Clarence Darrow C. Valdecantos

Mr.
Valdecantos is a Senior Partner in the Angara
Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW), and is the Head
of the Firm’s Labor and Employment Department. He has specialized for the past twenty five years in the different areas of labor and employment laws, which
include labor litigation involving money claims and termination disputes,
voluntary arbitration cases, social security cases, and overseas employment. He has successfully litigated
a number of cases where the Supreme Court upheld the employer’s right to
exercise its management prerogatives, including the enforcement of Company
rules and regulations, the implementation of contracting out arrangements, dismissal of erring employees, and
the conduct of corporate reorganizations.

He also handles collective
bargaining negotiations, preventive mediation/ conciliation of labor disputes,
strikes and lockouts, union representation issues, certification elections,
conduct of administrative investigations, employee grievances, formulation of
employee code of conduct and policies, conduct of labor audits, review and
formulation of retirement plans, implementation of corporate mergers and
acquisitions, incorporation of business entities, review of third party
contracting arrangements, and data privacy issues relating to employment.

Mr. Valdecantos has been consistently
cited by leading legal publications as an excellent labor lawyer and litigator.
In a Chambers Asia (Asia’s Leading Lawyers for Business) publication, he was
commended for having the necessary skills to assist with labor and employment
matters. Clients point to his “proficiency and strategy” and consider him a
valuable component of the practice. He was recently awarded as one of Asia’s
Super 50 Disputes Lawyers for 2021 and then again in 2022 by Asian Legal Business, and recognized as Employment
Litigation Lawyer of the Year in the Philippines for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 by
Global Law Experts. He was also named as a Recommended Lawyer in the practice
area of Labor and Employment by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021 Editorial. In June 2021, he was also awarded by the
Asian Legal Business as one of the Philippines Client Choice Lawyers 2021.

He was one of the keynote speakers at the Asian Mena In-House
Community E-Congress on “Labor and Employment: Returning to the Workplace:
Philippine Protocols”
held on 18 November 2020.

He co-authored
“Trends and Developments: Special Issues in Philippine
Employment Law” in Chambers and Partners Global Practice Guide,
published on 8 September 2020. And recently, he wrote “The
Employee’s Right to Receive or Refuse a Vaccine”, first
published in Business World on 9 February 2021 and reprinted in other legal publications.

Mr. Valdecantos graduated as
a College Scholar from the University of the Philippines with a degree in
Journalism in 1993.  He then obtained his
law degree from the San Beda College of Law in 1997, where he graduated among
the top of his class.