Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing foreigners, we're discussing law, we're discussing fake lawyers and we're discussing fraud in this video. I have made a number of videos on this topic in the past. There has been a lot of consternation I guess created by some in response to my belief and specific assertions that there are not only folks in Thailand operating illegally who might actually be licensed credential legal professionals from other jurisdictions, but also, just total outright fakes and how fraud interacts with all of this. 

Now to my mind, especially when you, let's go ahead and put this up on screen. This is: Notification of the Ministry of Labour, regarding: Prescription of Prohibited Occupations for Foreigners and I want to go ahead and read part of the preamble here, quote: 

"By virtue of the first paragraph of Section 7 of the Emergency Decree on Foreigners' Working Management (2017), as amended by the Emergency Decree on Foreigners' Working Management (2018), the Minister of Labour, with the approval of the Foreigners Working Management Policy Commission on 11th March 2020, hereby issues the Notification as follows:" and what they are saying here, if you go further. These are the list of restricted occupations.

So let's go back here to No. 27 Legal Services or services in legal proceedings, except for the following works: 

-       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 arbitrator is not Thai law."

So they are saying, "hey, you can't engage in any kind of legal service or anything pertaining to legal in Thailand unless it's some sort of arbitration that pertains to foreign law and you're a licensed potential professional from that jurisdiction to be able to speak on that foreign law and practice with regard to that foreign law. So that's what you're dealing with. Anything else is restricted. Again, let's quote further:

"Providing services in legal counselling, litigation and others such as representing as a lawyer in all types of cases, acting on behalf of clients in legal matters, drafting contracts or making legal documents, etc. Except for the following works, again arbitration and arbitral proceedings." which I could go into all of that but again it pertains to arbitration binding or otherwise that pertains to some sort of foreign law. And I know that everybody, "well that's what all these foreigners are doing." No, come on. That's a very limited subset of things. 

Meanwhile, there are all kinds of word games out here that get played so you have got to go back to 26, to Clerical or Secretarial work which is also restricted. Quote:

"Clerical work means work involving short hand writing, typing, teletyping, punching cards, tape punching, receiving- paying money, collecting money, calculation of production costs, calculation of wages and working hours, factotum, dispatch carrier, answering phone calls, taking in or sending out things, overseeing stock of goods, warehouse inventory, weighing, letter correspondence, accounting, general administration, receiving and sending documents, personnel, insurance, public relations, reception, booking travel tickets, library, filing documents, statistics survey, enumeration, editing and coding, proofreading, printing, photo copying, copying documents, addressing documents and other jobs, in the role of clerk or staff in the clerical level as determined by the establishment.

Secretarial work means work involving recording of statements, or reports or accounts with shorthand, typing accounts from notes written in shorthand or from a dictation recorder, making appointments for the superior and reminding the superior when an appointment is due, welcoming those who come to meet the superior, inquiring, answering questions or making contact via telephone, presenting personal and important letters and mails as well as letters." 

I don't know how much more extensive the Department of Employment and the Emergency Decree regarding these restricted occupations can be, especially in light of the fact that this document is issued by the Department of Employment in English. This isn't written in Thai and then translated over so there's some sort of ambiguity as to what's going on here. Legal services in Thailand are restricted to Thai nationals, period. That's the way that it works. So anybody that is a foreigner that is out there saying, "oh I can do this", wouldn't that be a species of fraud in and of itself? It seems self-evident to me but maybe, I don't think I'm missing anything, let's put it that way. It seems self-evident to me. 

Now that being said, on another take with regard to this I have got to put on my hat as an American Attorney especially in light of US Immigration Law because unfortunately they are just total frauds some of them; I've already mentioned some of them on this channel in the past, that are here in Thailand who have no credentials whatsoever even from a foreign jurisdiction to operate in any way in the practice of law especially as it pertains to US Law, especially as it pertains to US Immigration and this is where the rubber hits the road with regard to fraud and fake lawyers in Thailand, because many of them hold themselves out to be able to provide US Immigration assistance when in fact according to 8 CFR 292.1 under the Code of Federal Regulations in the United States, that is in fact very much prohibited, and holding oneself out to the contrary is in my opinion again self-evidently fraud, but let's go ahead and look at 8 CFR 292.1. I went over here to www.law.cornell.edu under 292.1 Representation of others. 

