Professional Background
Carla is a dual-qualified lawyer licensed to practice in both the Philippines and New York. She specializes in corporate and commercial law, with particular expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and project financing transactions. Her legal practice spans across highly regulated industries such as telecommunications, real estate, energy, banking, mass media, and logistics. Carla is adept at structuring complex investments and navigating intricate financing arrangements in emerging markets, ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks while delivering practical and commercially driven solutions.
Her practice encompasses advising clients on antitrust matters, capital-raising initiatives, and navigating regulatory frameworks to facilitate large-scale infrastructure and development projects. She provided strategic legal guidance on cross-border investments and high-stakes transactions, such as the entry of the third national major player in the Philippine telecommunications industry, the first development project in the Philippines of one of the largest real estate developers in Japan, and acquisition by one of the largest conglomerates in the country of a participating interest in the service contract for the development of the biggest natural gas project in the Philippines.
Carla holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Corporation Law from New York University School of Law, where she was a Dean’s Graduate Scholar and served as Editor of the Journal of Law and Business. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of the Philippines, where she received the Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence, and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology.
In addition to her corporate practice, Carla has taught at the University of the Philippines College of Law and Philippine Law School.