
Based on research conducted by Asia Business Law Journal, the following are Thailand’s top 100 lawyers (including foreign legal counsel/advisors/consultants practising in Thailand).
Click here to read the editorial report that accompanies the A-List.
Biographies and contact details, where provided, were written by the lawyers themselves and have not been independently verified.
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Prasantaya Bantadtan LawPlus Tel: +66 2 636 0662 E-mail: prasantaya.bantadtan@lawplusltd.com |
Key practice areas: IP; IT; telecom; debt restructuring and business reorganization; corporate/M&A |
Prasantaya Bantadtan is a partner of LawPlus Ltd. She holds an LLM in international economic law from the University of Warwick, an LLM in international business legal studies from the University of Exeter, and an LLB from Thammasat University, Thailand. She worked with the Bangkok office of Herbert Smith Freehills for two years before joining LawPlus as a founding member in 2003.
Prasantaya has been identified by the Asia Leading Lawyers 2018 as a leading lawyer for corporate and M&A and Intellectual property. She was also identified as a leading lawyer for intellectual property by The AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers in 2015 and 2016. She specializes in laws on intellectual property, information technology, telecommunications, restructuring, insolvency, corporate, M&A and real estate. She has advised local and international clients on patent and trademark registrations, debt restructuring, business reorganization, debt recovery, funds repatriation, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions and disposal of distressed debts. She has represented clients in a variety of industries, including automobile, film, entertainment, telecommunications, information technology, food, drug, beverages, healthcare, cosmetics, construction, retail and wholesale services. She is a registered patent agent and a notarial services attorney and a member of IPAT, the ASEAN Intellectual Property Association (Councillor representing Thailand), the Asian Patent Attorneys Association (Trademark Committee 2013-2015 and 2019-2021 representing Thailand), INTA, and the Licensing Executives Society. |
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Stephen Bennett Hunton Andrews Kurth Tel: +66 2 645 8811 E-mail: bennetts@HuntonAK.com |
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A (Thailand) |
Resident in Thailand since 1994, Stephen is head of the Asia corporate team at Hunton Andrews Kurth. He has more than 24 years of practice experience in Thailand in mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications, fintech, foreign investment and corporate finance. Before joining Hunton & Williams, Stephen was a partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Stephen has served as counsel for both private and public entities, and has completed some of the largest M&A transactions in Thailand, including, among others, Temasek’s acquisition of Intouch Holdings pcl (formerly Shin Corporation); Telenor’s acquisition of Total Access Communication pcl (DTAC); the restructuring and subsequent back-door listing of Bangkok Mass Transit System pcl (the Bangkok Skytrain operator) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand; Tractebel’s acquisition of Cogneration pcl; and Tencent Holdings Limited’s UGC joint venture with Ookbee Company Limited. In the last 12 months, he has represented International Finance Corporation as arranger and subscriber for Thailand’s first green bond issued by TMB bank pcl; advised JPMorgan on its first Thai listed derivative warrant issue and futures trading on the Thailand Futures Exchange; advised Tencent in its ongoing joint venture with Ookbee, a leading digital and user generated content platform in Southeast Asia, and its further investment in Ookbee U; advised Line Corporation in respect of e-payment and smartcard services; and advised Tate & Lyle on a proposed joint venture in modified tapioca starch production facilities. |
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Panuwat Chalongkuamdee Weerawong Chinnavat & Partners Tel: + 66 2 264 8000 Email: panuwat.c@weerawongcp.com |
Key practice areas: Banking; energy and natural resources; food and beverage; health and medical services; insurance |
Panuwat Chalongkuamdee advises on a wide spectrum of public and private transactions, including negotiated and contested acquisitions and divestitures, demergers, minority investments and carve-out transactions. He also advises senior management, boards of directors and shareholders on corporate governance matters.
Notable transactions:
Tier 1 – Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Rising Star, IFLR1000 (2019) Band 1 – Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Up and Coming, Chambers & Partners (2018) Tier 1 – Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific (2018) Outstanding – Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Asialaw (2018) Named in Asia’s 40 Under 40, Asian Legal Business (2015) |
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Daniel Chernov Siam ADR Tel: +66 2 252 7664 E-mail: daniel@siamadr.com |
Key practice areas: Litigation (civil disputes and “white-collar” criminal matters); arbitration; mediation; M&A; property (real estate) |
Daniel Chernov is the managing partner of Siam ADR, a boutique law firm specializing in dispute resolution services — including litigation, arbitration and mediation. Daniel is an American attorney licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C., and an alumnus of Georgetown University Law Center (1986).
