Nishimura & Asahi lawyers selected for Asia Business Law Journal’s The A-List: Thailand's Top 100 Lawyers 2023

With more than forty years of experience, Chavalit is highly regarded as a leading figure in Thailand. His areas of specialization include dispute resolution, intellectual property, TMT and e-commerce, as well as M&A, foreign investment and corporate law. His extensive experience also includes advising on trade competition, corporate recovery and business reorganization. In particular, Chavalit is renowned in the areas of dispute resolution and intellectual property. He was selected as a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation Thailand 2021 and is ranked as a leading individual for intellectual property in Thailand by Chambers Asia-Pacific 2021.

Since joining the firm in 2003, he has gained experience mainly in the corporate field. Following a one-year secondment from 2008 to the New York Branch of a Japanese financial institution, he worked at a local Thai law firm for two years starting in 2011 to deepen his knowledge of a wide range of fields, particularly concerning the Kingdom of Thailand. In July 2013, he was appointed as the representative of the Bangkok Office along with establishment of the office. He has the advantage of communicating closely with local Thai lawyers and providing appropriate and professional legal advice quickly. Currently based in Bangkok, he is widely involved in M&A, labor, and international transactions, such as general corporate legal matters, investment, joint ventures, and acquisitions in Southeast Asian countries, mainly concerning the Kingdom of Thailand. He is involved in many activities, including the establishment of Japanese companies and organizations in Thailand and other Asian countries, as well as the subsequent issues, seminars, and articles on internal compliance of the companies.

He 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, labor law, and debt restructurings. Before setting up the Bangkok office of Nishimura & Asahi in 2013, he worked with Linklaters for almost a decade. He is also a registered 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.

Chris has been based in Thailand since 2001 and has more than two decades of experience working alongside Thai lawyers on cross-border M&A and regulatory matters, providing international-level solutions to companies entering the Thai market. His clients include global companies investing or acquiring assets in Thailand and Thai companies engaging in cross-border transactions. He advises international and Thai companies on the development, sale, and acquisition of renewable energy projects in Thailand and across Asia.

His M&A practice has included private M&A, advising institutional and activist investors on SEC/SET reporting requirements and acquisition thresholds, and strategic shareholders on synergistic de-layering of listed group structures. His sector expertise for M&A includes manufacturing, TMT, logistics, renewable energy projects, and the service sector for both buy-side and sell-side, share and asset sale transaction structures. He has advised overseas law firms on the acquisition of Thai law firms.

With a focus on renewables (including transition), Chris’ energy practice has more than 1 GW’s experience in onshore wind, solar (PV, thermal, ground mount utility scale, and C&I rooftop), and waste-to-energy projects. His experience has a broad reach, from due diligence of early-stage projects, advising on EPC/O&M, corporate PPAs, equity funding, and project finance, to pre- and post-commissioning exits and acquisitions.

Chanakarn has particular in-depth expertise in the practical side of the legislative system of labour & employment law and personal data protection law. For the Labour & Employment practice, she engages in both advisory work and litigation, as well as drafting and reviewing legal documents, negotiating settlements, interviewing employees (particularly those accused of wrongdoing), managing whistleblowing hotlines and processes, providing trainings and various types of employment law advice, and representing clients in numerous court cases and in hearings before the labour authorities. For the Personal Data Protection practice, she assists her clients through the entire process, from providing training, analysing how clients handle personal data transactions, summarising clients’ data flow, providing legal advice, and drafting necessary legal documents for her clients. Chanakarn’s strategy is to provide detailed, accurate advice and flexible solutions, adapted to meet her clients’ needs. She excels in simplifying complex matters and equipping her clients to make the right decisions. She receives consistently strong feedback from her clients regarding the quality of her work. She has been ranked for labour and employment practice in Chambers Asia Pacific 2022 and 2023.