Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles is a Philippine-based law firm known for its expertise and integrity. ROMULO traces its roots to the law firm which Allison D. Gibbs and William Kincaid established in 1902. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Allison D. Gibbs and William Kincaid arrived in the Philippines as part of the Colorado and Nebraska volunteers, respectively. After the war, they decided to settle in the Philippines and engage in the practice of law. They hung their shingle in the business center of Manila in No. 9 Plaza Moraga.
The firm was reorganized several times until Charles McDonough was admitted into the partnership. Allison D. Gibbs’ sons, Findley and Allison J., would later join the firm as assistant attorneys while an upstart Filipino lawyer by the name of Roman Ozaeta was admitted as partner in 1931.
The firm, then known as Gibbs McDonough and Ozaeta, had an extensive practice in commercial law. It handled cases involving banking, corporation law, insurance, and public utilities. It pioneered in the law on intellectual property and successfully handled cases involving infringement of trademarks and copyright.
While Allison D. Gibbs became a well-known corporate lawyer, the firm also developed a reputation for outstanding trial work and appellate practice. Charles McDonough earned a name for himself as an outstanding trial lawyer while Roman Ozaeta earned renown for his meticulous and excellently composed pleadings and briefs.
In 1936, Roman Ozaeta resigned from the firm to become judge of the then Court of First Instance. He went on to become Solicitor General in 1938, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1941, Secretary of Justice in 1946, and again an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1948 to 1950.
After retiring from public service, Roman Ozaeta joined his son Herminio, Allan O’Gorman, and Carlos Romulo, Jr. in private practice. Following the plane crash that claimed the lives of Alan O’Gorman and Carlos Romulo, Jr. in 1957, Allison J. Gibbs joined the Ozaetas and formed the firm Ozaeta Gibbs and Ozaeta.
Carlos Romulo Jr.’s brother, Ricardo J. Romulo, would later become Senior Partner himself and, following a previous rule of practice which limited the name of a law office to those of its active and living partners, the firm was renamed Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles.
In October 2002, ROMULO celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding with the descendants of Allison D. Gibbs.