Prior to establishing Siam ADR in 2011, Daniel worked for several international law firms in the Asia-Pacific region (Tokyo, Thailand, and Vietnam). Over the course of three decades devoted to international legal practice, Daniel developed substantial expertise in resolving international business conflicts in multicultural environments. Siam ADR employs a small cadre of highly skilled and dedicated professionals providing legal services through its office located in Bangkok’s central business district. Siam ADR’s attorneys practice law in Thai civil courts, and have obtained remarkable results for their clients through favourable judgments and lucrative settlements. Simply stated, the firm has won more than 90% of its cases before Thai civil courts and arbitral tribunals. Daniel is also an accomplished advocate in international commercial arbitration before the Thai Arbitration Institute (TAI) and American Arbitration Association (AAA). He has successfully represented prominent multinational corporations before the TAI and AAA, and secured arbitral awards against numerous “Fortune 500” companies. In addition to dispute resolution services, Siam ADR also advises foreign investors in Thailand with respect to international commercial transactions, foreign direct investment, cross-border mergers & acquisitions, and real estate transactions. Siam ADR practices law the old-fashioned way–based upon integrity, sound legal analysis, and decades of international legal experience. Education: Georgetown University Law Center (Juris Doctor, 1986) Professional Memberships: District of Columbia Bar Association (Washington, D.C.) |
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Pisut Rakwong Pisut & Partners Tel: +66 2275 3637 Email: pisut@pisutandpartners.com |
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; corporate; insolvency and restructuring; trade competition; labour & employment |
Pisut is the founder and managing partner of Pisut & Partners. His main areas of practice are dispute resolution, corporate, insolvency and restructuring, trade competition, labor & employment, insurance, administrative and white-collar criminal matters. Pisut also has extensive experience in Thai court proceedings, as well as in arbitration under the ICC and TAI rules.
Prior to establishing the firm, he was a litigation partner of Silk Legal, an international law firm based in Bangkok where he was a key member of the firm to drive and generate the new businesses to the firm. Prior to joining Silk Legal, he was the managing partner of Jus Laws & Consult, an independent Bangkok law firm where he was engaged in building a litigation department and firm management. Pisut was the chief of litigators from 2010–15 at Price Sanond Prabhas & Wynne (formerly known as Deacons), where he handled a substantial amount of major litigation and other forms of alternative dispute resolutions, as well as providing legal advice in various fields to local and international corporations. Between 2003-10, Pisut was a partner of Rapeepat Public Law Office where he handled many civil and commercial disputes in the Thai courts and arbitration. Before joining Rapeepat Public Law Office, he was an associate of Sak & Associates from 2000-03. He previously interned as a lawyer at Prachuab Seang-Anong Law and Accounting Office. Notable cases
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Kowit Somwaiya LawPlus Tel: +66 2 636 0662 Email: kowit.somwaiya@lawplusltd.com |
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; corporate/ M&A, FDI; IP; IT; telecoms |
Kowit Somwaiya is the founder and managing partner of LawPlus and LawPlus Myanmar. He has over 30 years’ experiences in laws on banking and finance, corporate and M&A, foreign direct investment, intellectual property, IT, telecoms, dispute resolution and litigation. He has been recognized as a leader locally and internationally. This is testified by the names of several top global and local clients who decided to have him and the LawPlus team represent them since the firm’s incorporation in 2003 and professional associations and legal publications that have appointed and elected him as leader in the past 15 years.
