Legalprofession
The past 25 years, in particular the past decade, have witnessed a number of significant changes in the Vietnamese legal profession, most notably the parÂticipation of foreign lawyers in the legal market and the growth in the number of local lawyers.
These two factors have brought about both quantitative and qualitative changes for the overall legal profession. Both are addressed below.5.1 Foreignlawyers
Foreign lawyers have been present in Vietnam since the early days of the Doi Moi policy. As early as 1995, several international firms had set up representative offices in Vietnam, including Clifford Chance, White & Case, Baker & McKenzie, Freshfields, and Phillips Fox. These representative offices were converted into branches in 1996. These branches were first allowed to advise on matters other than Vietnamese law. A few years later, they were allowed to recruit Vietnamese lawyers and advise on both foreign law and Vietnamese law.
At the moment, there are about 40 foreign law firms in operation in Vietnam, including major international and regional firms such as Lovells, Freshfields, Baker & McKenzie, Allens Arthur Robinson and smaller firms from neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Korea, as well as from European countries. Most of them have offices in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The major firms typically employ about 10 lawyers in each office while the smaller ones may have between two and five lawyers in each office. Foreign law firms mainly service a clientele of foreign companies investing or trading in Vietnam. They only conduct advisory and transactional work and are not permitted to appear before Vietnamese courts. Each foreign lawyer practising in Vietnam must be licensed by the Ministry of Justice but this is merely a formality.
The presence and operation of foreign law firms in Vietnam have had a remarkÂably positive impact on the local legal profession.
Originally, they were not allowed to employ Vietnamese lawyers. Nevertheless, they employed a number of law graduates (who had not been qualified as lawyers). These law graduÂates were trained by foreign lawyers and were exposed to legal services renÂdered at international standards. Subsequently, foreign firms were allowed to employ Vietnamese lawyers to advise on questions of Vietnamese law. This gave Vietnamese lawyers opportunities to experience legal work conducted by international firms, exposing them to the type and quality of service that internaÂtional lawyers are expected to provide. The participation of the foreign lawyers in the Vietnamese market significantly raised the level of expectation by the community, in particular the business community, of the legal profession. The knowledge, skills and quality of lawyers are now measured against a high, interÂnational standard. This has had a fundamental impact on the development of the local legal profession. A demonstration of this is the fact that a number of Vietnamese lawyers who were ex-employees of foreign law firms have now established very successful Vietnamese law firms, which are likely to lead an important segment of the local legal profession, as outlined below.5.2 Locallawyers
Vietnam currently has about 8000 local lawyers in practice, mostly concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This is still a rather small number, given that Vietnam has over 20 law training institutions which together produce about 14000 law graduates a year. It is also a small number considering that these lawyers serve a population of nearly 90 million people.
To be qualified as a lawyer, law graduates have to be admitted to a provincial Bar association, following four years at law school, six months of training at the Judicial Academy and 18 months of practical training at a law firm. There are some special cases of exemption from this requirement, including former judges, law professors or those holding doctoral degrees in law.[486] After being admitted, local lawyers often work for a law company or law office.
A law comÂpany is an incorporated entity either in the form of a limited liability company or a partnership with unlimited liability. A law office is opened and operated by one lawyer in a form similar to a sole trader, also with unlimited liability. The numbers of lawyers, law companies and law offices have increased quite signifiÂcantly over the past 10 years. For example, Hanoi had 28 lawyers in 1987, 93 in 2001, 633 in 2006 and 1313 in 2009. Ho Chi Minh City now has 2861 lawyers working in almost 700 law companies and offices, and in branches of foreign law firms.[487]Nevertheless, it has been publicly acknowledged that Vietnam does not yet have enough lawyers capable of defending the interests of Vietnamese parties in the international market. This is true. Vietnamese businesses and even the Vietnamese Government have often had to engage foreign lawyers to repreÂsent them in dealing with foreign partners or appearing before international tribunals. This is mainly due to the quality of the legal education system, the current legal market and the yet-to-be-developed habit of using lawyers in the community.
While the society and the legal system of Vietnam have changed significantly over the past 25 years, legal training institutions have not been so dynamic.[488] So far, there is no competition in legal training. All legal training institutions are state-run. They operate according to criteria and standards set by the state. Private universities are not allowed to offer legal training. Consequently, there is a high degree of inertia in all law schools, with no motives for change. Further, the materials, curricula and teaching style in all law schools are out of date and no longer conducive to training lawyers for a globalised market economy. The curricula are set by the Government (either the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Education) and do not necessarily reflect the demands of the current legal market.
Traditionally, lawyers in Vietnam are seen only as those who know and can explain legislation to citizens. Therefore, legal education still involves a lot of one-way lecturing and rote learning with little critical discussion or original thinking. After four years in law school, law graduates know by heart a number of laws but find it difficult to identify or discuss legal issues that arise from such legal instruments. With the increasing transparency and availability of laws, knowing just the law alone is not sufficient to add any real value. Students are not exposed to the reality of legal practice and consequently have little idea of what is expected of lawyers in practice.In the meantime, law firms, especially major ones, have become a rigorous training ground for Vietnamese lawyers, having a very positive impact on the legal profession, independent of the law schools. As mentioned above, foreign law firms have played an important role in training Vietnamese lawyers. Over the past decade, a number of Vietnamese lawyers have left foreign firms to establish their own firms. As these lawyers have the knowledge and skills necÂessary to serve clients in international transactions, their firms quickly grow and have become capable of rendering quality services at reasonable costs. These firms include VILAF, YKVN, Vision and some other local firms. Such positive effect is being multiplied by these firms recruiting new law gradÂuates who continue to receive strong training and become lawyers of high standards.
But training offered by only a small number of law firms will not be enough to create a substantial change in the local legal profession. The entire VietÂnamese legal education system must change itself in order to become capable of producing lawyers that the current market needs. This author sees at least three changes as necessary. First, private universities, including foreign univerÂsities, should be allowed to offer legal training in Vietnam. This will create more opportunities for Vietnamese law students and at the same time motivate the state-run universities to change themselves to catch up with the market. SecÂond, there needs to be a fundamental change in the way law is taught. Lawyers must be trained to identify issues and think for themselves, rather than engage passively in rote learning. This requires retraining of the legal academics and a change in the teaching and learning methodology. Third, there should be more interaction between law firms and law schools such that law schools engage with the real world and inform themselves of the needs of the market so that they can produce lawyers as the market requires. If these changes are impleÂmented, they will have strong positive impact on the legal profession and the legal system as a whole. Recently a Vice Minister of Justice was appointed the head of Hanoi Law University, which brings some hope that changes are on the horizon.
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