A daughter of Virac has brought honor to the province by being named as the Young Lawyer of the Year in the 11th Asian Legal Business (ALB) Philippine Law Awards held in Makati Shangri-La last Sept. 24, 2026.
Atty. Aubbrey Lim-Barreras is the daughter of Hector Garcia Lim and the late Catanduanes State University (CatSU) College of Health Sciences Dean Janet Barrameda Lim of San Roque, Virac.
A pre-law graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, she took up law at Ateneo de Manila University where she finished as salutatorian of her class.
She is currently a senior partner at Vasig Abarquez Ner Urgello Lim Law (VAL) and specializes in Corporate and Commercial Law. She also teaches Corporation Law at the CatSU College of Law.
The annual ALB Law Awards is a prestigious global annual awards in the legal industry presented by Asian Legal Business and Thomson Reuters.
It honors the outstanding achievements of private practitioners and in-house counsels across the Philippines, recognizing those who have demonstrated exceptional performance, leadership, and dedication to the highest standards of legal practice.
According to her law firm, the recognition reflects Atty. Lim-Barreras’ already exceptional body of work across Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), corporate and commercial law, banking and finance, fintech, technology, competition, regulatory compliance, and cross-border transactions.
The social media post of VAL management cited among Aubbrey’s recent and significant accomplishments:
- Leading the Philippine legal workstream for a major proposed pharmaceutical acquisition, coordinating the M&A, regulatory, competition, government-contracting, and cross-border aspects of a highly complex transaction involving a heavily regulated industry;
- Advising and helping scale a technology-enabled financing business in the Philippines, including the development of its regulatory compliance framework across SEC, BSP, AMLC, data privacy, consumer protection, and fintech regulation;
- Leading the integration of two major medical-device companies, involving an asset-for-share transaction, the movement of more than 400 employees, multiple regulatory approvals, PEZA incentives, and competition law clearance, all completed within an accelerated timetable;
- Serving as Founding Partner, Senior Partner, Risk Management Partner, and Ethics & Independence Partner of Inicio Law, then a member firm of the KPMG Law Network, where she helped build the firm and led key quality, risk, and independence initiatives;
- Completing her Master of Law at the University of Cambridge, with specialisms in Law & Technology, International Financial Law, Corporate Finance, and Competition Law, as a Chevening and Cambridge Trust Scholar;
- Contributing to the Asian Development Bank’s work on protecting non-profit organizations from money laundering and terrorist financing, including leading the drafting of a regulatory framework later adopted by the Philippine SEC;
- Being recognized by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for her work in TMT, Corporate and M&A, and Projects and Energy; and
- Continuing to contribute beyond private practice through teaching, mentoring, and community service.
“Aubbrey’s career reflects a rare combination of technical excellence, commercial judgment, multidisciplinary expertise, leadership, and public service,” the law firm stated.
“At a relatively early stage of her career, she has already led sophisticated transactions, helped build institutions, contributed to regulatory reform, and earned recognition both locally and internationally,” it added.