Kowit has been recognized as a “leading lawyer” for banking and finance transactions by the Asia Pacific Legal 500 from 2003 to 2017, as an on-point, precise advice to a global clientele by WTR 1000, 2013. The Asia IP Experts 2017 listed him as a “leader lawyer” for Trademarks and IP & Telecoms. He was highly recommended as a company and corporate transaction practitioner by the 2003/2004 Global Counsel 3000 and named as an “IP Star” by the World IP Survey 2017 of the Managing Intellectual Property. The WIPR Leader 2018 also listed him as a “leading lawyer” for patent prosecution. Currently, Kowit is serving as a member of the INTA Board of Directors (2018-2020), the Vice President of the Intellectual Property Association of Thailand (IPAT) (2017-2019), a member of the APAA Anti-Counterfeiting Committee (2016-2018). Previously he was the Chair of the INTA Harmonization of Trademark Law and Practice Committee (2016-2017), the Co-Chair of the INTA Global Advisory Council Asia and Pacific (2016-2017), the Chair of the East Asia & Pacific Subcommittee of the INTA Anti-Counterfeiting Committee (2014-2015), the Co-Chair of the APAA Emerging IP Rights Committee (2013-2015), a member of the INTA Anti-Counterfeiting Committee (2004-2005, 2008-2009, 2012-2013), the INTA FTA Analysis Committee (2006-2007), the INTA Famous & Well-Known Marks Committee (2010-2011). |
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Jirapong Sriwat Nishimura & Asahi Tel: +66 2 168 8224 Email: jirapong.sriwat@jurists.jp |
Key practice areas: M&A; joint ventures; foreign direct investments; general corporate; international corporate finance; restructurings |
As Thailand partner and the founder of the Bangkok office of Nishimura & Asahi, Jirapong Sriwat advises on a wide range of merger-and-acquisition transactions, joint ventures, foreign direct investments, general corporate, international corporate finance, and restructurings. His expertise is advising, structuring and leading complex transactions both within and outside of Thailand. He regularly represents, among others, Japanese, Thai and international investors, international investment banks, international private equity investors, hedge funds and international corporations and financial institutions.
His main areas of practice include public and private mergers and acquisitions (takeover rules), legal due diligence, joint ventures, fund raising, listings, block trades, stock exchange and securities exchange related laws, restructuring of shareholdings and general corporate advice. His additional areas of practice also cover banking and finance, renewable energy in Japan and Thailand, exchange control law, labour law, and debt restructurings. Before setting up the Bangkok office of Nishimura & Asahi in 2013, he worked with Linklaters for nine years. Jirapong Sriwat obtained LLB with Honours from Thammasat University in 2004 and obtained a LLM in Corporate and Securities Laws with High Merits from London School of Economics in 2009. He is also registered as an arbitrator of the Thai Arbitration Institute (TAI) with the areas of expertise in corporate M&A, joint venture, banking and finance, capital markets, debt restructurings and energy. |
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Chavalit Uttasart SCL Law Group Tel: +66 2 676 6667 Email: chavalit@siamcitylaw.com |
Key practice areas: IP; IT law; e-commerce; telecommunications; corporate law |
Chavalit Uttasart is managing and founding Partner of SCL Law Group (SCL). With over 30 years’ experience, his areas of specialisation include intellectual property, information technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and corporate law; as well as cases involving trade competition, corporate recovery, and business reorganisation, foreign investment and mergers & acquisitions.
Not limited to just Thailand, with Myanmar opening its doors to foreign investors, Chavalit Uttasart has been involved in negotiating, structuring, documenting and managing large and important projects in Myanmar. These projects have often been sensitive and complex, to say the least. Thus, he has substantial hands-on experience in Myanmar. He is also a recommended dispute resolution lawyer and is considered a leading individual in the Thai intellectual property industry. As head of SCL, Chavalit Uttasart actively oversees all practices and service areas, as well as events and activities for SCL |
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Warot Wanakankowit Warot Business Consultant Tel: +66 (0) 818 025 698 Email: warot@warotbusinessconsultant.com |
Key practice areas: M&A; corporate and commercial transactions; foreign direct investment; tax; labour and employment |
Warot Wanakankowit is a founding partner at Warot Business Consultant and Wingman & Partners. He has substantial experience with taxation, corporate and commercial transactions, foreign direct investment and foreign business law, labour and employment and merger and acquisition transactions. Warot has also taken director roles in various companies in order to help set up operations and manage those companies.
Warot Business Consultant. has worked with several corporations for commercial transactions and joint venture matters and assisted multinational companies in setting up business in Thailand either by establishing wholly owned subsidiaries or partnering with Thai companies. Further, Wingman & Partners, is one of the best-known law firms in the startups scene in Thailand. It has actively helped and represented both VCs and startups in Thailand for a few years. Warot’s recent cases include representation of a reputable truck manufacturer in Thailand in negotiating the shareholders agreement with one of the biggest distributors of automotive parts in Australia to set up a joint venture company in Thailand and representation of one of fast-growing advertising company in negotiating the shareholders agreement with three corporate venture capitals for the fundraising. Warot has been invited to be a speaker in many startup events such as Techsauce Global Summit and Thailand Startup Week. Prior to founding his own firm, Warot worked at Weerawong, Chinnavat & Peangpanor, one of leading law firms in Thailand. Before that he worked at KPMG Phoomchai Tax as well as with PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal and Tax Consultants Ltd. in Thailand. Warot obtained an LLB degree from Thammasat University, and an LLM degree from King’s College University, in the UK. |