Regina Padilla Geraldez is a Senior Partner, and concurrently the Co-Managing Partner. She heads ACCRALAW's Immigration department.
In 1989, Ms. Geraldez was appointed Associate Commissioner of the Commission on Immigration and Deportation, playing a significant role in revitalizing and professionalizing the agency. She was instrumental in putting order to and simplifying immigration rules and procedures for the benefit of aliens and the general public. In 1990, she was appointed Acting Undersecretary for Legal Affairs of the Department of Agrarian Reform where she contributed to the formulation of many administrative orders and regulations to implement the institution’s mission. Upon her return to private practice, she assumed an expanded role to include giving advice on investments, joint ventures, acquisitions of agricultural land and its conversion to commercial, industrial or residential uses. She has also advised on the acquisition by a foreign bank of a local subsidiary, and on investments at the Subic Bay Freeport. She was also involved in litigation work before the appellate courts. With her appointment as head of the Firm’s Immigration Department, she currently devotes substantial time to advising on the requirements for obtaining visas and work permits for investors and their employees.
Her practice areas include: Immigration, Agrarian Reform, Corporate Transactions and Real Estate.
Ms. Geraldez obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines in 1974, and her Bachelor of Laws degree (cum laude) from the same university in 1978. She obtained a Master of Laws degree from the University of Michigan in 1983. She trained as a visiting lawyer with the firm of Baker & McKenzie in Chicago and San Francisco.
Ms. Geraldez is active in professional, civic and charitable organizations. She is the Secretary General of the Asean Law Association (ALA), a regional organization of the Asean member states composed of judges, government lawyers and private practitioners. She is also the Treasurer of the Asean Law Association of the Philippines. Ms. Geraldez was the President of the Portia Sorority from 1977 to 1978, President of the UP Law Alumni Association, Inc. from 2003 to 2004, President of the UP Women Lawyers’ Circle (U.P. WILOCI), the association of the alumnae of the UP College of Law from 1994 to 1996 and which she continues to serve as a Director. She is and has been for many years, the President of the Immigration Lawyers Association of the Philippines (ILAP), which aims to improve immigration practice through consultation with the officials of the Bureau of Immigration. Finally, she is a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), Philippine Bar Association (PBA) and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).
Ms. Geraldez is often invited to conduct lectures. In 1995, she spoke at the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) Fifth Annual Meeting and Conference in San Francisco on “Practical Solutions to Employment Issues Facing Overseas Companies and Employees Working on Foreign Projects”. In the same year, she spoke at the IPBA Women Business lawyers in Asia and the Pacific Inaugural Conference in Singapore on “The Rewards and Hazards of Public Service-Readjusting to the Legal Culture of Private Law Practice”. In 1996, she delivered a paper on “Prospects for Plantation Agribusiness in the Philippines (Mindanao)” at a seminar on plantation projects in Kuala Lumpur sponsored by the Center for Management Technology. In July 16-17, 2015, she spoke at the EU – Vietnam Strategic Dialogue Facility, under the sponsorship of the European Union in Da Nang, Vietnam where she delivered a paper entitled “Practices, Challenges and Direction Towards Legal Harmonization in the ASEAN.”
The 2015, 2016 and 2017 editions of the Asia Pacific Legal 500 Editorial cites Ms. Geraldez as a leading individual for the Practice Area of Immigration.
