Atty. Ranny Randolf B. Libayan is the Firm's founder. He has no illustrious background. He was born to parents who were fueled primarily by love and hard work in raising him with his three (3) siblings. They were a normal struggling Filipino family. Atty. Libayan was public-schooled from elementary to college. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science from Benguet State University and a law degree from University of Baguio - a newcomer in legal education at that time.
The Birth of BATASnatin.com
Atty. Libayan was a working student. As such, he never had the luxury of time in studying; let alone have the necessary materials in studying while in law school. He never owned more than ten (10) law books in his whole stint as a law student. Close to impossible as it may seem but that was how BATASnatin.com was born- out of necessity and the obligation to pay-it-forward. Atty. Libayan obtained study materials from different sources. Looked everywhere to fulfill his continuing thirst for legal knowledge. At that time, legal materials were hard to come by, therefore, he decided to make it accessible to everyone via BATASnatin.com. Atty. Libayan's success was built from contributions of many people.
In his first day as a law student, the class was given cases as reading assignments. The cases were in the SCRA. Atty. Libayan was the only person in the class who does not know what SCRA is; and, at that point he is too ashamed to ask. He was working with a car manufacturing company and the company had a 56kb/s dial-up internet connection access. He searched online for the meaning of SCRA. However it returned no results. The next day Atty. Libayan went to class without reading a single case and not even knowing where to look for them. At that moment, he realized, law resources should be readily available. It was not available to learners of law, how much more for ordinary people? Atty. Libayan taught himself a little computer programming and as they say, the rest is history. BATASnatin.com became the first most comprehensive and interactive online law resource in the Philippines.
The Law Firm
Even before Atty. Libayan passed the bar exams, cases were already piling up for him to litigate. After passing the bar exam, he established this law firm. He was inexperienced in the legal profession but he was up for the challenge. He was handling several cases already despite being a green apple. In his first days as a litigator, he would stay until the court adjourns even if his case was already called just to learn more about the practice. He caught up fast and litigated more than 30 cases in his first year alone as a lawyer.
Justice as the End
Atty. Libayan believes that justice should be affordable to everyone. He personally offers free legal advice in his firm's forums and give pro-bono services especially to laborers. The true testimony of Atty. Libayan's success are not the awards he received or the schools he attended- none of those are more prestigious than those of the testimony of people he worked with, the clients he served and his continuing pursuit to keep noble the profession he chose.
