Bryan A. San Juan

Mr. Bryan A. San Juan is the Head of the Firm’s Antitrust and Competition Law Practice and its FINTECH Law Practice. He co-heads the M&A Practice, Energy Law Practice, Mining and Natural Resources Practice, Environment and Climate Change Practice, Intellectual Property Law Practice, Regulatory Compliance Practice and the Corporate/Commercial law Practice.

Mr. San Juan obtained his Juris Doctor in 2010 from the University of the Philippines College of Law (UP Law). He graduated Class Valedictorian and received the highest number of academic awards including the ACCRA Law Medal for Excellence in Law, the Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence, the UP Law Class of 1972 Award for Academic Excellence, and the prestigious Gonzalo W. Gonzalez Award for Most Outstanding Law Intern for his legal advocacies. Consistently ranking first, he was the Chancellor of the Order of the Purple Feather (the honor society of UP Law) from 2009-2010, and the Vice-Chancellor from 2008-2009.

In 2019, Mr. San Juan attained his Magister Juris (MJur) degree (LLM equivalent) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford in England, United Kingdom (Oxford Law), where he also graduated with honors (Academic Merit and the Hertford College Prize for Exceptional Academic Performance). As the recipient of the Oxford Law-Hertford College Scholarship for the MJur, he studied competition laws of the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States under the guidance of world-renowned antitrust experts namely Prof. Ariel Ezrachi; Mr. Aidan Robertson (King’s Counsel); and Judge Simon Holmes of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.

As the Head of the Firm’s Antitrust Practice, Mr. San Juan is currently advising and has advised major clients including conglomerates on difficult antitrust issues both on merger control (such as proving a failing firm defense or failing division defense, and defenses based on merger efficiencies) and antitrust enforcement issues. In July 2022, Mr. San Juan was consulted by an international organization based in Paris, France on the merger control regime in the Philippines and how the same can be improved based on his experience as one of the country’s leading practitioner.

As Head of the FINTECH Law Practice, Mr. San Juan leads the Firm in advising a multinational tech-based financial conglomerate on their various investment and complex regulatory compliance issues in the Philippines. He also serves the board of their local affiliate as Corporate Secretary.

As Energy Law Co-Head, he is currently advising clients on complex constitutional and regulatory issues affecting the generation and distribution utilities sectors.

Mr. San Juan has a wealth of experience in Corporate/Commercial Law Practice. He has rendered critical advice to large clients including international law firms (in cases where the Firm is tapped as local counsel) on various commercial transactions spanning different practice areas, including mergers and acquisitions (M&As), competition and antitrust, financial and technology laws, energy laws, banking, and anti-money laundering laws, public bidding and infrastructure, telecommunications, transformative mining, and social license, public utilities law, gaming regulations, and international investment/trade laws.

Before joining SL Law, Mr. San Juan was a top-ranked corporate Senior Associate in a large firm where he handled high-value M&As from 2011-2020. While he was only an SA then, he was already the undisputed leader in the Antitrust Practice and has been at the forefront of the practice since the country passed its comprehensive antitrust law in 2015. He has since secured antitrust clearance of M&As spanning various industries including energy, real estate, banking, pharmaceutical, and business process outsourcing with a combined transaction value of more than Php300 Billion. He also successfully argued exemptions from merger control including a Php 27-Billion Peso acquisition of shares in one of the largest banks in the country in 2017. With him at the helm, the practice grew exponentially and was eventually recognized by the Asia Business Law Journal from 2019-2020 as one of the best in the country. His expertise was also recognized by an international law firm that nominated him to the list of Who's Who Legal: Competition-Future Leaders 2019 (Non-Partners Category).

Mr. San Juan wears multiple hats. He is concurrently a Managing Director at SL and Partners Consultancy Inc. (SLPCI), where he also serves as the Corporate Secretary. Having been deeply involved in the businesses of the Firm’s former and present clients, the Partners of SL Law established SLPCI in February 2021 as an avenue to help the Firm’s clients in the management of their businesses including assisting them in forging strategic commercial relationships with key players in the relevant markets where they operate. As of date, SLPCI has taken a management role in at least three (3) mining companies in the Philippines.

Mr. San Juan is also a professor in UP Law and a member of its Civil Law cluster since 2020. Being an advocate of democratizing access to quality legal education, Mr. San Juan has recently accepted an invitation to serve as a Founding Faculty Member of the ASCOT College of Law in the Province of Aurora where he will teach Commercial Laws.

When he is not wearing his hats as a lawyer, managing director, or professor, Mr. San Juan loves to spend quality time chatting with his extremely smart niece, watching the latest trending Netflix series, dining at his favorite Japanese restaurants, and traveling around the country and the world.