Ms. Herbosa’s areas of specialization include complex commercial and securities litigation, telecommunications, contract law, competition and anti-trust, public bidding and awards, recovery of ill-gotten wealth, sales and credit transactions and banking. She has argued before the Supreme Court and was directly involved in cases wherein significant rulings on the revival of judgment, exercise of discretion in the acceptance or refusal of bids, computation of the redemption period, obligations of an independent contractor, meaning of devaluation, the scope of the pre-trial stage in a criminal proceeding, the right to vote sequestered shares of stock, nature of a unilateral promise to sell, the liability of a joint tortfeasor and novation of contract, among others, were laid down. She has also participated in cases before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral tribunals and has collaborated with counsel of record in a case involving a major contract between the Philippine government and a foreign multinational before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Prior to re-joining the Firm in 2019, Ms. Herbosa served as the Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from April 2011 to June 2018 where she implemented significant projects and reforms such as:
- the realignment of duties and functions of the operating departments and creating the Information Communication and Technology Department to take care of the automation of frontline services as well as he internal operations of the SEC, as well as the Corporate Governance Division to promote good corporate governance among publicly listed companies and secondary licensees;
- the acquisition of a surveillance system to monitor PSE trades in line with the objective of the Securities Regulation Code to protect investors and eliminate insider trading and other fraudulent practices;
- the simplification of the registration of companies which resulted in the Philippines achieving the highest jump in the 2013 Ease of Doing Business survey conducted by the World Bank;
- the promotion of the mutual funds industry by allowing unitized investments and the revision of the implementing rules and regulations;
- the establishment of the first and several other satellite offices in malls for easier access to SEC services by the public in the Metro Manila and Metro Cebu areas;
- the initiation of proposed amendments to the Corporation Code, the Securities Regulation Code and the Anti-Money Laundering Act;
- the issuance and publication of the Corporate Governance Blueprint and the new Code of Corporate Governance for Publicly Listed Companies.
All her proposed amendments to the old Corporation Code have passed the legislative process and were reenacted as the “Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines” in February 2019.
As SEC Chairperson, Ms. Herbosa was a member of the Anti-Money Laundering Council which investigates and prosecutes money laundering cases as an offshoot of predicate crimes such as corruption, bribery, plunder, swindling, fraud, misappropriation and malversation. She also acted as Chairperson of the Credit Information Corporation, the national aggregator of credit data in the Philippines established pursuant to the Credit Information System Act (CISA). During her term, she was involved in the establishment of its automated system for the collection of credit information from banks and other financial and lending institutions.
She also served as Chairperson of the Microfinance NGO Regulatory Council, an interagency body that accredits Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) according to financial, social and governance standards so that MFIs could avail of the preferential tax rate on its microfinance earnings. She was also the Co-chair of the Capital Market Development Council, composed of the public and private sectors responsible for the capital market blueprint, and actively participated in inter-agency collaborations such as the Financial Sector Forum, Financial Stability Coordinating Council, National Strategy for Financial Inclusion and the National Competitiveness Council. Ms. Herbosa also took part in relevant ASEAN initiatives toward the integration of capital markets in the ASEAN Capital Market Forum and became Chair of the Working Group D on Corporate Governance.
Ms. Herbosa has written a number of legal articles on banking, land titles, arbitration, land disputes, pre-trial, government procurement, and investment scams. Her article entitled “Balancing Ethics and Regulation” was included in “Ethics, Black White (or Gray)”, a book published by FINEX in 2018.
Ms. Herbosa has been constantly recognized in various international publications. In 2001, she has been cited as one of the top three litigation lawyers of the Philippines by the International Financial Law Review of the Euromoney Group. In 2003, she has also been nominated as one of the world’s leading practitioners in the field of telecommunications law by the International Who’s Who of Regulatory Communications Lawyers.
She was also given the Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service by the University of the Philippines in 2014, and was awarded the Public Service Excellence Award by BizNewsAsia in 2016.
Ms. Herbosa is a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law and the De La Salle University College of Law, where she teaches courses on Remedial Law, Corporation Law and Commercial Law Review. She is also a lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), and a regular speaker in various MCLE seminars.
Ms. Herbosa ranked sixteenth among the successful examinees of the 1977 Bar Examinations.
She was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1978 and is a member of the Manila III Chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.