Partners

David Lyman

Chairman and Chief Values Officer

Key Practices

Qualifications

  • JD, Hastings College of the Law, University of California
  • U.S. Naval Submarine School (Officers Basic Course)
  • BSEE, Duke University

Reputed to be an icon of the Thailand legal market particularly during 1970s-1990s, David Lyman has represented a diverse client base in landmark cases and high-stakes matters. David provides straightforward, practical advice to multinational corporations and SMEs on foreign direct investment, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and anti-corruption issues. Also known as an innovative thinker, David is widely regarded as a go-to lawyer for cases involving extraordinary facts. From representing foreign journalists accused of defamation, to setting a precedent for determining compensation in wrongful death cases, to locking horns with the Royal Thai Navy over the rights of maritime treasure hunters, to defense work in labour matters, and murder, David is first and foremost an advocate.

David’s advocacy extends beyond strictly legal matters to creating a better environment for business and a cleaner environment for future generations. As Founder, in 1975, of the then Prime Minister of Thailand’s Foreign Investment Advisory Council (now the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand), a past President and decades-long serving Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (AMCHAM), a current Senior Advisor to AMCHAM’s Board of Governors, and a current Director of the Board of the AMCHAM Thailand Charitable Foundation, David has regularly represented the interests of American and foreign investors in high-level meetings with members of the U.S. and Thai governments. A dedicated conservationist, a former submarine officer with the U.S. Navy, and one of Thailand’s first certified Scuba Divemasters, David was a founding member of the Thailand Business Council for Sustainable Development in 1996, has been on the Board of the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals since 1993 to the present, and has served on many committees to advance environmental protection. After having held the position of Operation Smile Thailand Foundation’s Interim Chairman towards the end of 2019 until early 2020, he has served as the organization’s Honorary Advisor since then.

  • Advised a Hong Kong-based news magazine on a commentary that the then Thai government considered bordered on lèse majesté in the early 2000s. A settlement was achieved after the magazine, following David’s counsel, had issued an apology for “inadvertently offending Thai sensibilities.”
  • Proved that client was innocent in the critical appeal of a criminal case. The court of first instance ruled that the client, head of a company commissioned to tow a historical submarine from Europe to Asia, committed fraud and assessed a lengthy term of imprisonment. Tilleke & Gibbins zealously appealed this judgment and the team's persuasive arguments led the appellate court to conclude that our client’s innocence was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
  • Proved client was innocent of allegations of misconduct in the U.S. military, successfully demonstrating that he was set up.
  • Led the Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand’s Law Changes Project as Project Chairman for Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun in the early 1990s. The project’s report was utilized and considered by the Thai Government in passing new laws later on.