Frances Nicola “Nikki” Mendez

Frances Nicola “Nikki” Mendez is a corporate and technology lawyer working across business, technology, regulation and public policy, with experience in infrastructure, design and engineering, intellectual property, science and health.

Her practice covers corporate structuring and governance, investments and financing, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder arrangements, joint ventures and strategic partnerships, commercial and technology transactions, intellectual property and licensing, artificial intelligence, data and privacy, cybersecurity, software and digital platforms, telecommunications, cloud computing, fintech and emerging technologies.

Nikki works with clients and teams both locally and internationally in structuring businesses and transactions, developing contractual and governance frameworks, designing architectures across technology systems, governance, operations and transactions, and assessing regulatory paths for new ventures and technologies.

She has worked with startups, MSMEs and multinational companies across technology, infrastructure, design and engineering, financial services, construction, media, property development, science and health, and other regulated sectors. Her work regularly brings her alongside specialists in business, technology, health, engineering, design, finance, risk, policy and law.

Nikki has worked in private practice, the judiciary, multinational and in-house corporate environments, technology and innovation, government and academia. Her public-sector work spans the judicial, executive and legislative branches, including service as a Court Attorney at the Supreme Court of the Philippines and policy and advisory work involving government agencies and Congress.

With an early familiarity in business, engineering and construction, Nikki went on to train in science and health before pursuing law. She earned a degree in Community Nutrition from the University of the Philippines and placed fourth in the Philippine Nutritionist-Dietitians Licensure Examination. She later earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman and a Master of Laws degree from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on business law and technology law.

Her further studies have included cybersecurity at MIT, public policy at the London School of Economics, financial technology at the National University of Singapore, venture capital and startups at Berkeley Law, and telecommunications and emerging technologies.

She has taught law since 2015 at the Far Eastern University Institute of Law, the University of Makati School of Law and the Ateneo de Manila School of Law. Her subjects have included Securities Law, Obligations and Contracts, Agency, Partnership and Trust, Torts, Philosophy of Law, and Advanced Administrative Law with a focus on ICT Regulation.

Nikki writes for InsiderPH on technology through the lenses of law, policy, business and the humanities. She is also regularly invited to speak at government, industry, academic, professional and international forums on artificial intelligence, technology regulation, cybersecurity, privacy, cloud computing, digital identity, blockchain and technology transactions.