Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing we are talking about the lack of foreign lawyers in Thailand, the fact that the entire phrase is a misnomer and I will explain that. Let me just get into this. So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: US internet star arrested at top Thai hotel for live video stream will lap dancing on his girlfriend.  Now the thrust of that article goes a very different way but what I wanted to get into here is this issue associated with foreign lawyers.

Quoting directly: "A foreign lawyer warns visitors to the country to correct their perception. Thailand is not a liberal country where anything goes regarding sexual behaviour. This week, commenting on the case to do with this person,( name redacted) a foreign lawyer in Thailand, warned visitors to the Kingdom that they should always be aware that despite Thailand's international reputation, the country has a very traditional and conservative culture.” That is well put and that is well noted. Now that said, it is noteworthy in this article that this "foreign lawyer" is not specifically mentioned by name. I don't know who the foreign lawyer is but if they are not a Thai National, it's restricted to them; they cannot engage in anything associated with legal work in Thailand. In citing that, to be based, as the kids call it, I am going to go over here to the Government Gazette, and this is from 2020 titled: Notification: The Ministry of Labour prescription of the prohibited occupations for foreigners. This is from DOE, departmentofemployment.go.th, so this is the government website, Department of Employment:

Clause 2. The occupations as specified in list one annexed to this notification are prescribed by law for practitioners to require Thai nationality are strictly prohibited for foreigners in all areas of the Kingdom.

Then you go down here under list one, Occupations that are strictly prohibited to foreigners under Section 27:

Legal services or services in legal proceedings except for the following occupations: performing duties of arbitration; providing assistance or representation in the arbitral proceedings in the event that the law applicable to the dispute being considered by the arbitrators is not Thai Law.

So again, yeah there is this tiny exception for arbitration but legal service, there is no such thing as a foreign lawyer in Thailand, legally speaking. You could say there are foreign arbitration specialists but they are not lawyers in like the strict sense of the term. 

Now I am not making this video, I am sure I am going to get burned in comments or whatever which I am kind of used to this after 7 years now dealing with this stuff, but long story short these kind of misnomers, especially when you are talking about in the case which was the overarching theme of that article I cited by The Examiner, you are talking about really serious stuff and to then just sort of say off hand "somebody's a foreign lawyer here" again I don't know the background of that person. Look I am foreign born but I am naturalized to Thai citizenship. Again my Law Degree is in a Common Law jurisdiction; I have dealt with Comparative Law matters; I have acted as the Managing Director of this firm; I have done US Immigration Law for years again falling outside of Thai jurisdiction, I get it, I am kind of an anomaly and I know again I will probably get burned in the comments, "Oh well, not all of us can be Thai and this, that and the other thing" Well I get it but at the same time, I have done my time as it were, paid my dues as it were with respect to becoming Thai. Also the other thing to bear in mind is I don't know, but not a week seems to go by then I don't see clients that have just been completely snow jobbed and completely just put into bad positions by so-called foreign lawyers and unfortunately, I think the general public and especially folks that are travelling to Thailand, are just totally ignorant of the fact that yeah Thailand heavily restricts that occupation. Notably, if you go back under so even if somebody says "well, I'm working in a law firm but I'm not a lawyer here in Thailand," well guess what, under Section 26: Clerical or secretarial work is also strictly prohibited with no exceptions. So again, anytime somebody's trying to kind of play with the wording or the nuance or the interpretation of what does it mean to be a lawyer, what is the lawyer to you, like an existential question or something like that, look if you are in a law office, you are either a lawyer or you are somebody doing secretarial or clerical work. You are doing legal work or clerical work, secretarial work; that is pretty much all that goes in a law office. So again, somebody claiming to be foreign lawyer in Thailand, again it's prohibited, it's specifically prohibited under the Restricted Occupations Act as cited there going back to 2020. That was the last time we saw an iteration of that; it's been on the restricted occupations list since long before that. And again people say "well, what about arbitration?" Yeah arbitration are specific one off cases where it involves a specific matter of non-Thai law. So again, and I am not trying to cause a big kerfuffle here but I can't help it when I see in major publications talking about foreign lawyers as if that is just a done thing, it's not, it is restricted, it is there, it is black and white. Again and I am not trying to call anybody out or cause a problem here for anybody but it is what it is and again unfortunately there's what I would call, I sometimes joke and I guess I am being snarky - “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right” - on the one hand, there are fake lawyers in Thailand, I mean true fake lawyers. People that are claiming to be legal professionals that have no qualification or background or training or anything which really qualifies them to be a legal professional, they are just not and there is a difference. A true legal professional, they just have a better grasp and discernment of things that pertain to the law generally. So as I say, clowns to the left of me, okay maybe jokers to the right a little bit. Again I am not trying to call anybody out with this video. What I am trying to say is yeah unfortunately there are foreign folks here that are qualified to provide legal advice in other jurisdictions that are foreign attorneys for example but they are not qualified in Thailand. As I have been very clear about since I have ever been making these videos for example, I'm not a Thai Attorney; I am an American Attorney; I have a law degree, I can dispense advice regarding for example a lot of comparative law, international, interaction between legal systems but the Thai Attorneys here in the office, they handle Thai legal work in the Thai Courts, that is what they do. Again, I understand that this is one of those things that everybody has just sort of accepted as the conventional wisdom "oh yeah, foreigners can do that here". At the end of the day no, it's highly restricted and foreign nationals that are coming to Thailand that are looking for Legal Services, you need to be very careful in who you deal with because it can lead to real problems down the road.