“A person entitled to representation may be represented by any of the following subject to limitations in 8 CFR 103.2 (a)(3). Quoting directly under (a)(1) Attorneys in the United States. Any attorney is defined in 8 CFR 1.2, see below, and quote: "Attorney means any person who is eligible to practice law in, and is a member in good standing of the bar of, the highest court of any State, possession, territory or Commonwealth of the United States, or of the District of Columbia, and is not under any order suspending, enjoining, restraining disbarring, or otherwise restricting him or her in the practice of law."

So again, anybody that is not actually an Attorney who is charging fees to and holding themselves out as being able to assist in US Immigration is in complete violation of 8 CFR 292.1. And look, there are exceptions to this rule on an individual basis. For example, Reputable Individuals. "Any reputable individual of good moral character, provided that (i) He is appearing on an individual case basis, at the request of the person entitled to representation;

(ii) He is appearing without direct or indirect remuneration and files a written declaration to that effect."  Pretty sure, I'm here to tell you, you can go out and look at the fake lawyers out there and they are out there, and how they hold themselves out, they are not taking US Immigration cases on some kind of pro bono basis, and even if they were, they couldn't do it en masse. The reason for the exception is because your grandma or your aunt might need help with their immigration stuff and you, some family member or something decides to weigh in and assist. Yeah on an individual basis where somebody's not getting paid anything to help somebody else with the immigration forms or something, that's not something the federal law is going to go after. But people who systemically hold themselves out as legal professionals notwithstanding the fact they have no qualification to do so and claim to be able to assist people with US Immigration matters for remuneration, are in gross and clear violation of 8 CFR 292.1 and they are defrauding the public because they are holding themselves out as someone who is qualified to do that.

Even deeper than this goes to the issue of attorney-client privilege. I have seen many cases over my near 20 years of doing US Immigration, where things will be disclosed to me that will be very, very detrimental to the client insofar as I will become aware of information regarding their background or some sort of criminal history or maybe there is no criminal conviction, but I become aware of a set of facts in a given case that would make that person inadmissible. Now they may decide not to take my advice and walk away from me and go somewhere else and try some other technique to get themselves a Visa, but attorney-client privilege binds me and keeps me from being able to disclose that information to any type of tribunal should there be some sort of fraud prevention unit sort of sweep, where they start looking at the background of individuals in given cases and they want to know whether or not there's grounds of inadmissibility, I'm barred; privilege bars me from being able to disclose anything, not that I would want to. It's a violation of attorney-client confidentiality as well, but again the laws of evidence, the rules of evidence would preclude that information from being admissible in any way in any sort of adjudication because of privilege. A fake lawyer who does not actually have qualifications as an actual attorney, as defined under 8 CFR 292.1, is holding themselves out as someone who does and the fraud there is the fact that the public is detrimentally relying on that individual thinking that they are protected by things like attorney-client privilege and confidentiality when they are not. The involvement of such a fraudulent individual obviates any privilege. And by the way, anybody that says, "oh well this thing's just run by this fake. There's a real lawyer working in there.” Well if there is an actual US Attorney working under somebody who is not in any way qualified to be an Attorney, the moment that they find that out, they need to go ahead and walk away, otherwise they need to check out the rules in their own jurisdiction regarding the rules of ethics, because I can't think of any of the 50 States that would allow that, because again it's very unprofessional to begin with, but on top of that, it creates the problems of the obviation of privilege because it's involving someone who is not qualified as an attorney. And as we know, if you get into rules of ethics in a legal situation - I remember taking Ethics back in law school - where there is somebody that becomes involved in a communication between attorney and client who is not an attorney, the existence of that third party shatters the privilege, and at that point you have got real problems with the possibility that detrimental evidence that has been disclosed - to that person - notwithstanding the fact that the public detrimentally relied on them holding themselves out as an actual qualified legal professional, doesn't matter, the privilege is shattered anyway. And again, by holding themselves out that way and placing the public in the position to be able to put themselves in a detrimental position where they are disclosing information they think is protected by privilege but is in fact not, that is a level of fraud that can lead to injury and damage to the “client”, the underlying “client” - I put that in quotes because they are not being actually represented by somebody who's legit - it places them in significant danger, jeopardy, with regard to whatever legal institution they're dealing with, in this case the US immigration apparatus. And in the era of Trump, you can't get any more dangerous than that. That is why I am so emphatic about warning the public about fake lawyers and the fraud associated therewith.