Jose M LAYUG JR.

Introduction

Jose M Layug, Jr, or “Jay”, is a senior partner of DivinaLaw and the co-head of DivinaLaw’s power, electric utilities and energy practice. Jay recently received three distinguished awards: (1) the Asia Business Law Journal’s 2024 A-List Philippines Top 100 Lawyers; (2) Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC) 1st Raymund Offshore Wind Award for his leadership and innovation in the legal field for renewable energy and offshore wind; and (3) one of GWEC’s 10 Pioneer Figures in Asia for Offshore Wind Development.

Layug served as the chairman of the National Renewable Energy Board from 2016 to 2018. He was also the undersecretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) from 2010 to 2012 and handled various units of the DOE, including the Renewable Energy Management Bureau, the Energy Resources Development Bureau, the Energy Utilisation Management Bureau and the Oil Industry Management Bureau. He currently serves as the president of the Developers of Renewable Energy for Advancement, the umbrella organisation of all renewable energy associations in the Philippines, including biomass, geothermal, solar, hydro, ocean and wind. He is also currently a director of the Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute, the policy adviser of the Philippine government pursuant to the Republic Act No. 11572. Layug was senior counsel for the negotiations and legal department of the Australian strategic business unit of Chevron Corporation and served as the Malampaya legal manager of Chevron Malampaya, located in Manila, from 2007 to 2010. As Chevron counsel, he received the first-ever William T Coleman Award in 2008 – the highest recognition given by Chevron Corporation to a Chevron in-house counsel – besting all other Chevron lawyers worldwide.

From 2000 to 2002, Layug worked as a foreign lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, handling M&A, project finance and corporate finance.

Layug served as the dean of the University of Makati School of Law from 2018 to 2023. He has been a professor at the University of Makati School of Law since 2018 and at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law since 2002.

He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Business Economics, cum laude, from UP in 1992 and his Bachelor of Laws in 1996 from UP College of Law. He finished his Master of Laws degree with honours in 2000 at Cornell Law School in New York. While at Cornell, he was elected as the president of the Cornell LLM Association in 2001.

Layug is licensed to practise law both in the Philippines (since 1997) and in New York (since 2000), having passed both Philippine and New York State bar examinations. He is a member of the International Bar Association, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the Cornell Law School Young Alumni Committee.