AboitizPower took home two awards, including the In-House Community Industry Legal Team of the Year in the Energy & Natural Resources – Asia at the In-House Community Counsels of the Year Awards 2020.
“We are happy that the legal community recognizes the initiatives that AP Legal implements to add value to our organization. This challenges our team to strive better and to continually live out the Aboitiz culture,” the AboitizPower Legal team shared.
In a write-up about the winners, AboitizPower was described as an industry leader “making an invaluable contribution to society at large… by continually briefing the Philippines government and economic zone authorities regarding the ever-changing energy market.”
In addition, AboitizPower’s Diversity and Inclusion Campaign was recognized in the Diversity – Asia category under the In-House Community Best Practice Legal Teams of the Year.
AboitizPower was shortlisted for the Asia In-House Team of the Year award along with other big names such as KPMG China, IBM Japan, MTR Corporation, Sanofi China, Ant Financial (Alipay), and AEON.
The whole team tuned in to the e-ceremony with Vice President for Legal, Energy Affairs and Compliance Maria Consolacion Mercado officially representing the group.
Since its establishment in 2015, the AP Legal Team has gone over and beyond its mandate, proof of which is a groundbreaking project that helped them secure this year’s win at the in-house counsel awards.
In 2019, AP Legal launched an initiative aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion within the organization, a first of its kind across the Aboitiz Group.
The team’s Diversity and Inclusion Campaign is a multi-year program focused on messaging the primacy of merit above gender or sexual preference, religion, or ethnic background.
It is intended to spread awareness on diversity and inclusion as well as to promote respect and to celebrate individuality, all while promoting a culture of excellence and high performance.
While the submissions were completed in the latter part of 2019, the panel of judges is said to have been more drawn to in-house counsel team submissions that “encouraged empathetic working cultures and working practices that would prove resilient through the [coronavirus] crisis — and especially to those innovations that are proving positively significant to society at large.”
According to its website, the goal of the In-House Community Counsel of the Year Awards is not only to shower winners with praise and recognition, but also to stimulate the entire in-house community by sharing some of the innovative solutions pioneered by in-house counsel and external providers uncovered through the awards process.
