About Dr. Attorney Noel Guivani Ramiscal

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal on a plane in New South Wales

Dr. Attorney Noel Guivani Ramiscal is a cyber law practitioner, whose expertise has been recognized in Philippine cybercrime courts. He is a Law and IT Evangelist, digital forensic evidence analyst, cyber ethicist, legal futurist, award winning poet, artist, a cultural consultant, a Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lecturer, blogger, designer of leather luxury goods and jewelry, former rock vocalist, and a travel enthusiast. He is also an advocate of the human rights of indigenous, women and LGBTQIA+ peoples.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Law, and a Master of Law (Advanced) degree with High Distinction (the equivalent of Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Queensland via scholarships from AUSAID and the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship Programs of the Australian Government and the University of Queensland. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws and BA Philosophy (cum laude) degrees at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He completed a Certificate Executive IT Course at the Asian Institute of Management under a Philippine Computer Society scholarship and a course on “Accounting for Non-Accountants” given by the De La Salle Graduate Professional Schools via an Ernst & Young scholarship. In 2012 he also completed his training as a mediator under the CORE Training Group. He is the holder of several grants and fellowships which include the Freeman Foundation Fellowship.

In Australia, he worked as a legal consultant, conducted tutorials and taught part time, the “Law and Internet” classes at the T.C. Beirne Law School of the University of Queensland. Dr. Ramiscal has worked in the Philippine judiciary, the academe and the private sector, including with some of the biggest local and international corporations. He served at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College as University Prosecutor for three years (where he successfully prosecuted hundreds of cases), was an Associate Professor, and Program Development Associate of the UPLB Information Technology Center. He served as Technical Consultant for several government agencies including the ITECC, the National Commission on Culture and Arts, the Commission on Higher Education and the former Commission on Information Communication Technology (CICT) which became the Department of Information Communication Technology. He critiqued the consolidated cyberprivacy and cybercrime bills and at the instance of the CICT, and drafted an anti-cybercrime bill which was quite different from the Cybercrime Prevention law passed in 2012.

In 2005, he received the “Year-Ender Excellence Young Professional Award for Law and Judiciary” from the Who’s Who Philippines Foundation, the Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Foundation and National Consumer Affairs Foundation, for his professional and academic activities. In 2008, he received the “Most Outstanding Alumnus Award” from the Philippine Australian Alumni Association in conjunction with the Australian Embassy. In 2011, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was awarded an Oblation Statue and a Plaque of Recognition for his service at UPLB. In 2015, he was recognized as a “Most Outstanding Professional” by the global brand evaluator, SMI, for his cyberlaw services and professional advocacies for indigenous peoples, women, LGBTQIA+ peoples and those in the fashion and creative industries. He maintains another blog on “Philippine Fashion Law”: https://noelthefashiongemlawyer.wordpress.com.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal currently serves as Technical, Project and Legal consultant to various entities. He has appeared as expert court witness in cybercrime cases involving digital forensic evidence. He also lectures on matters involving cyber crimes, cyber privacy, electronic evidence, e-governance, cyber ethics, intellectual property rights, labor rights, artists’ and designers’ rights, indigenous peoples’ rights and the rights of women and people with alternative sexualities, to lawyers and other professionals. In September 2022, he was commissioned by the University of the Philippines Institute of Administration of Justice, to write the UP Law School response to the 2022 draft of the revision of the 1988 Code of Professional Responsibility (CPR) for Lawyers. His Report “A.I., Technology, Gender and Morality in the Philippine Code of Professional Responsibility (CPR) for Lawyers” analyzed the proposals of the UP Law students and faculty suggestions to the draft, and contained his own proposed revisions, suggestions, comments regarding the technological innovations that impact the legal profession, which need to be in place to guide and protect the Philippine law profession in the age of A.I. He submitted it on October 24, 2022

Since 1997, he has been exploring and writing on cyberlaw issues that implicate intellectual property rights, human rights, labor, corporate law, higher education and indigenous peoples rights. His legal articles have won international awards and research grants in Australia, Greece, Austria and United Arab Emirates. He had been an Editorial Consultant to “Philosophia”, an international refereed journal on philosophy that is abstracted by SCOPUS and Thomson & Reuters.

He has three refereed books on law. The first was “A Human Rights Approach to Academic Freedom of Educators in Higher E-Learning” published in 2008 by the UP Institute of International Legal Studies. The second “A Human Intellectual Property Right of Educators in their Digital Creations” which was partially funded by a grant from the UP Institute of Government Law Reform is published online for free at this site. His book on “Cryptology: The Law and Science of Electronic Secrets and Codes” was published by the UP Institute of International Legal Studies last April 18, 2016 and sold out in 2018. It was the first and only Philippine law book that examined the legal issues concerning cryptography, the technology that secures the blockchains and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, in four jurisdictions.

As a poet, his poetry has been published in four continents and performed in two world conventions of poetry in Spain and Australia. He is cited in the World List of Lawyer Poets. His  first and sold-out book of refereed poems “Noelses” published in 2005 was in four languages, one of which was Ibanag, an indigenous language. The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples gave him and his mother, Juanita “Nitz” Ramiscal (who co-authored the Ibanag section) a commendation for enriching and preserving this language. “A Radical’s Chronicles”, his second sold-out refereed book of poetry in English was published in July 2012 by the UST Publishing House. He painted the image on the cover of this book.

Ever seeking ways of creatively expressing himself, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was also a member of the UQ Dance Society for several years and he continues to dance.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal can be contacted at his email address: thecyberlawyer@gmail.com