals, such field is really
a subset of the larger field of technology law. Its adjunct fields include
intellectual property law, privacy and freedom of expression, international
or cross-border transactions, and international dispute resolution. Our multidisciplinary
and empirical approach to legal practice enables us to appreciate technology
and technology law as a dynamic, global social phenomenon driven by business
expediency and by the intrinsic pursuit of technological advancement. Aware
of the progressive nature of technology law, our lawyers are capable of analyzing
commercial transactions in terms by which social scientists examine the dynamic
between technology as means and technology as a determinant of legal change.
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Telecommunications
This field of law includes such topics
as antitrust law, market pricing of telecommunication services, telecoms regulation,
cellular telephony, international telecommunications issues, electronic privacy,
and cable networks. We can help clients deal with converging legal norms under
these areas of law owing mainly to the convergence of telecommunications technologies.
We are aware of increasingly outmoded regulatory paradigms under existing
statute books; but we are also aware of the core theme of monopoly or monopolistic
behavior that underlies the cross border regulation of prices, terms, and
conditions of service. We thus analyze telecommunications law in light of
institutional economic and network theories and advise our clients under such
conceptual frameworks.
Transportation
The transportation industry can be said
to encompass two subjects, namely, public agencies and private entities. The
former includes transport-related agencies which are principally concerned
with the carriage of passengers and, to some extent, freight. The latter refers
to private companies which hold more diversified interests, are concerned
more with freight than passengers (although they certainly cater to both),
and would involve the crossing of state lines and international carriage to
a much greater degree than public agencies. In either case there is a constant
tension between deregulation and increased government supervision over the
transportation industry. This tension might depend on the incidence of safety-related
disputes, demand, and pricing. Aware of the economic and social implications
of the transportation industry and transportation law, we help our clients
navigate through increasingly complex regulatory frameworks and help them
anticipate changes in administrative rules, legislation, and treaty law.
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Other Interests and Fields of Research
Comparative constitutional law and politics†
Court systems design
Post-conflict and deeply divided societies†
Transitional justice and human rights
Hybrid courts† and war crimes tribunals
Law and development†
Law and economics
Cognitive theory
Law and literature
Legal theory†
Rhetoric
For further information on these research areas or to contact Mr. Tupaz directly,
please email info@TupazLaw.com
† proven expertise
