Director at Legal Management Council of the Philippines and General Counsel and Head of Legal (Philippines)
Guess?, Inc.
Philippines
“The biggest external trends that are currently shaping my role as a General Counsel are the rapid changes and complexities on the compliance and regulatory aspects of my role.”
Nico is the General Counsel and Head of Legal of the fashion and retail conglomerate GUESS Group. He also serves as a Director at the Legal Management Council of the Philippines, the country’s premiere association of legal professionals.
Throughout the years, Nico has successfully represented his past and present principals before various quasi-judicial agencies, trial courts, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Because of his solid advocacies on ESG and intellectual property awareness, Nico is often invited as a professorial lecturer and resource speaker by various government agencies, educational institutions and international organisations such as the International Trademark Association, EU IPO, World Intellectual Property Organization and the Asia Pacific Corporate Counsel Alliance. Moreover, several legal publications, such as AsiaLaw, Asia Law Business Journal, The Legal 500 and World Trademark Review, have consistently commended him for his exemplary legal works.
During his law firm days, Nico has been cited by the Legal 500 as a Next Generation Partner, and he has been consistently included by the publication’s General Counsel (GC) Powerlist Magazine in its lists of leading in-house lawyers across Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Just last year, Nico has made it to the prestigious Legal 500 GC Elite Philippines, which celebrated and recognised the country’s Top 20 prominent and seasoned corporate in-house lawyers. Additionally, he has also received various awards and recognitions from the Asian Legal Business and other key national government agencies like the Bureau of Customs and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines.
On his days off, Nico enjoys traveling, working out at the gym and car racing.
“I respond to changes and complexities by shifting from a primarily reactive, compliance-focused approach to a more...”