Vietnam Law Firm Awards

A&O Shearman, through its Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City offices, has established itself as a leading law firm in Vietnam for offering Vietnamese and international law advice for corporate and M&A, international capital markets, banking and finance, projects and real estate. The firm boasts a team of international and Vietnamese lawyers on the ground who advise a wide range of clients, including world-renowned corporations, financial institutions and private equity firms, on domestic and cross-border transactions.

A&O Shearman’s Vietnam offices are headed by managing partner Tina LeDinh, who has 15 years of experience in Vietnam advising on M&A, private equity, joint ventures and international capital markets. LeDinh works alongside senior lawyers in the two offices including senior partner Duc Tran, who has more than 25 years of legal practice advising multinational and domestic clients on project finance, banking and corporate law. Over the years, Tran has acted on some of the largest transactions and projects in Vietnam such as the USD1.2 billion establishment of Thu Thiem Observation Tower and the USD4.8 billion acquisition of Vietnam’s largest brewer, Sabeco.

Baker McKenzie has been serving international and Vietnamese clients in Vietnam since 1993, operating offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with a large team of domestic and international lawyers. Led by partner and managing lawyer Oanh Nguyen, who has been practising capital markets, banking and finance, M&A and commercial law for more than 25 years, Baker McKenzie Vietnam has developed expertise in a wide range of areas. These include M&A, capital markets, infrastructure projects, restructuring, insolvency and renewable energy projects. Additionally, the firm’s lawyers have been active in the drafting process of laws in areas of legal reform such as investment, corporate and M&A, intellectual property, energy and competition.

As the head of Baker McKenzie Vietnam, Nguyen has advised on some of the largest transactions in the country, including acting for Singha Asia in its USD1.1 billion investment in Masan in the food, beverage and brewery business, and assisting SK Holdings in its USD1 billion investment in publicly listed Vingroup. Additionally, Nguyen has advised the State Securities Commission and the Economic Committee of the National Assembly on the Securities Law, the Enterprise Law and the Investment Law.

YKVN, founded in 1999, is one of Vietnam’s largest law firms with more than 90 legal professionals across three offices in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore. Run by managing partner Truong Nhat Quang, YKVN boasts a deep bench of experienced partners including Singapore-based senior partner Minh Dang, who has more than 40 years of experience and previously headed the Southeast Asia corporate practice of DLA Piper and the Vietnam practice of White & Case.

As a full-service firm, YKVN has frequently won mandates from Vietnamese and international corporations for large-scale domestic and cross-border deals. Such transactions include advising Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank on the USD1.4 billion sale of a 49% stake in VPBank Finance to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. In a separate cross-border transaction, the firm acted as lead counsel to Vingroup in its sale of a 6.1% stake to South Korea’s SK Group under a strategic partnership established between the two conglomerates. Under the partnership, SK Group acquired USD1 billion worth of primary and secondary shares of Vingroup.

Established in 2003, IDVN Lawyers is led by founder and managing partner Dinh Anh Tuyet, who has more than 25 years of legal experience practising in Vietnam and abroad. Based in Hanoi, the boutique law firm specialises in international trade and customs, dispute resolution, corporate, M&A and investment, as well as antitrust and competition. Dinh is a commercial and litigation lawyer with experience in domestic and international arbitration as well as mediation, while being the first generation of Vietnamese lawyers whose practice covers corporate consulting and international investment. Besides advising foreign and Vietnamese clients on M&A transactions and investment projects, Dinh has regularly represented Vietnamese state bodies and businesses in trade remedy and WTO lawsuits.

Nguyen Phuong Thao, a partner in the firm’s international trade practice, has more than 10 years of experience advising clients on trade remedy proceedings, including anti-dumping and anti-circumvention. She has represented companies in industries from steel to manufacturing in Vietnam and other Asian countries, including South Korea and China. Nguyen also specialises in defending the Vietnamese and foreign governments in anti-subsidy investigations.

ALV Lawyers Law Firm is a Hanoi-based dispute resolution boutique law firm founded by director and managing partner Duong Quoc Thanh, focusing on alternative dispute resolution and litigation along with investment and general corporate matters.

Duong, a former Hanoi court judge, has been a disputes lawyer in private practice for more than 16 years and an arbitrator at the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre. Over the years, he has taken part in several high-profile court cases including those relating to the Vietnam Social Security agency.

