Tilleke & Gibbins

Tilleke & Gibbins is Thailand's oldest law firm, started in 1890 by Mr. William Alfred Tilleke. [Tilleke & Gibbins Official Profile] In 1893, Mr. Tilleke, a Ceylonese, gained recognition when he successfully defended Phra Yot Muang Kwang, a Thai provincial governor, who had been accused of murdering a French military officer by shooting him in his bed while ill. ["Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand" by Tamara Lynn Loos, published by Cornell University Press (2006), 60.] [The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, by Henry Norman (2001), 481.] The case was utilized as a political excuse to further the expansion of French Imperialism in Asia ["Thai-Franco conflict in the reign of King Rama V: a case stody of Phra Yod Muang Kwang", by Chintana Pisnaka, Chulalongkorn Univeristy (1983)] . In the face of colonial pressure by the French and before a French Court conducted in Thailand, Tilleke exonerated Phra Yot through affirmative evidence and a forced recantation on cross examination by one of the main witnesses for the French prosecution. [The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, by Henry Norman (2001), 481.] Mr. Tilleke was later appointed the second Attorney General of Siam, and honored by H.M. the King to eventually become Maha Ammart Tho Phraya Attakarn Prasiddhi. He was also the co-founder with G.W. Ward of the "Siam Observer", the first daily newspaper in Thailand. ["Twentieth Century Impressions of Siam", by Arnold Wright (1908), 96.] Mr. Ralph Gibbins, an Englishman, joined the firm in 1902 and later became a legal advisor in the Siamese Ministry of Justice, and then a judge of the International Court in 1916. [Tilleke & Gibbins Official Profile]

Tilleke & Gibbins is also home to the Museum of Counterfeit Goods.

References

External links

[http://tillekeandgibbins.com/Firm/Thai_profile.htm Tilleke & Gibbins Historical Profile]