PROFILE

  Managing Partner

Atty. Beda G. Fajardo has been a practicing lawyer for more than 30 yrs. in maritime, insurance, construction, arbitration, corporate, commercial, admiralty, corporate, civil law, immigration and family law. He finished his Bachelor of Arts and Law degrees from the University of the Philippines and took special studies at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachussets and at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is also a life member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, (IBP) the official mandatory bar organization of some 43,000 Filipino lawyers in the country and was a member of the Board of Governors for three terms (1986; 1987 – 1989; 1991-1993). As Chairman of the IBP Committee on Administration of Justice he was one of those instrumental in the implementation by the Supreme Court of the “Continuous Trial” scheme in court litigation in the district courts which required the parties to complete their evidence in 3 months and for the trial judge to decide the case in 3 months from completion of evidence by the parties. He was former Chairman of the Editorial board of the IBP Law Journal the official IBP law journal. He is a member of various bar associations in the Philippines. He was Past President of the Maritime Law Association of the Philippines (MLAP) (1987-1988) and a member of the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) and the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa). He was legal counsel of the Maritime Underwriters Association of the Philippines (MUAP). He is also a member of the New York Bar and the American Bar Association and a proctor in admiralty in the Maritime Law Association of the United States (the most prestigious and biggest) and lone Filipino member. He is a member of the Inter-Pacific Bar, (Committee on Insurance) the most prestigious regional association of lawyers in Asia Pacific and was Chairman of its maritime law committee for two terms (1991-1994) and received a plaque of appreciation for dedicated and distinguished service. He is a Philippine delegate to the Comite International Maritime (CMI) Assembly in Sydney in 1995. In January, 1989 he attended the “Pacific Rim Maritime Law Conference” in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1992 he was invited as a participant in the international symposium the “Admiralty in an International Setting” in London and the “International Symposium on Marine Claims” in Tokyo. He wrote the summary of Philippine law on maritime liens and claims in Prof. William Tetley’s book “Maritime Liens and Claims” 2nd Edition 1998. He has contributed law articles to the Tulane Maritime Law Journal (“Maritime Arbitration in the Philippines”) and APLA Journal of the Asia Pacific Lawyers Association (“Philippine Maritime Code Project”). He is presently a consultant to the codification of maritime laws project of the Philippine Senate. He had taught law courses at the De La Salle University, Letran College and San Beda College. He was a consultant to the Supreme Court Rules Committee (in 1990-1991) and a member of the Presidential Commission for Better Administration of Justice created by Pres. Corazon C. Aquino in the same year, 1990.

In 2002 he was a member of an international arbitration panel to arbitrate in London a maritime dispute between a Taiwanese seller of an oil tanker and a Filipino buyer which was however, settled before hearing started. On September 10, 2004 he was admitted an associate of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and still is at present.

He is also a member of ICC Phil. Inc. which is the National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and of its Financial Services and Insurance Committee.

Atty. Fajardo is a construction, commercial and maritime arbitrator. He is one of the few accredited arbitrators of the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission (CIAC) an institutional arbitration center for construction disputes, and has arbitrated 46 construction cases since 1989. He is the present Vice-President of the Philippine Institute of Construction Arbitrators He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. an institutional arbitration center for commercial disputes, and in 1999 he was Chair of the PDRCI arbitration panel which arbitrated a multi-million peso claim filed by professional airline managers against the Philippine Air Lines for violation of their technical service agreement (Case No. 99-11-05, Fyfe et al. vs. PAL), sole arbitrator of two other commercial disputes (PDRCI Case No. 21-2003/SSP, LMG Chemicals Corp. vs. Seaoil Petroleum Corp. and PDRCI No. 20-2003/SSP Siemens Building Technologies Inc. vs. Romago Inc.) and member of the arbitral panel in PDRCI Case No. 31-2006 entitled “PLDT vs. Dept. of Transportation and Communication”.

Atty. Fajardo is also a practicing mediator. In January 2004 he completed the Workshop on the Institution Finalization of Mediation in the Court of Appeals conducted by the Philippine Judicial Academy in coordination with the Court of Appeals, The Philippine Mediation Center, Philippine Mediation Foundation, Inc. and in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Economic Governance and Technical Assistance (EGTA). In February, 2004 Atty. Fajardo completed the Faculty Development Program on Court. Annexed Mediation and Judicial Settlement Conference (The Canada-Philippines JURIS ADR Model Courts Project) conducted by the Supreme Court, the Philippine Judicial Academy, Philippine Mediation Center in partnership with the National Judicial Institute of Canada. In March, 2004 Atty. Fajardo completed the Mediation Training Programme for Construction Mediator under the auspices of the Construction Industry Arbitration and the Philippine Institute of Construction Arbitrators, Inc. He is an accredited Trainers trainor for Court of Appeals Mediation of the Philippine Judicial Academy of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

In his corporate work he had been assigned by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a rehabilitator and later as a liquidator of Lead Capital, Inc.

He had been appointed legal adviser to former Insurance Commissioner Benjamin Santos and as Conservator for the First Integrated Bonding and Insurance, Inc., First Quezon City Insurance Company, Inc. and Development Insurance Company, Inc. by the Insurance Commissioner.

He has been a speaker and lecturer in seminars and has written articles on maritime, insurance, corporation law and arbitration.