The Firm was organized in early 1972 out of the shared vision of its five (5) founding partners to establish an institutional law firm based on the highest standards of legal competence in client service. The decision to organize the Firm originated in the minds of Edgardo J. Angara and Manuel G. Abello who had known each other since their student days at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law. The status quo in the practice of law, which was then dominated by the big law firms, presented an opportunity to any forward-looking and enterprising group of lawyers. It would seem that only multinational corporations could then avail of the full range of legal services offered by big