Foreigners can’t be licensed lawyers in Thailand, yet Isaac works as in-house legal counsel for a group with several listed Thai companies. He explains how he got the job, what it pays and why Thai courts take some getting used to.
The following post is a chapter from our book, Working in Thailand: How to Ditch the Desk, Board the Flight, and Land the Job, written by Patrick Taylor and Karsten Aichholz.
Our Premium members get the whole book free on the site, including the interviews with seventeen professionals in Thailand. They share what they did to land a job here, what the requirements were, and what to expect.
Key Takeaways
- Only Thai nationals can get a lawyer’s licence in Thailand.
- Legal services are on the list of jobs closed to foreigners, with narrow exceptions for arbitration work.
- Isaac works as de facto in-house legal counsel for a multinational group that owns several publicly listed Thai companies.
- He found the job through family connections, not a job ad.
- A law degree was the main qualification the role asked for.
- He puts a fair salary at THB150,000 to THB200,000 a month, depending on experience.
- Thai courts are slow and procedural, so expect big cases to take years.
The Legal Counselor
All quotes by Isaac (last name withheld for privacy), legal counselor.
Remember what we said earlier about the legal business being strictly off-limits for foreigners in Thailand? Well, it’s time to come clean. Like many rules in Thailand, there are always exceptions, and for this particular rule, the exception is a gentleman we’ll call Isaac.
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