A house of counsel, built to last.
For four decades, Macatangay & Catapang has advised Philippine enterprise through boom and crisis, reform and reversal — with the same steadiness our founders set down in 1984.
From two lawyers and a conviction, to one of Manila's leading firms.
Macatangay & Catapang Law Offices opened its doors in 1984, when Ramon T. Macatangay, a corporate lawyer, and Isabel V. Catapang, a litigator of formidable reputation, left larger institutions to build a firm on their own terms. Their premise was that clients deserved partners who would stay close to the work — not delegate it away.
What began as a two-partner practice on Ayala Avenue has grown into a full-service firm of more than sixty lawyers, spanning corporate, financial, regulatory, and contentious work. Through the Asian financial crisis, sweeping tax and corporate reform, the rise of the digital economy, and the demands of a modern regulatory state, our clients have relied on us to see the whole board.
We have grown deliberately. We take on the lawyers whose judgment we would trust with our own affairs, and we serve the clients whose matters we can genuinely move. That discipline is why, forty years on, some of our first clients are still our clients.
Principles that outlast any single matter.
We give clients our considered opinion — including when it is not the one they hoped to hear. Sound counsel is worth more than an agreeable one.
The partner you retain is the partner who does the thinking. We staff leanly and lead every engagement personally, from first meeting to final signature.
Our clients bring us matters of consequence and confidence. We protect both with the seriousness they deserve, and we say little that our clients would not say themselves.
Four decades, in brief.
The firm is founded
Ramon T. Macatangay and Isabel V. Catapang establish the firm in Makati with a practice in corporate and litigation matters.
Through the crisis
The firm guides banking and corporate clients through the Asian financial crisis, building its restructuring and finance practice.
A full-service house
Expansion into tax, labor, intellectual property, and real estate establishes the firm as a genuine full-service practice.
The digital economy
New data-privacy and technology practices answer the demands of the Data Privacy Act and a fast-digitising market.
Quezon City headquarters
The firm consolidates at Gateway Tower in Cubao, uniting its practice groups under one roof in the heart of Metro Manila.
Forty years of counsel
The firm marks its 40th anniversary with more than sixty lawyers across twelve practice groups.
Consider us for your next matter.
Whether you are forming a company, closing a transaction, or defending your interests in court, we would welcome the conversation.