Abstract:
Pursuant to Clause 13 of the Regulations of Law Society concerning Legal Professional Conduct B.E. 2529, it provides that a lawyer's interest cannot conflict with his client's interest, i.e., a lawyer who represented a client or became known of any case by duty of a client is prohibited from representing another client or using such obtained knowledge to assist another client in a manner that is adverse to the former client in the same case. It can be seen that the said provision does not cover other aspects of conflict of interest between lawyer and client. As a result, not many cases of conflict of interest between lawyer and client appear in Thailand. It can be said that this is a weak point or a loophole of law concerning legal professional conduct relating to the conflict of interest between lawyer and client. This weak point or loophole may be exploited by a dishonest lawyer for taking advantage of his client for his own benefit.In addition, the Lawyer Act B.E. 2528 and the Regulations of Law Society concerning Legal Professional Conduct B.E. 2529 are prescribed to apply to litigators only, not including legal practitioners who provide other legal services such as legal consultancy, arbitration, review and preparation of contracts and legal documents etc. As a consequence, a lawyer, not a litigator, is not subject to both laws.In order to prevent the conflict of interest between lawyer and client occurring without any responsibility of a lawyer that may cause a loss of benefit to a client and may obstruct the development of the status of legal profession to be equal to the status of legal profession in the developed countries. Therefore, it is advised that Sections 4 and 33 of the Lawyer Act B.E. 2528 should be amended to be able to apply to all lawyers, not only the litigators and the conflict of interest between lawyer and client under Clause 13 of the Regulations of Law Society concerning Legal Professional Conduct B.E. 2529 should be amended to cover all aspects of natures of the conflict of interest between lawyer and client in order that the conflict of interest between lawyer and client will be definite and clear and the provision concerning the conflict of interest between lawyer and client should be included in an undergraduate study programme as a subject of legal profession for the last year students of all law schools. This subject will serve as a guideline for the students on how to be a good lawyer in their legal profession in the future.