Welcome to Lawyering as Code — where Cambodian legal practice gets a software update.

This is my nerdy little corner where Cambodian law meets code, contracts become logic puzzles, and everything from insolvency to trusts runs through a consulting-hardened, tech-tinted lens.

Think of it as a changelog for legal workflows—sprinkled with automation, frameworks, and the occasional rant. No legal advice here — just me treating legal practice like buggy code and shipping smarter updates.

Professional Experience#

Big Law Adventures (2012–2024)#

Over the past decade, I’ve debugged legal problems at several top-tier firms, applying code-like precision to complex legal challenges:

Key Projects by Industry/Topic#

Energy & Infrastructure 🔌#

  • Power Grid Refactoring — Advised ADB and other lenders on the refinancing of a power transmission line project in Cambodia, optimizing the legal architecture for better regulatory compliance

  • Solar Regulatory Framework — Engineered comprehensive legal solutions for rooftop solar regulations and carbon credit trading, ensuring international clients could successfully navigate Cambodia’s energy markets

  • Renewable Energy Portfolio — Led legal efforts in solar power plant acquisition and conducted technical feasibility studies for biomass power plant projects, expanding Cambodia’s clean energy capacity

  • Government Infrastructure — Performed legal assessment for a government logistics complex project, streamlining the regulatory approval workflow

Financial Services & Regulatory Compliance 📊#

  • FinTech Legal Architecture — Designed banking and finance regulatory frameworks for emerging FinTech companies, creating secure pathways for innovation within Cambodia’s financial sector

  • Bond Issuance Support — Provided critical legal backing for a guarantor in a bond issuance, ensuring successful market entry while maintaining regulatory compliance

  • Financial Documentation System — Standardized loan agreements and security documents across multiple institutions, optimizing legal efficiency while ensuring full regulatory adherence

Corporate Restructuring & Insolvency 🔄#

  • Bankruptcy Protocol Design — Architected a bankruptcy execution strategy including asset seizure and disposal procedures, bringing structure to chaotic insolvency processes

  • Financial Institution Restructuring — Developed a custom restructuring algorithm for a domestic financial institution, optimizing their corporate structure while minimizing regulatory friction

Investment & Acquisitions 💰#

  • Education Sector Acquisition API — Served as lead counsel in structuring the acquisition finance for transactions in the education sector, creating a reusable legal framework for future investments

  • Cement Factory Financing Framework — Designed specialized legal templates for a local cement factory, establishing systematic approaches to capital raising and operational financing

  • International M&A Support — Acted as local legal counsel for international financial investors, creating secure transaction pathways through Cambodia’s regulatory landscape

Legal System Development 📝#

  • Law on Secured Transactions Reform — Collaborated with World Bank consultants to propose modernizing modifications to Cambodia’s Law on Secured Transactions, enhancing the national legal framework

  • Financial Lease Templates — Engineered a comprehensive template system for a Cambodian financial lease company, standardizing previously inconsistent documentation

  • Legal Knowledge Management — Led initiatives to systematize legal documentation and establish best practices, treating legal precedent as reusable code components

Translation & Language Engineering (2006-2010)#

Built and maintained a multilingual translation ecosystem bridging Khmer and English across various domains:

  • Technical documentation localization for international organizations
  • Cross-cultural communication facilitation for development projects
  • Cultural nuance preservation in commercial and marketing materials
  • Legal terminology standardization between civil and common law concepts
  • Proofreading and quality assurance protocols for precision-critical content

Functioned as both technical lead and chief linguist, creating reusable translation memory databases and establishing glossaries that became de facto standards.

Explore my little legal-tech—including FTK Search and TTK Translation—on the Showcase page, where innovation meets practical legal solutions for Cambodia’s evolving legal landscape.

Tech Stack#

Human Languages 🗣️#

  • English (fluent)
  • Khmer (native)
  • Legal Jargon (unfortunately fluent)
  • Python (advanced kindergarten)
  • JavaScript (can copy-paste with the best of them)
  • CSS (enough to be dangerous)

Legal Frameworks & APIs 📚#

  • Banking & Finance Regulation (power user)
  • Contract Drafting & Negotiation (version 15.7.1)
  • Corporate Governance (admin privileges)
  • Secured Transactions (fully patched)
  • Regulatory Compliance (zero-day exploit finder)

Developer Tools 🛠️#

  • Migrating from DOCX to MD/JSON (legacy support maintained)
  • LexisNexis & Legal Research Databases (search wizard)
  • Contract Management Software (automation evangelist)
  • React (stackoverflow-dependent)
  • Git (mainly git-commit-and-pray)
  • VS Code (relationship status: it’s complicated)

Soft Skills as a Service 🤝#

  • Team Management (scrum master for legal sprints)
  • Client Communication (human-to-lawyer translator)
  • Problem-Solving (bug hunter)
  • Knowledge Sharing (documentation obsessed)
  • Mentoring (code review for contracts)

Education#

  • LL.M. in Private Law — Royal University of Law and Economics (2010–2012)
  • B.A. in Translation & Interpretation — Institute of Foreign Languages (2003–2007)
  • LL.B. in Law — Royal University of Law and Economics (2002–2006)

Current Status#

I’m currently operating at the intersection of legal precision and technological innovation—pursuing legal consulting work, in-house advisory roles, collaborations, and product-based projects that reimagine legal workflows in Cambodia. If you’re working on something cool and legal-adjacent, I’d love to hear about it. Let’s connect!