The Legal 500 - Asia Pacific (2018)

R&T Asia (Thailand) Limited – Thailand

Banking & Finance - Tier 3
Corporate and M&A (including Capital Markets) - Tier 3
Dispute Resolution - Tier 2
Labour and Employment - Tier 2
TMT - Tier 2

Leading Lawyers:
Surasak Vajasit - Banking & Finance, Corporate and M&A (including Capital Markets)

Banking & Finance
The team at R & T Asia (Thailand) Limited has experience in bank-side and borrower-side matters across a variety of sectors, from project finance to acquisition finance. Since 2015, the firm has been investing heavily in its Bangkok office, and on the banking and finance front, this growth recently included the lateral hire of Piroon Saengpakdee, a partner with over 25 years of experience, who joined from LS Horizon Limited. Saroj Jongsaritwang and Parama Saovabha have recently acted for lenders and borrowers in a number of financing transactions. Firm managing partner Surasak Vajasit is another contact in the practice group. Notable clients have included Man Lik 1 Power Company, in addition to a litany of lenders, such as DBS Bank, HSBC and Krung Thai Bank.

Corporate and M&A (including Capital Markets)
In the corporate space, R & T Asia (Thailand) Limited’s major strength lies in the regulatory sphere, and the team has recently been active in setting up new businesses, especially in the e-commerce sector. Managing partner Surasak Vajasit recently advised a state-owned entity on the legal implications of setting up a Thai-Chinese special purpose vehicle in the transport infrastructure space. The group also handles a steady stream of restructuring work and has experience in capital markets transactions. Indeed, Visitsak Arunsuratpakdee acted for Mudman on its THB1.1bn IPO and listing on the SET. Dussadee Rattanopas has acted for corporate clients in various divestment transactions, and Melisa Uremovic and Supawat Srirungruang have provided regulatory advice to clients in the e-commerce and telecoms industries. The department is rapidly expanding and has been recruiting lawyers from standout practices in the Bangkok market; most recently, this has included Piroon Saengpakdee from LS Horizon Limited.

Dispute Resolution 
Though the firm is perhaps best known for its extensive experience in civil and criminal customs and excise litigation, R & T Asia (Thailand) Limited is also active in regulatory investigations and administrative court procedures involving environmental claims, telecoms disputes, labour and employment claims and trade law. Melisa Uremovic represented Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation in Thai safeguard proceedings and then in review proceedings regarding the import of non-alloy hot-rolled steel, while Supawat Srirungruang acted for one of Thailand’s largest telecoms providers in administrative court and in separate arbitral proceedings. Ittichai Prasongprasit was involved in a piece of tax litigation that is now pending before the Supreme Court and Pakpoom Suntornvipat has experience in shareholder disputes and restructuring and insolvency matters. Sui Lin Teoh is another contact in the disputes group and managing partner Surasak Vajasit is an experienced arbitrator in International Chamber of Commerce proceedings. Coca-Cola (Thailand), Standard Chartered Bank (Thai), Toyota Motor (Thailand) and Philip Morris (Thailand) are among the department’s notable clients.

Labour and Employment
R & T Asia (Thailand) Limited has specialised partners working extensively on contentious and non-contentious labour and employment issues for domestic and international corporates. Given the firm’s reputation in the regulatory space and its experience in administrative and labour court proceedings, the team is often sought after for labour disputes, including mass terminations and redundancy exercises. The team also handles employee fraud, misconduct and corruption investigations and related litigation. Ittichai Prasongprasit successfully represented an offshore drilling group at first instance in multiple claims concerning unfair dismissals; the case is currently on appeal. Sui Lin Teoh has experience in contentious and non-contentious employment matters and also provides employment advice to international law firms in the Ius Laboris network, of which it is a member. Supawat Srirungruang and Saroj Jongsaritwang are additional contacts in the practice group. Piroon Saengpakdee joined the team from LS Horizon Limited.

TMT
In Bangkok, R & T Asia (Thailand) Limited is particularly well-known for its regulatory expertise and this has won the TMT group instructions from some of the world’s most prominent tech companies and domestic telecoms providers. The group’s experience covers nascent areas such as over-the-top services and data privacy and it also brings its regulatory strength to the Administrative Court, where it regularly represents leading telecoms companies. Notable contacts in the department include Supawat Srirungruang and Saroj Jongsaritwang. DTAC, Telenor and Lazada are some of the key clients.