Practice areas

Arbitration & ADR; data protection; e-commerce; fintech; blockchain & cryptos; IP; litigation

Introduction

Enrique V Dela Cruz Jr is a senior partner and data protection officer at DivinaLaw. He is also the head of the firm’s arbitration, data privacy, IP and fintech groups. He has more than 20 years of experience in litigation, arbitration, public-private partnership (PPP) contracts and election law practice.

He is a member of the London Court of International Arbitration’s Asia Users Council, and an accredited construction arbitrator of the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission (CIAC). Earlier this year, he was appointed as a member of the Advisory Council of the Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution (OADR) under the Department of Justice.

Dela Cruz Jr graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in AB Legal Management (cum laude) in 1996 and a juris doctor (with honours) in 2000. In 2001, he earned a master’s in public management from the Ateneo School of Government in Manila. In 2002, he completed an executive programme on leadership and public policy at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

In May 2005, he obtained his Master of Laws LLM in International and Comparative Business Law (with distinction) from the London Metropolitan University in the UK as a Chevening Scholar. He also completed a single master’s course in international trade from the University College London in the UK. In March 2020, he was awarded a fintech certification by Harvard University.

Currently, he teaches law at the University of Santo Tomas and the Bulacan State University’s College of Law. He is a lecturer at the University of the Philippines (UP) Centre for Local and Regional Governance and a lecturer at the Bar Review Institute of the UP Law Centre, and a member of its Committee of Experts in Political Law.

He was a municipal councillor of Baliwag, Bulacan (2019-2022) and was a board member of the province of Bulacan (2010-2019). He was formerly president of the National Movement of Young Legislators of the Philippines, and is currently legal counsel for the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines.

Dela Cruz Jr has been named among Asia Business Law Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers in the Philippines since 2020. He is also among the Philippines Client Choice Lawyers of Asian Legal Business magazine for 2022.

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