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Growing up in the Philippines, Jerome “J.P.” Castillo says law school was all but a certainty. His parents were successful attorneys with exceptional gifts for networking and relationship-building—gifts that he didn’t think he inherited.
“Both of my parents founded their own law firms independently of each other,” Castillo explains. “They had this incredible ability to build client relationships, a quality that I was very conscious that I lacked for a long time. But I understood my limitations and learned to work around them.”
The managing director and head of legal for credit, emerging markets, and structured macro in the Americas at Nomura Securities may not have been graced with his parents’ social ease, but his law career doesn’t seem to have suffered at all for it. As his success in-house shows, he knows how to lead a successful team, manage countless internal and external relationships, and help enable his company’s bottom line.
“I don’t find myself having to pick fights or justify my decisions. There’s just an alignment between the legal department and the rest of the business that is pretty rare.”
J.P. Castillo
Castillo didn’t take a straight path to the United States. While he attended college in Philadelphia, the lawyer-to-be’s father was insistent that he return to the Philippines for law school and to begin his practice. Sadly, during his first semester of law school, Castillo’s father fell ill and died. After working through his grief and practicing law in his home country for two years, Castillo sought the approval of his mother to pursue his law education in the US. His mother agreed.
“I felt like I’d kept my promise to my father to come home and practice law,” Castillo recalls. “But I needed to pursue a career in the US. I’m grateful my mother supported me in this decision.”
The attorney earned his LLM at Harvard and spent a little over four years at an international law firm, Clifford Chance. The managing director remembers it as a challenging but, ultimately, rewarding experience. The firm was fantastic, but Castillo quickly began nursing a suspicion that he belonged in-house. At the same time, he was getting both a wide breadth and significant depth of work, including capital markets, M&A, and financial products (which wound up being his primary practice area).
After nearly six years in-house at Barclays Capital, Castillo came to Nomura Securities in 2010, and it’s been his home base ever since. Part of the reason Castillo says he’s stayed so long is the variety of work he’s taken on—one of the aspects of working in a firm that he missed most.
“We run a lean internal staff, and so while different business lines have come and gone over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to provide legal coverage for a variety of very interesting work,” Castillo says. “It requires us to be nimble, but I love that. You’re always going to be intellectually stimulated here.”
Beyond the work, Nomura’s approach to risk management has kept Castillo committed to the firm. “We—the lawyers—are here to facilitate the business, and that’s making money,” the managing director says. “That’s what banks do. But wearing my risk management hat here doesn’t require nearly as much emotional labor, based on my experience. I don’t find myself having to pick fights or justify my decisions. There’s just an alignment between the legal department and the rest of the business that is pretty rare.”
As Castillo has assumed leadership roles, he has intentionally developed his management style, a process he says has taken time. He says he’s fortunate for a great mentor in his own supervisor. When in doubt, he imagines how she would handle a situation. He strives to foster a welcoming environment where his team can be free to ask questions about best approaches and practices.
“I hope my team finds me to be empathetic, because that’s where I always try and start from,” the managing director says. “I try to have a great deal of compassion for where someone is coming from. It makes it a little easier to solve problems or address questions when you come from that perspective. But I’m always trying to improve.”
“J.P. is an exemplary leader who possesses an unparalleled understanding of the issues at the intersection of finance, law, and regulatory policy,” says Michael Mazzuchi, senior counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. “We are delighted to celebrate his achievements.”
At present, Castillo says he’s focused on ensuring that his team continues to grow and flourish in their careers within Nomura. The managing director says Nomura invests in the training and education of its people significantly, and Castillo wants to be part of the reason that employees choose to stay with the company.
“I felt like I’d kept my promise to my father to come home and practice law. But I needed to pursue a career in the US. I’m grateful my mother supported me in this decision.”
J.P. Castillo
For attorneys who aspire to work and travel internationally, Castillo says it’s important to do your homework about the kind of organization you want to work for.
“If you’re interested in developing a global perspective, I would encourage young lawyers to pursue employment opportunities with companies that have that international presence you yourself are chasing,” Castillo explains. “That has given me the opportunity to connect with legal professionals from across the world and work on matters that, while outside of my jurisdiction in the US, have still enhanced my own practice and benefited me greatly.”
The managing director also makes it back to the Philippines once a year to visit his mother and the rest of his family. Castillo says remaining close to his family and friends is what keeps his life full outside of his career.
