Practice areas

Arbitration & ADR; banking & finance; bankruptcy & insolvency; corporate & commercial; IP

Introduction

Nilo Divina is a seasoned corporate and banking lawyer with more than 30 years of experience in the industry. He established DivinaLaw in 2006 and has led the aggressive growth of the firm in a short span of time, making it one of the biggest law firms in the country today. Before he entered private law practice, he was the former executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of one of the former leading banks in the Philippines. He also served as the general manager, executive adviser to the board, and corporate secretary of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Nilo is the personal lawyer of some of the country’s prominent personalities in finance and business. He is equally active with his roles in the academe, serving as the dean of the Faculty of Civil Law of the University of Santo Tomas since 2009 and teaching at the University of the Philippines College of Law. He is likewise recognised as one of the top experts in commercial law and is a sought-after bar reviewer and legal consultant. He has authored six books on commercial law that are considered primary resource material for law students and lawyers alike.

He has received numerous awards and citations as an academician, practising lawyer, and managing partner. DivinaLaw has similarly received various awards and distinctions because of Nilo’s pioneering ways of managing a law firm and the firm’s brand of dynamic lawyering. In 2021, he was awarded managing partner of the year by the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Philippine Law Awards and was also among ALB magazine’s Philippines Client Choice Lawyers in 2021 and 2022, and Asia’s Super 50 Disputes Lawyers for 2022. Since 2018, Nilo has consistently been named among the Top 100 Lawyers in the Philippines by the Asia Business Law Journal.

He holds a post-graduate diploma in international tax law from the Robert Kennedy College in Switzerland. He obtained his bachelor of law from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and class valedictorian. He has a bachelor of arts in behavioral science from the University of Santo Tomas, where he graduated cum laude.

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