Cambodia Leadership Review
Jay Cohen, Partner and Director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ Cambodia practice, shares insights on leadership, legal challenges, and the future of Cambodia’s business environment. He discusses the firm’s role in shaping the country’s commercial and intellectual property landscape while supporting investors in adynamic regulatory landscape.
CLR: Leadership Values and Guiding Principles Jay, as a partner and director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ Cambodia practice, what core values and guiding principles have shaped your leadership approach? How do these values influence your work in advising clients and strengthening Cambodia’s legal sector?
In leading an office, I’ve always considered two aspects crucial for our success – our colleagues and our clients.
As for our colleagues, it is important to focus on their personal development and create an environment where their growth and success professionally also supports the work of our clients. The legal professional is very dynamic in the sense that the legal framework is always evolving, and it is necessary to be in a constant state of learning so that professionals can understand the law and help advise our clients.
At the same time, in addition to knowledge about the law, there are a lot of supplementary skills necessary to be successful in law, which involve research and writing, advocacy and persuasion, industry and transactional knowledge, organizational abilities, positive work habits and the appropriate use of new technologies.
Therefore, it is necessary for the firm to proactively support the development of these skills and guide colleagues on their professional journeys. If this can be achieved, then not only do our colleagues benefit personally and professionally, but our clients benefit from our colleagues’ experience. Along these lines, my belief is that if you give your colleagues excellent professional opportunities, it will help make Tillek a destination employer, which is necessary to attract and retain legal talent in a competitive market.
As for our clients, they are at the heart of what we do at Tilleke and without them, our practice would not be possible. Therefore, it is necessary to create a service-minded culture within the firm that enables our colleagues to provide proactive representation that is timely, responsive to clients’ needs and demands and business friendly, in the sense of providing advice that is practical and can be acted upon by a business and its leaders. I also encourage the concept of empathy to clients.
Clients have their own goals, timelines and pressures. Business moves fast. Clients are often facing difficult issues when they seek out legal professionals. Legal professionals, or service providers in any industry, need to be sensitive to these issues and provide services that really respond to the needs of their clients.
CLR: Challenges and Opportunities in Cambodia’s Legal Landscape With Cambodia’s business environment evolving and foreign investment increasing, what do you see as the biggest legal challenges and opportunities for businesses operating in the country? How is your firm addressing these to support investors and entrepreneurs?
Businesses thrive with stability and predictability, which allows them to make long-term plans and implement their strategies. Over the years, the Cambodian legal framework has become increasingly stable and predictable, which has certainly contributed to a positive business environment in the country. This environment has given opportunities to a number of businesses to serve the local community, which has grown increasingly prosperous, and become connected to the world through international trade.
That said, globally, there are a number of recent challenges facing the global trading system, which may impact Cambodia. As a service provider to businesses, Tilleke, which has offices in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, helps its clients understand the legal and regulatory environment in the countries in which they operate, which enables our clients to make decisions that are best for their businesses.
CLR: Intellectual Property Protection in Cambodia As the leader of Tilleke & Gibbins’ commercial and intellectual property practices in Phnom Penh, how would you assess the current state of IP protection in Cambodia? What progress has been made, and what improvements are still needed to safeguard innovation and business interests?
An improving landscape for IP protection is one of the Cambodian government’s success stories, in my view. This is one area where the perception of persons outside of Cambodia regarding the ability to protect and enforce IP rights may not be aligned with realities on the group. Starting from the registration of IP rights to taking enforcement actions, clients can implement a strategy that involves registering IP rights over trademarks, industrial designs and patents, and other forms of intellectual property, and developing an enforcement strategy in case IP rights are being infringed in Cambodia.
As for developing an enforcement strategy, Cambodia allows for certain “soft” strategies such as mediation at the Department of Intellectual Property Rights, and “hard” strategies such as organizing raid actions and submitting cases to court. Overall, there are a number of Cambodian authorities that are working on anti-counterfeiting / IP enforcement issues, and a knowledgeable legal advisor can help clients assess which authorities are best at helping with the specific issues clients are facing.
The Cambodian government has taken a number of initiatives recently to improve intellectual property enforcement, such as creating an intellectual property rights recordation system with the General Department of Customs and Excise and is in the process of developing a trade secret law. As additional laws come into force, it will provide companies and IP creators with more tools to protect their IP rights. I’m quite optimistic on the future of IP enforcement in Cambodia.
CLR: The Future of Legal Services in Cambodia Looking ahead, how do you see Cambodia’s legal framework evolving to support business growth and foreign investment? What role will Tilleke & Gibbins play in shaping the country’s commercial and intellectual property landscape?
My prediction is that Cambodia’s legal framework continues to increase in sophistication and that the implementation and enforcement of laws becomes more transparent and predictable. These attributes, combined an improved environment for resolving disputes, will draw in more investors seeking stability and a growing market.
As for Tilleke & Gibbins’ role, we are active in a number of organizations, such as the American Chamber of Commerce, the US ASEAN Business Council and the Intellectual Property Association of Cambodia. Being active in these organizations enables us to share our regional perspectives and positively engage with the Cambodian government on a number of issues and provide constructive feedback on the legal and regulatory environment, which contributes to a better commercial environment for our clients and investors generally.
Cambodia Investment Review, in partnership with the International Business Chamber of Cambodia, has officially launched the Cambodia Leadership Review – 50 International Voices 2025. Now in its second edition, the publication highlights 50 of the most influential international business leaders and innovators contributing to Cambodia’s dynamic economic landscape.
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