Kenneth L. Chua
Biography
Kenneth L. Chua is a partner and the head of Quisumbing Torres' Employment & Compensation Practice Group. He is also a member of the Financial Institutions and Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Groups. He participates in initiatives of Baker & McKenzie International, of which Quisumbing Torres is a member firm, and serves on Baker McKenzie’s Asia Pacific Employment & Compensation Partner Community.
Kenneth has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on a wide range of labor and employment matters, including compensation and benefits, employment contracts, and employee handbooks. He serves as legal counsel (representing Quisumbing Torres) for the Global In-House Center Council Philippines (GICC), and sits as employer sector representative in both the Tripartite Executive Committee and the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council of the Department of Labor and Employment.
He is consistently recognized as a Leading Lawyer in Employment by Chambers Asia Pacific, Benchmark Litigation, and asialaw Profiles. He is ranked in the Hall of Fame for Employment by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and is among Asia Business Law Journal’s inaugural “A-List” of the Top 100 lawyers in the Philippines.
Kenneth earned his Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University in 1998, graduating cum laude and as class salutatorian. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1999, placing 6th in the bar examinations.
Practice Focus
Representative Legal Matters
- Advise one of the largest connectivity platform companies in the US on the strategic separation of its Philippine HR lead, mitigating risks of complaint through a carefully implemented plan. Later supported a mass redundancy preparing separation documents and a communications plan.
- Assist a US stock exchange in structuring the transfer of Philippine employees as part of a business line sale, taking into account the absence of automatic employee transfer laws in the Philippines and tailoring the approach to the applicable legal and factual circumstances.
- Advise a leading cloud solutions and value-added services provider in managing complaints from Philippine nationals after rescinding overseas job offers. Developed and executed a strategy to avoid legal exposure.
- Advised a multinational luxury goods company on the strategic separation of its Philippine country head, addressing performance concerns while mitigating the risk of an illegal dismissal complaint. Developed and implemented a tailored approach.
- Assist a multinational fast-fashion clothing company in investigating a payroll embezzlement by a former payroll manager, focusing on identifying potential internal involvement. Assist the client in building civil and/or criminal cases against the former employee.
- Represent a longstanding diversified healthcare company and lead a multijurisdiction work covering 10 jurisdictions and 10 other law firms in Asia in relation to updating the non-competition and non-solicitation agreements of client's senior offices in the Asia Pacific region.
- Advise a leading provider of project management software on the internal sexual harassment complaint filed by a junior employee against a senior officer.
- Successfully obtained for an American stock exchange a favorable judgment at the regional arbitration and appellate division levels of the National Labor Relations Commission in relation to a suit filed by employees who sought separation pay when they were transferred to a buyer's Philippine affiliate in connection with client's sale of certain businesses to a global leader in technology-enabled services (buyer) on a global basis.
- Successfully defended a multinational tire manufacturing company against its former employees that sued the client to ask the court to declare invalid the post-employment non-compete agreements that they signed.
- Successfully represented a research company before the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in an investigation of a fire in the building where the offices of the client were located that resulted in casualties. There were no significant adverse findings against the client.
Professional Honors
- Band 1, Leading Lawyer for Employment, Chambers Asia Pacific, 2016 to 2025
- Litigation Star for Labor and Employment, Benchmark Litigation, 2019 to 2024
- Distinguished Practitioner for Labor and Employment, asialaw Leading Lawyers, 2020 to 2024
- A-List Lawyer, The Philippines' Top 100 Lawyers, Asia Business Law Journal, 2018 to 2024
- Hall of Fame for Labor and Employment, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, 2021 to 2025
- Leading Individual for Labor and Employment, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, 2014 to 2020
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Integrated Bar of the Philippines
- International Bar Association
- Philippine Department (Ministry) of Labor and Employment - Member of Tripartite Executive Committee and of National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council
- Employers Confederation of the Philippines - Member, Technical Working Group on Labor and Social Policy Issues
- Global In-House Center Council Philippines - Firm representative
Admissions
- Philippines (1999)
Education
- Ateneo de Manila University (JD, cum laude, salutatorian) (1998)
- Ateneo de Manila University (BS, Honors) (1989)
Languages
- English
- Filipino
- Fookien
- Mandarin