Discover the founder of the firm, their journey and key experiences that shaped Geronimo Law today
Russell Stanley Q. Geronimo is a corporate lawyer and a finance professional.
His areas of focus include banking and finance, deals and M&A, securities and investments, public-private partnership (PPP) and public infrastructure, energy and public utilities, venture capital and private equity, foreign investments, maritime, aviation, and tech practice. He is also a professor of law, professor of finance, author, and athlete.
He has extensive private practice experience in big law, mid-size, solo, and in-house settings. He has served in all branches of government, i.e., executive, legislative, and judicial, and in their respective top-level offices, i.e., Office of the President, Senate, House of Representatives, and Supreme Court. He was a member of the banking, finance, securities, special projects, and tech practice groups of SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan.
Geronimo is the lead counsel of several private proponents in PPP and national infrastructure projects, which involve the national broadband, fiber optic infrastructure, international trade, border control, customs enforcement, tax enforcement, among others. He has also contributed to the development of national PPP policy as consultant in the PPP Center.
Geronimo’s clients include an investment management firm in New York, an investment fund in Singapore, a Chinese State-owned enterprise, a Malaysian publicly listed financial institution, a Chinese renewable energy company, a non-profit organization in Washington DC, a venture capital firm in Singapore, an insurance tech company in the US, a global shipping company in Greece, IoT solutions providers, AI, machine learning and predictive analytics developers, blockchain, DeFi and fintech companies, an offshore crypto exchange, a regional streaming service, a metaverse platform, construction companies, outsourcing companies, tech platforms and startups, real estate holdings and developers, among others.
Before becoming a lawyer and during law school, Geronimo was a corporate governance division chief at the central authority for Philippine state-owned enterprises (Governance Commission for GOCCs under the Office of the President). In this capacity, he directly supervised the merger, privatization, rehabilitation, dissolution, liquidation, reorganization, and corporate restructuring of government banks and financial institutions, and other GOCCs, including the three largest government banks (LandBank, DBP, and UCBP), the public, private and military pension systems (GSIS, SSS, AFP-RSBS), government gaming operators (PAGCOR and PCSO), social welfare funds (PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG), and the bank deposit insurance system (PDIC). He was part of the team that structured the LandBank-DBP merger.
Geronimo was an associate at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, and was a member of its special projects, and banking, finance, and securities departments. In this capacity, he assisted in significant acquisitions, such as the Uber-Grab deal in the Philippines, the acquisition of Metro Pacific hospitals by KKR & Co. Inc., the Meralco PowerGen acquisition of Global Business Power Corp., and the equity interest acquisition in the Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 1 by Sumitomo Corporation. His participation extended to national PPP projects, including the Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 1 Concession Agreement, the O&M Concession Agreement for Clark International Airport, and the CBK hydroelectric power plant complex. He also contributed to reclamation projects under local government PPP and/or joint venture, such as the Mactan North Reclamation Project, the Manila Bay Land Reclamation Project, and the Cavite Reclamation Project. Geronimo was involved in notable financing transactions, such as the syndicated financing of energy and infrastructure projects, including the Arayat Solar Power Plant and the Digos Solar Power Plant, and numerous aviation financing transactions. Additionally, he assisted in various securities offerings and capital market transactions, including the stock rights offering of AC Energy, issuance of convertible perpetual securities to San Miguel Corp., the bond offering of NLEX, BPI, and Del Monte Pacific, and the initial public offering of Aseana City. Geronimo also assisted in providing regulatory advice to global tech companies, including FAANG entities.
Geronimo has served in the Supreme Court of the Philippines and assisted in the judicial review and adjudication of cases of national importance and of public interest.
Geronimo was chief legal counsel of the Oz corporate group (Oz Finance, Oz Capital, Oz Token, Oz Wallet, etc.), which is present in the U.S., Singapore, Philippines, and other countries. In this capacity, he advised on the design and structure of the first token in the world that grants legal residency status and government tax incentives. He also advised on the tokenization of various exotic assets, including carbon credits, nickel ores, fractional real estate interests, economic interests in equity, and others. He had experience setting up decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO). He advised on the issuance of utility tokens, security tokens, and governance tokens, initial coin offerings, initial exchange offerings, and security token offerings. Geronimo was also legal counsel for an offshore digital asset exchange that pioneered the first DeFi staking transaction in the world that was recognized by a government to be a qualifying investment for purpose of legal residency status. Geronimo was also lead counsel for the establishment of a crypto policy group based in Washington DC that is focused on the crafting and promotion of policies and regulatory frameworks for the token economy in the wake of the FTX crisis and U.S. SEC enforcement actions. Geronimo also advised on blockchain-based payment solutions for gaming facilities, and the structure of tokenized economic interest over publicly listed shares of stock with token-for-share swap features.
Geronimo acted as legal consultant for the Philippine central ICT authority (DICT), central economic authority (NEDA), and central PPP authority (PPP Center), in respect of legal and procurement options for national infrastructure projects, including build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangements, joint venture (JV), foreign-assisted projects or official development assistance (ODA), government-to-government (G2G), hybrid PPP, and other modalities.
Geronimo has also served as legal consultant in the House of Representatives in proposing amendments to foreign investment and economic provisions of the Constitution, and in the grant and review of legislative franchises of public utilities, energy, aviation, and broadcasting companies. Geronimo has also represented certain private entities in promoting and proposing a national policy on foreign investment funds, offshore financial center, blockchain-enabled smart city, digital nomad and foreign investor visa programs, and regulatory sandbox for the digital assets and token economy through special economic zones.
Geronimo also assisted Subido Pagente Certeza Mendoza & Binay Law in PPP and joint venture projects of the Makati City Government, including the subway, hospital, and business permit one stop shop projects.
Geronimo is a law professor at University of the Philippines College of Law, De La Salle University Tañada-Diokno College of Law, Far Eastern University Institute of Law, San Sebastian College-Recoletos School of Law, University of Makati School of Law, ONE School, and he is a finance professor at De La Salle University RVB College of Business. He taught banking, corporate and securities law, international business agreements, credit transactions, negotiable instruments, obligations and contracts law, transportation and public utilities law, philosophy of law, legal history, statutory construction, and thesis writing.
Geronimo is the author of the book “Law and Finance” and various academic publications on corporate governance, tax, and financial law. His academic work has been used in a securities litigation case in the U.S., in banking and financial legislations, and in foreign investments policy of the Philippines.
Law, University of the Philippines College of Law
Finance, De La Salle University - Manila
