What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have recently been involved in? 

I’ve recently been involved in a wide variety of legal matters including commercial agreements, regulatory, corporate, litigation, and consumer protection matters. One of the most significant cases was advising a company on the new regulatory requirement in the area of digital platform service businesses in Thailand. In addition, I managed the implementation of changes in accordance with this new legal requirement for the company (Royal Decree re: the operation of digital platform service businesses (2022)). Interestingly, the scope of applicability under this ETDA Thailand law is very broad. To implement this new legal requirement, I was required to produce a detailed legal analysis together with a strategic and pragmatic approach to this new piece of Thai legislation. Another challenge was to present a clear and concise summary on these new regulatory changes and their impact to senior business team members. This significantly helped our Thai business to grow.

Which recent political, economic, or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in recent years?

Recently, the regulatory changes in the area of online businesses, including EU digital services law, EU digital market laws and ETDA Thailand laws, have materially impacted my work. The regulatory trend has shifted from a self-regulatory model to a more stringent control by governments. In terms of impact on my work as an in-house legal counsel, we closely monitor those changes and ensure that we follow the regulatory requirements. From our point of view, governments in several jurisdictions are placing more importance on the safety of consumers and consumer protection. This has significantly deepened our collaboration and relationship with our business teams, especially in relation to problem solving and future proofing the business.

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

Over the next five to ten years, I expect that the general counsel role will be not only to lead the legal advisors in companies but also to be a commercial advisor with great critical thinking skills. Under difficult business circumstances, general counsel could be asked to offer creative legal solutions to the business and, at the same time, remain objective. In addition, instead of highlighting only legal risks which could be seen as possible business blockers to relevant stakeholders, great commercial skills, a results-driven mindset, and stakeholder management skills are also part of the expectations of the business toward this role.