When lockdown emptied Litsan Chong‘s diary, she did not use the time to take a course or make sourdough. She started to sell socks.
The idea came from her own frustration. The law graduate was training in functional fitness seriously, including rope climbs, which will take the skin off your shins if you’re not covered, and she could not find socks that survived it.
She liked socks. She owned a lot of socks. But almost none of them were built for training.
So she built the ones that were. Then she moved to Sweden, where her husband is from, and spent months driving from gym to gym selling them in person.
She was away from her law career for three years. When a football law opportunity appeared, she came back — but she didn’t put the socks down.
Today, she splits her time between Gameplan Legal, a football law firm in Bangkok, and an e-commerce brand that still sells across Europe, run by a team eight hours behind her.
University of Surrey law graduate Litsan Chong now practises football law in Bangkok. Source: Litsan Chong
About Litsan Chong
Nationality: Malaysian
Current residence: Thailand
Programme: Master of Laws (LLM), International and European Law
University: University of Surrey (LLB), Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (LLM)
Occupation: Lawyer for players, agents, clubs, and federations across Southeast Asia and beyond. Handles player contracts, cross-border transfers, FIFA proceedings, CAS arbitration, sponsorship, talent management, and anti-doping matters.
The following interview has been edited for clarity.
How has sport and fitness shaped the way you handle high-pressure legal work?
They go hand in hand, because being very committed to sports and fitness has also helped me grow as a person and build my character. It has made me much more resilient, self-disciplined, and committed. The discipline that sport requires has really shaped me.
Those skills transfer directly to being a lawyer, especially in a high-pressure environment. So, I’m just really lucky to be able to do both.
Law graduate Litsan Chong is passionate about fitness and sports. Source: Litsan Chong
How do you juggle both passions day-to-day when each demands serious commitment?
By the time I came back to law, the company was more stable, so I didn’t need to spend as much time on it as I did at the beginning, when I was working on it full-time. Now it’s more like 80–20, but before it was closer to 50–50.
It’s very doable because I work with a team in Sweden. I have a few employees there, and the time difference actually works in my favour — when I ask them to do something, they work on it during their day, and by the next morning, I can review it.
The time difference between Bangkok and Sweden means the business is running while I’m asleep, and my legal work is running while they are awake.
How do you decide when to lean into a passion versus scale it back?
Well, I listen to my heart. Right now, I feel like Gameplan Legal is one that requires my focus, so I’m putting most of my energy into it.
I used to be quite competitive in CrossFit and competed in the sport. So, I naturally spent more time in the gym and in that fitness environment. But two years ago, I got pregnant and had my son — he’s now 27 months old. Because of family commitments, I also spend less time in the gym.
So, it’s all happened quite naturally. I’ve scaled back on the fitness side and moved more into corporate work, like legal work.
From law graduate to lawyer for football players and clubs in Southeast Asia. Source: Litsan Chong
What would you say to professionals who feel locked into a single, linear career path?
First of all, I’d tell them not to stress because everyone’s journey is different and there’s no single way to succeed. I know the traditional path is quite linear — you study law, do your chambering in Malaysia, become a lawyer in a firm, and then maybe work your way up to becoming a partner. That’s the conventional route.
But now, with AI and rapid technological advancement, many jobs may disappear or change significantly. I’m not sure lawyers are completely safe either.
At the same time, AI means you can do far more than before. For instance, you could have three or four different careers instead of just one, like it used to be. So, I don’t think it’s a single or linear path anymore.
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