Local law firms in Vietnam

Vietnam opening door policy conditions along with Ministry of Justice’s strategic programs in the training of lawyers can help local law firms in Vietnam to achieve their target: Existence and strong development in a competitive environment.

The integration and opening of legal service market has posed significant challenges and pressures to survive and grow well for Vietnam local law firms. This is especially important when the legal market currently has the participation of international lawyers and international law firms in Vietnam are licensed; meanwhile the competitiveness of Vietnam lawyers and local law firms is quite modest in some areas.

Generations of inherited lawyers are the decisive factor in the successful development of a Vietnam law firm. Young Vietnamese lawyers are gradually reaching qualifications and skills to practice at a level that can compete with international colleagues. According to the report 46/BC-BTP on summarizing 5 year implementation of Attorney Law, there are nearly 1,600 lawyers practicing organization across the country, putting the number of lawyer practicing organizations from 1,300 in 2006 to 2,831in 2011 (up 217.8%), including 2,052 law offices, 779 law firms and 104 lawyers registered to practice as individuals. The number of lawyers is on the rise, coupled with tremendous expertise and fully trained.

Despite the Scheme 123’s evaluation of Ministry of Justice, lawyers who have been working in the complex commercial transactions related to foreign elements or international stature was relatively modest, the number of statistics also partly shows that the potential development of Vietnam lawyers. The scheme also mentioned the cause of these weaknesses; the most striking was that programs, contents, bachelor of law training methods in Vietnam was quite limited, inappropriate with practical requirements. Some lawyers are not trained in skills practice, along with the ability to communicate in English and English legal practice was not equivalent, though English proficiency is important in legal drafting. However, with changes in structure and training, lawyers in Vietnam will certainly meet requirements and challenges in the near future.

As can be seen, the number of lawyers practicing organizations in Vietnam strongly increased, yet they have not gathered together in large law firms with professionalism. The success of Vietnam law firm certainly does not depend on the individual's outstanding but the rhythmic combination together under the coordination of the orchestra. The problem is how “stars” could sit together and found a conductor to combine the strength of individuals each. Notably, VILAF, YKVN just do it and gain the certain success. They gather a team of 10 lawyers and an elite army of 50 lawyers, specialists, lawyer assistants. Luat Viet Indochine Counsel, LCT lawyers, Phuoc & Partners also remain ambition to become a professional company with their strong teams.

The key issue is to improve the quality of services and the Vietnamese law firm should have long-term plans for gradually improving service quality. If they can do it by themselves, that is actually fantastic. If not, they must think about hiring outside, or cooperate with an international law firm in Vietnam to achieve this purpose. Vietnam opening door policy conditions together with Scheme 123, 544 of Ministry of Justice or in the form of public investment - Public Private Partnership in the training of lawyers can help law firms in Vietnam to achieve their target: Existence and strong development in a competitive environment.