Team size: Five

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

Without a doubt, it has been the setting up of a joint venture with Thailand’s biggest selling beer and water manufacturer, Boon Rawd. Our Bevchain joint venture manages the distribution nationwide of all Leo & Singha beers and water beverages. A few years into the venture, it is working very well. We have invested in land and warehousing, designed and introduced bespoke vehicles into the network and done so with the full cooperation of the shareholders. Legally speaking, it has been a relatively smooth journey as negotiations and issues have always been dealt with in an amicable fashion.

What are some of your tips for dealing with an in-house legal crisis?

Communication is the key. One of the things that Covid and working from home has brought to the fore is that we need to communicate regularly and clearly, whether by Teams, Zoom, phone or face-to-face. Make sure we invite the right people to the meeting and join in the conversation. Don’t add people unnecessarily and don’t leave vital individuals off. Take time to gather the facts and verify them. Take time to review the business’s needs and expectations. And, of course, take time to review the legal position and pass your advice on clearly and to the right audience. If you are reporting up, make sure you are advising and bringing them a solution.

How do you see the general counsel role evolving in Thailand over the next five to ten years?

The role is evolving right now from one of pure company secretarial and “legal fire-fighting” to a more proactive, strategic and risk focused role where the general counsel’s purpose is to help the business make good decisions. Some Thai companies are well used to huge growth, public listings, overseas ventures and so on, and have historically relied on external counsel to guide them through associated legal matters. In the next five to ten years, this will be the primary role of the in-house legal team, relying less and less on external counsel.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Don’t hide. Get stuck into the operations, the commercials, the financials, the HR projects. It may be daunting at first, but building up your knowledge of the company that you advise is critical. Those business partners will then start to see the in-house legal team less as purely legal advisors and more as counsel in the general sense (to recoin a phrase!) – something that is essential when advising on risk, strategy and making good decisions.