สภาทนายความแห่งประเทศไทย

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อัปเดตล่าสุดเมื่อ 5 กันยายน 2569

The Lawyers Council of Thailand (สภาทนายความ) is the professional body established under the Lawyers Act B.E. 2528 (1985). It admits, licenses, and disciplines all lawyers practising in Thailand, sets continuing legal education requirements, and maintains the register of licensed lawyers (ทะเบียนทนายความ). Only a member of the Council in good standing may represent a client in Thai courts.

How to check that a Thai lawyer is licensed

There is no public online register. We enumerated every page of the Council’s website (lawyerscouncil.or.th) on 1 September 2026: 49 pages, covering news, the regional and provincial offices, downloadable forms, an official mobile application and a LINE account. None of them is a member lookup. Anyone who tells you to “search the Council register” online is describing a service that does not exist. Verification is done by reading the licence and then telephoning the Lawyer Registration Office.

1. Ask to see the licence itself

Section 41 of the Lawyers Act sets out what a lawyer’s licence must contain, as a minimum: the holder’s name, date of birth, address as it appears in the house registration, the address of the office, a photograph of the holder, the licence number, the date of issue and the date of expiry. A document with no photograph, no licence number or no expiry date is not a lawyer’s licence.

2. Check the expiry date, because it is short

A Thai lawyer’s licence runs for two years from the date of issue under section 39, unless it is the lifetime category, which lasts for the holder’s life. A lawyer who wishes to continue must apply to renew within the ninety days before expiry, and a renewal runs two years from the expiry date. Section 40 then allows a lapsed licence to be renewed within sixty days of expiry on payment of a twenty per cent surcharge. Past that point the lawyer has ceased to be a lawyer under section 44 (3), and section 33 applies to them.

3. Verify the number with the Lawyer Registration Office

The Council’s own contact page gives the Registration Office (สำนักงานทะเบียนทนายความ) as +66 2 522 7124 to 27, extensions 213 to 217. The Council is at 249 Phahonyothin Road, Anusawari, Bang Khen, Bangkok 10220, and it also runs a legal advice hotline on 1167. Give them the licence number and the name.

4. One lawyer, one registered office

Section 42 requires a lawyer to have a single registered office, recorded in the register by the Lawyer Registrar, and to notify the Registrar of any move. If the office on the licence is not the office you are sitting in, ask why.

What it means if the person is not licensed

Section 33 prohibits a person who is not registered and licensed, or who has ceased to be a lawyer, or who is barred from practising, from appearing in court for another person or from drafting a plaint, a defence, an appeal, a reply to an appeal, a petition or reply to the ศาลฎีกา, a motion or a statement relating to court proceedings for another person. The exception is for government officials and officers of state agencies, state organisations and state enterprises acting in their official capacity or under a power conferred by procedural or other law.

Contravening section 33 is an offence under section 82: imprisonment not exceeding two years, or a ดี not exceeding 40,000 baht, or both.

Discipline is separate. Section 52 gives the Lawyers Ethics Committee three penalties: a reprimand, a prohibition on practising for up to three years, or removal from the register. Where a final order bans a lawyer from practising or removes their name, section 70 requires the Registrar to notify every court in the Kingdom and the Thai Bar Association. A person removed from the register cannot apply again for at least five years (section 71).

Can a foreigner be a licensed Thai lawyer?

No. Section 35 (1) requires สัญชาติไทย, and it is the first condition on the list. Section 35 also requires the applicant to be at least twenty years old on the date of application, to hold a bachelor’s degree or diploma in law from an institution the Council accepts, and to be a member of the Thai Bar Association (เนติบัณฑิตยสภา), alongside conditions on character, bankruptcy and health.

A foreign lawyer may advise on Thai law and work on a matter, but may not appear in a Thai court or draft court documents for another person. That is what section 33 reserves to licensed Thai lawyers, and it is why a foreign-run firm working properly in Thailand instructs a licensed Thai lawyer for anything that goes before a court.

ตรวจทานครั้งล่าสุด: 1 กันยายน 2026. Sections 33, 35, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 52, 70, 71 and 82 of the Lawyers Act B.E. 2528 were each read against the Thai text of the consolidated Act. The Registration Office telephone numbers and address were taken from the Lawyers Council’s own contact page, and the absence of a public register search was established by enumerating all 49 pages in the Council’s sitemap on the same day.

See also our guide on how to choose a lawyer in Thailand.