Charuwan Charoonchitsathian, a partner in Tilleke & Gibbins’ corporate and commercial group in Bangkok, was featured in a recent Asian Legal Business article on M&A trends and how firms are adapting their transactional legal work to embrace new technologies. The interview was part of their September 2022 issue, in which the magazine announced their annual Asia M&A rankings. Charuwan represented Tilleke & Gibbins (which received rankings in both Thailand and Vietnam) to offer insight into how the firm has seen various new technologies gain prominence in the M&A space in Southeast Asia. She noted that companies around the world are getting more deeply involved in technological approaches such as DeFi, blockchain, and various other Web3 innovations. She also explained why it is important for lawyers to understand these technologies in order to provide relevant and effective legal services to facilitate deals between companies in these sectors. She raised the example of Tilleke & Gibbins, which has a “dedicated technology practice group which brings together commercial, IP, and disputes lawyers who each have extensive knowledge and expertise in these emerging business areas. Our experts provide regulatory advice and analysis on how the governments in our jurisdictions will regulate Web3 technologies – not just how they are doing so now, but how they are likely to do so in future – to help future-proof transactions with a substantial technology element.” Asian Legal Business, owned by Thomson Reuters, is a leading source of information for businesses and professionals active in the region. To see Charuwan’s full comments, please see the September issue of Asian Legal Business.

Following the success of the Future Energy Asia Exhibition and Summit event preview held at the firm’s Bangkok Office on June 16, Tilleke & Gibbins participated in the official three-day forum at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre on July 20-22, 2022 Under the theme “Decarbonizing ASEAN’s Energy Transition and Transformation,” Joseph Tomkiewicz, partner and chair of the firm’s regional energy industry team (and member of the conference committee), moderated a strategic panel discussion titled “Global Leaders Panel: Decarbonisation & GHG Commitment – Gas and LNG as Cleaner Fuels to Bridge ASEAN’s Energy Transition.” Together with distinguished speakers, Joseph led the session through noteworthy strategies and initiatives toward significant transformation of the industry. On the last day, Sher Hann Chua, a consultant in the firm’s intellectual property group, delivered a presentation titled “Harnessing the Power of Your Intellectual Property in Energy Industry Joint Ventures.” Tilleke & Gibbins also welcomed thousands of energy professionals to the firm’s booth over the course of three days to exchange potential ideas for future collaboration and business opportunities in the electric vehicle, LNG, renewables, and power sectors in ASEAN.

On July 12, 2022, Nopparat Lalitkomon, a senior associate in Tilleke & Gibbins’ corporate and commercial group in Bangkok, spoke at an event on the principles of Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The session was organized in collaboration with True Digital Park and True Digital Group (TDG). Presenting along with the head of data privacy for TDG, Nopparat addressed the following issues to equip startup companies with essential knowledge to fully comply with the law. Data minimization; Managing data security; Data breach prevention; Principles of data protection officer roles; Data subject rights; Key consideration when setting up an application; and New sub-regulations under the Personal Data Protection Act; The event closed with an FAQ session.

On July 7, 2022, Nopparat Lalitkomon, senior associate, and Gvavalin Mahakunkitchareon, associate of the firm’s corporate and commercial group collaborated with Microfocus and CyberRes in hosting a webinar entitled “ PDPA: Managing and Minimizing Data Protection Risks.” In this online session, the speakers covered the following items: Overview of the Personal Data Protection Act 2019; Roles and responsibilities of data controllers or data processors; Rights of data subjects; and Updates on new subregulations under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).