The Dirt Lawyer's Blog Archive

Magandang Umaga! It is mid-morning Monday in the Philippines and Sunday evening in Chicago, and I just learned the Bears lost , blowing any chance they had of the playoffs. I never expected them to be even close, so I am not bummed out. Now I pin my hopes on a Rose Bowl victory by USC against Penn State. I am still astounded by the amount of dirt being pushed here in the Philippines. We had a terrific visit yesterday to Tagaytay Highlands , an upscale, private real estate development about 60 minutes from Manila. The facilities, security and dirt were all nothing short of magnificent. The views are among the most beautiful I have seen. Gichael de Leon was kind enough to give us a grand tour of the facility, and his boss was good enough to give us a guest pass to the club facilities, which allowed us to eat at one of the many restaurants on site. We chose the American style steakhouse, and my US-imported ribeye was a touch of home 800 miles away. Many of the buildings are cons...

Shopping here appears to be the national pastime. Forget basketball. Hit the mall. You can even got to Sunday Mass there if you are so inclined, with services in English and Tagalog. (Remember, English is an official language here.) We are about to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday in an hour. There should be 200+ people in our yard here, and hopefully we'll have enough food. You never know how many people will show. The problem with estimating a crowd is that it is acceptable for the invitees to bring family and friends. And since my wife and I are the official hosts of the party...well, you get the picture. The mayor of Maria's hometown (pop. > 260,000) was kind enough to send over a tent. A burger, fries and a drink: $1.50 US. Two large pizzas: $9. A party for 200 with food, two bands, a staff of 20 serving and all cheaper than you would think. Going to a shopping mall literally halfway around the world from home and randomly running into Eddie and ...

Megamalls in the Philippines or in Asia are hardly news, but when they are in my wife's hometown that's news to me. Taytay, Rizal is just outside Metro Manila. It is a densely-populated municipality with a population of some 200,000+. And infrastructure in places like this are not what you expect here in the US. But there's amazing development going on, and this mall was built by the mogul of all moguls in the RP, billionaire Henry Sy. It is not someplace you'd expect to see a mall as large as many in the United States. But it is there , and it is already hugely popular. Lines of hours to buy things have been reported. And the really big big malls in are Manila! So why build in Taytay? Because the roads are so narrow, it can take 45 minutes just to go 6 miles from Taytay (not to mention more outlying areas in Rizal province) to Pasig or Mandaluyong (where even bigger malls can be found), so Sy's theory is to bring the mall to the people. Plus, shopping is ...

Gerry Riskin has a great post today regarding outsourcing. Citing a Bloomberg story , 50,000 attorney jobs are expected to be offshore by 2015. If I were a young lawyer, I'd be a little concerned, as the work they are doing is probably that of first and second year associates today. With the high salaries BigLaw pays, why not farm it to low-paid people in India or China or the Philippines or Columbus, Ohio? (Sorry, a partner at Jones Day said that, not me. Fargo, ND was also mentioned.) I know the Philippines the best of these, and it will be a great outsourcing location. Everyone speaks English (it is the official language of the court system), the legal system is a hybrid of US and Spanish principles, and, because of its former ties to the US, our cases (or at least old ones) have precedential weight.

I have no idea how many regional-size shopping malls in the US have churches or church services. I doubt it is many, for so many reasons. But in the Philippines, specifically Manila, mall operators need to plan for space so priests can celebrate Sunday mass. A largely Catholic nation (85%, IIRC), when I last visited Manila I was flabbergasted when I went to the mall and saw Mass being celebrated in the middle of the courtyard! No, church was not held in a vacant storefront (I hardly remember seeing any vacancies)...it was right between stores and you were asked to be relatively quiet while walking by. I was reminded of this by a recent story I read where Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales requested that Mass " be held in the establishments’ chapels or in decent places, even “in a quiet corner” where people could actively participate. " Remember however that trips to the mall in the Philippines are practically a national pastime. Now developers, who are building ...

Looks like the state-owned China Ocean Shipping is serious about putting a major transshipping cargo (moving items between ships), shipbuilding and training facility somewhere in the Philippines. Can you say Subic Bay or Sangley Point (both former Navy bases)? Good. I knew you could. This could be a huge stimulus to an economy that needs it, and this project may make a significant rival to Hong Kong and Singapore, both of which are very expensive places to do business. Before you ask what this has to do with dirt, this would be a $3+ billion project. I'll take a piece of that.

I've heard of interesting places to build commercial property, but this one takes the cake. The Philippine government has recently canceled a permit for a Korean developer to build a spa on the crater of the Taal volcano, which is about an hour's drive from Manila followed by a boat ride across a lake. Now, I know this area. It is stunning. I've not been to the volcano itself, but I've been to the area, including scenic Tagaytay, and I've even thought about buying some property there, as other expats and wealthy Filipinos have. There is some beautiful Western-style developing going on in that area. The story, from Forbes , hints that there are some interesting land title disputes and some possible inter-governmental infighting, which is often the norm in the Philippines. (For you old-time title nerds out there, the Philippines uses the Torrens system, but much of the land is unregistered, so quiet title actions are very common.) I'll contact some of my sour...