On Thursday, July 8, 2021, John Frangos, partner and deputy director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution group, will join a virtual panel on litigation in the Asia-Pacific region. Hosted by the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), the panel discussion will bring together legal experts from throughout the region to comment on litigation norms and procedures in various Asian jurisdictions. John, the chair of NYBSA’s Thailand chapter, will focus his remarks on dispute resolution and litigation in Thailand, while the other panelists—from law firms in the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam—will share perspectives on court proceedings in their jurisdictions. Each speaker will lay out some notable aspects of litigation and the court system that international parties should keep in mind when considering litigation in each jurisdiction. The moderator (from a law firm in Japan) will be able to add further commentary reflecting the situation in that country. As the world begins to pull out of the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this will help prepare businesses and entrepreneurs for an increase in trading activity by providing key insights they can apply if litigious disputes arise in the course of their operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Following the speaker presentations and their roundtable discussion on how disputes that end up in litigation can unfold in the region, the webinar will close with a time for audience questions so that attendees can get advice on their specific situations. For more details and to register for this free online panel discussion, please visit the NYSBA website.

A June 14, 2021, article discussing Cambodia’s future as an oil producer features insights from Jay Cohen, partner and director of Tilleke & Gibbins in Cambodia and the country head of Tilleke & Gibbins’ regional energy practice. The article, which was published by Nikkei Asia, considers possible routes forward for exploitation of the country’s oil and gas reserves in light of the recent insolvency of KrisEnergy, which had just begun producing oil from an offshore Cambodian concession. The article explains that KrisEnergy, a Singapore-based company, was forced to declare bankruptcy shortly after they began operating their share of a Cambodian concession they purchased several years ago from Chevron. They found that the concession contained a lower volume of accessible oil than expected, and the revenue would not be enough to cover their mounting debts. Nevertheless, just days later Cambodia went ahead with a ceremony to mark the country’s first drops of oil—produced by the concession to KrisEnergy. The ceremony demonstrates the high hopes that Cambodia has placed on the potential of its oil resources to bring economic transformation, but also highlights the uncertainty facing these plans now that the country is left without an operator to extract the oil. In the article, several experts in the Cambodian energy market discussed the developments and shared their thoughts on where the country’s oil ambitions might go from here. Jay commented specifically on KrisEnergy’s discovery that the concession contained a smaller amount of recoverable oil than originally assumed. He emphasized that the commercial viability of the concession will have to be reassessed to determine whether reviving production with a different operator is a practical possibility. The full article is available on the Nikkei Asia website.

The latest “Women in Law” report from Asia Business Law Journal (ABLJ) includes a profile of Tiziana Sucharitkul, co-managing partner and director of the Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution group. The special report includes profiles of 20 highly accomplished female legal professionals from the Asia-Pacific region. Tiziana is the only person from Thailand to be included in the feature. Titled “View from the Top,” the profile of Tiziana focuses on her many leadership roles—not only at the helm of Tilleke & Gibbins but also in executive and advisory positions for various global legal associations. For instance, in 2018–2019 Tiziana served as chair of the board of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading global network of independent law firms, and she currently sits on the board of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation and is an active participant in the organization’s Women’s Initiative Network to Success. Tiziana also sits on the International Bar Association’s Law Firm Management Committee, which functions as a global forum for leadership and management in the legal practice. Tiziana also spoke with ABLJ about the increasing profile of women lawyers that she has witnessed during her career, noting that she observed the concern about female representation in law firms grow throughout the 1980s and 1990s all the way until the present day, when more women can be seen in management positions, but are still somewhat underrepresented at the managing partner level overall. To read the full “Women in Law” report, please visit the ABLJ website.

Two associates from Tilleke & Gibbins’ Hanoi office shared their thoughts on the impact of blockchain technology on intellectual property in an in-depth article published by Asia IP magazine.