Desmond has operated and owned his own law firm in Thailand for 20 years. He has been an owner and Senior Partner of Hughes Krupica for 10 years. During that time Desmond has been responsible for ensuring that the legal teams working with and for him are paid, motivated, trained and provide value to clients.

Desmond has always retained his real estate practitioner skills and can assist developers with start to finish legal structuring and legal sales contract structures with tailored advice on complex regulatory issues often found in mixed use developments. Desmond will often assist with the full range of sales and disposals of real estate by one off or serial property investors. Desmond’s client base in real estate ranges from high net worth individuals including Forbes List clients to holiday maker turned property investors.

Desmond has spoken prolifically at events across Asia including numerous international arbitration events and also property events in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Phuket.

He has also spoken in other forums in relation to hospitality sector legal and commercial issues, dispute resolution, real estate and asset management.

Desmond organises various presentations in arbitration and dispute resolution further to his involvement in the dispute resolution community.

Desmond invested in a one location small law firm in Bangkok in 2003 and then oversaw and led that firm through a management, client service and location transformation into a regional 5 office law firm with over 70 staff. Desmond sold his stake to his existing partners in 2013 and subsequently launched Hughes Krupica with Robert Krupica and Pongsak Daengkaew who both left Desmond’s former firm with him.

Desmond extensively knows the weaknesses and strengths of different operational management systems and strategies in law firms in the region and has applied his learning to the ongoing development of Hughes Krupica’s systems and market position.

Desmond sat on the board of directors of the management company at Trisara for approximately 8 years, which was responsible for the asset management of villas and interaction with the hotel operations, budget and performance measurements, employment of staff and allocation of resources. Desmond oversaw with key owner input the transformation of the management structure to an ‘umbrella structure’ across all phases of the project, merging contractual and legal frameworks to accommodate the change.

Desmond invested in Ensign Media in 2010 which was the owner of the Thailand Property Awards and the Property Report a Regional Asia property industry business to business and business to consumer magazine. Ensign, under the leadership of the CEO, Terry Blackburn, went on to develop into a strong regional Awards Event business with Awards taking place in almost every important property destination in Asia. This business was sold for an undisclosed sum to Property Guru in 2016. Property Guru subsequently became a client of Hughes Krupica, indicating post-transaction success, which Desmond had handled.

Desmond has overseen large-scale hotel investment acquisitions and disposals requiring precise coordinated management of his legal team for due diligence and use of his own contract skills in relation to the full set of agreements ranging from letters of intent; full share or asset sale and purchase agreements; hotel management agreements and the finance and security agreements when bank leverage is involved. Desmond applies his corporate and commercial skills when joint ventures are involved which often require a strong but levelheadedness to manage and a local knowledge of cultural issues which can affect a deal.

Desmond has invested in medical tech start-ups; overseen the tech-formation of Hughes Krupica and implemented various tech systems and applications to improve working practices. He also built the firm’s website, his own personal website and once worked with a developer on an app for predicting litigation fees in Thailand. Desmond embraces new modern tech tools and enjoys the philosophy behind tech and artificial intelligence policies.