On August 5, Athistha (Nop) Chitranukroh and Peerapong Pornpipatkul of Tilleke & Gibbins’ corporate and commercial group in Bangkok were welcomed as keynote speakers for a session entitled “Legal Unfolded” under the Startup Starter Kit series. Hosted by Global Startup Thailand—an initiative cofounded by Startup Thailand and the National Innovation Agency (NIA)—the Startup Starter Kit series is designed to provide practical business advice to local and international entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on new opportunities in Thailand. During the session, Athistha and Peerapong led attendees through an in-depth look at common legal concerns for startups in Thailand, including extensive discussions on: local laws and legal issues to consider before fundraising; negotiating term sheets, share subscription agreements, and shareholders’ agreements; Thai cybersecurity and data protection laws; and potential exit strategies for entrepreneurs. For more information on the webinar, which was delivered in Thai, please visit the event page.

On July 29, Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution group, in collaboration with the Thai Listed Companies Association (TLCA), hosted the second installment of a two-part Thai-language webinar series titled “COVID-19: Business Interruption and Insurance Policy,” which covered perspectives of the insured, insurers, and reinsurers. During the presentation, Thawat Damsa-ard, partner; Anyamani Yimsaard, associate; Noppramart Thammateeradaycho, counsel; Nuanchun Somboonvinij, senior associate; and Suruswadee Jaimsuwan, counsel, jointly discussed legal interpretation of insurance policies, analyzed examples of business interruption policies (including standard clauses such as closure and infection clauses), covered considerations from insurers and reinsurers regarding claim defenses and insurance claims, and provided example cases from other jurisdictions. A full video recording of the webinar is available on the Tilleke & Gibbins YouTube channel.

Eric Meyer, a foreign consultant in Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution department, was profiled in the latest issue of Thai-American Business (T-AB), the quarterly magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (AMCHAM). As co-chair of the AMCHAM Legal Committee, Eric is extremely active in the American business community in Thailand. He applies his unique combination of legal expertise and practical awareness of business concerns in Thailand to identify topics and organize events that are interesting and relevant to a broad range of people. In the T-AB profile, Eric recounts how he came to be involved in AMCHAM after joining Tilleke & Gibbins four years ago, and notes that participation in the group has been an excellent way to stay current with the business community and build connections with professionals across various industries. In response to a question on the outlook for ease of doing business in Thailand, Eric sounded a hopeful note, explaining that the country’s strides in the areas of streamlining and digitizing various aspects of doing business should be able to continue after COVID-19, which has actually hastened digitization in several legal areas that had previously been slower to adapt to recent technological advances. Eric now looks forward to continuing to provide important leadership to the AMCHAM Legal Committee as the country and its business community seek to overcome the persistent challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and move toward a sustainable economic recovery.

On June 24, Athistha (Nop) Chitranukroh, partner and director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ corporate and commercial group and head of the firm’s data privacy and cybersecurity team, joined and facilitated an online session entitled “Preparing and Implementing PDPA compliance policies in Thai companies.” Hosted in collaboration with True Digital Group and True Digital Park, subsidiaries of leading communication conglomerate True Corporation, the session provided insight on PDPA preparation and implementation from both legal and practical perspectives. Athistha led the discussion from the legal advisory side, including updates on the government’s decision to further postpone enforcement of the law, while Manita Kansap, a data privacy specialist from True Digital Group, provided insight from the perspective of an in-house implementer. A recording of the webinar, which was presented in Thai, is available on Tilleke & Gibbins’ YouTube channel.