What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The most significant transaction that my team has recently been involved in was a fundraising round for the company, led by a growth equity investment firm. In this transaction, we supported all stakeholders, including minority shareholders and new investors.

My team provided full support on the legal due-diligence phase within the tight timeline determined by the investors. The decisions were reviewed through several management meetings for the corporate approval, including an executive committee meeting of the parent company.

My team supplied all relevant information, legal opinion and related corporate approval documents concerning the transaction. We carefully ensured that the process complied with all necessary procedures for such transactions under the company’s articles and regulations. During the negotiation phase of the definitive agreements, we cooperated with the existing stakeholders to raise all matters of concern, both in the commercial and legal aspects, while maintaining a friendly environment with the new investors.

After the execution of the definitive agreements, my team completed the customary closing process of the transaction.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

As in-house lawyers, our team receives many requests from many teams, from providing legal opinions to reviewing legal contracts. Therefore, I implemented a Google Form system, which other teams must fill in when requesting our legal team to support their tasks. The form generates the resulting information with a time stamp. This way, we will not incidentally lose track of the submitted work and effectively manage the order of requests made. Additionally, as the team head, I can refer to the record and effectively manage my team members’ jobs.

Furthermore, all legal documents are archived by the Google Sheets system and shared among the team members. The Google Sheets contain the documents’ scanned files and essential details such as categories, parties, and effective and expiry dates. With this system, we can easily filter potentially expired contracts and determine if renewal needed. Also, it is very convenient to pull up the documents when requested.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

A main business of the company is providing lead generation services, in which we collect customers’ personal data and disclose them to our business partners. Therefore, the main legislative change that has most impacted me is Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019), which came into force on 1 June 2022.

Thai people – including my company’s customers – were enthusiastic about exercising their rights under the PDPA. They are aware that they have such rights, and the company cannot collect, use, or disclose their personal data freely. As the data protection officer (DPO) of the company, it has been challenging to drive the lead generation business, where each set of personal data (lead) generates income for the company and stakeholders, while strictly complying with the PDPA. As a legal counsel of the company and the DPO, I must balance business growth and compliance with the law. The business should not be affected because of the law, but we also cannot violate the law and expose the company to risk.