Watson Farley axes Bangkok trainee secondment

The firm has had to close its Bangkok office since Monday in response to anti-government protests in the city and is currently looking for temporary accommodation.

Louise Turgoose, the firm’s graduate recruitment manager, said: “We’d obviously been keeping an eye on what’s been happening in Bangkok and since the situation escalated we decided it wouldn’t be fair to ask someone to go over there, especially being completely new to the country. So the trainee will go to Singapore instead and is likely to move to Bangkok when it’s safer to do so.”

The firm has offered to evacuate trainee Gordon Blakeway who is currently finishing off his final week in Bangkok but the would-be lawyer has declined the proposal, opting instead to stay until their seat officially ends. Blakeway recently sent Lawyer2B.com a postcard from Bangkok describing the situation in the Thai capital but since his article was publised the situation as worsened (read more).

The redshirts have been protesting in Bangkok since 14 March. They are currently occupying the shopping district, forcing the area’s luxury hotels and shops to close.

The protesters are a loose coalition of left-wing activists, democracy campaigners and mainly rural supporters of ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra who has lived overseas since he was convicted of a conflict of interest.

They are demanding fresh polls claiming the government - which came to power through a parliamentary deal rather than an election - is illegitimate.