MARIA CATERINA CRISTINA R. LOPA

Practice Areas

  • Labor, Civil, Criminal and Immigration Law

Admission to the Bar

  • 2016

Education

  • Ateneo Law School, 2015 
  • Ateneo de Manila University (AB Development Studies, AB Social Sciences; Athletic Scholar)

Professional Activities and Memberships

  • Member, IBP PPLM
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Assumption Alumnae Association
  • MCLE Lecturer on the Safe Spaces Act

Ms. Lopa is a Partner in Siguion Reyna, Montecillo & Ongsiako. She/he joined the firm in 2016.

Ms. Lopa’s main practice is in Labor and Employment Law where she assists clients in collective bargaining negotiations, administrative investigations and hearings, labor inspections, certification elections, and optimizing labor forces. She also handles labor litigation cases involving claims for illegal dismissal, unfair labor practices, and labor-only contracting, among others. Likewise, she revises and drafts company policies and employment contracts to ensure effective implementation and compliance with Philippine labor laws. 

In addition to her Labor and Employment practice, Ms. Lopa also handles dispute resolution. In civil litigation, she handled several family law cases, including adoption, probate of a will, and annulment of marriage, as well as other civil cases for collections of sums of money, ejectment, guardianship, refund of improperly collected local government taxes, and partitions of property. Additionally, she has had experience representing clients in criminal and administrative cases and was part of a team that handled arbitration proceedings between a condominium owner and its contractor before the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission. 

She also has considerable experience in immigration law and real estate laws, following a brief stint as an in-house lawyer of one of the country’s biggest real estate companies. 

In addition to her law practice with the Firm, Ms. Lopa is also the Managing Director of Girls Got Game (GGG) Philippines, a non-profit organization that runs sports camps for underprivileged girls all over the country, and the Head for Women’s Basketball and Student-Athletes of Titan Management Group.