Charles Crumpton, a mediator and arbitrator at Crumpton Collaborative Solutions in the US, speaks highly of the firm. “In my 46 years of experience as a mediator, arbitrator and litigation attorney, and my 16 years of experience with mediation and arbitration in Vietnam,” says Crumpton, Duong Quoc Thanh of ALV Lawyers is one of two lawyers he regards as “without question lawyers, mediators and arbitrators of the highest ability, knowledge, integrity and character of any lawyers I know of in Vietnam.”

LNT & Partners is one of the largest full-service independent Vietnamese law firms, specialising in advisory and transactional work in fields such as M&A, competition, real estate, finance and dispute resolution. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, the firm has been advising both domestic and multinational clients including Vietnam-listed enterprises and Fortune Global 500 companies. Energy has been an active practice area for the firm, which has advised on some of the largest deals in the country. It has advised PetroVietnam on the construction of Long Phu Thermal Power Plant, valued at USD1.6 billion, and assisted Liebherr GMBH in settling disputes arising from construction accidents relating to the USD3.5 billion Son La Hydro Powerplant project in Lai Chau province.

In a separate transaction, LNT & Partners acted as joint legal counsel with Yulchon in advising Hanwha Group’s landmark USD1.5 billion acquisition of shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. The firm led the Vietnam antitrust workstream of the deal.

With offices in Hanoi and Saigon, ANHISA Law Firm is a boutique shipping, aviation and alternative dispute resolution law firm headed by managing partner Dang Viet Anh, who has been practising as a barrister for more than 21 years with cases in sectors including aviation, shipping and insurance. In particular, Dang is renowned for his expertise in advising on admiralty cases involving collision, salvage and wreck removal and grounding.

ANHISA has, over the years, represented airlines and other major players in the aviation industry in all forms of disputes and incidents, with its expertise covering areas from aviation financing, insurance and reinsurance to charters and leasing, as well as crisis planning and casualty response.

Dzungsrt & Associates is a boutique shipping and alternative dispute resolution firm with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, serving both international and domestic clients in shipping, commerce, insurance and dispute resolution since 1994.

Nguyen Manh Dzung, the senior partner of Dzungsrt & Associates, has more than 30 years of legal experience assisting clients in settling maritime, commercial and investment disputes through domestic litigation and international arbitration. He is also the first Vietnamese member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Court of International Arbitration and ICC Taskforce on ADR and Arbitration.

EPLegal is a Vietnamese law firm headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, with operations in Hanoi and Danang, as well as a UK office in Birmingham. As a firm with global reach, it specialises in cross-border matters including aviation, dispute resolution, M&A energy, shipping, banking and finance.

Headed by founding partner Tony Nguyen, EPLegal boasts a clientele consisting of major domestic and international companies, including state-owned PetroVietnam Gas Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Vietjet Air.

As a leading full-service law firm in Vietnam, Rajah & Tann LCT Lawyers was formed in 2014, following the establishment of an alliance between Vietnamese law firm LCT Lawyers and Singapore’s Rajah & Tann. With offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which are headed by managing partner Chau Huy Quang, the firm has developed a strong reputation for its expertise in practice areas including banking, finance, litigation and tax.

A noteworthy area of growth is aviation, where the firm has made significant strides with the hiring of international aviation veteran Paul Ng as head of the firm’s aviation practice in Singapore last year. With more than 30 years of practice experience in aviation, Ng was previously a partner at Milbank in Singapore and led its aviation and asset finance practice in Asia. The Singapore-based partner is no stranger to the aviation industry in Vietnam, having acted on VietJet’s USD9 billion acquisition of 92 Airbus aircraft, and USD800 million order for CFM engines. He also acted on Vietjet’s IPO, which was Vietnam’s first internationally marketed and largest public share sale on the Vietnam stock exchange.

Dentons LuatViet was formed in 2022 as a combination between global law firm Dentons and Vietnamese peer LuatViet, which was founded in the late 1990s. Headed by managing partner Tran Duy Canh, who has been in legal practice for 23 years focusing on M&A and dispute resolution, Dentons LuatViet has been serving both international and domestic clients from its Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi offices.

Dentons LuaViet has established itself as a go-to legal adviser on banking and finance matters, regularly advising banks in Vietnam as well as international financial institutions with frequent transactions with businesses and financial organisations in the country. Led by senior partners such as Tran and senior partner Eva Szurminska Jaworska, the firm has been active in providing legal advice to clients on their commercial strategies, including the registration of foreign loans and security transactions, as well as the arrangement of project funding and syndicated loans.

Max Leung, deputy head of sales at Silverafi JSC in Vietnam, says of his experience: “They offered personalised investment strategies tailored to our risk tolerance and financial goals, ensuring optimal portfolio management.”

Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Asia Counsel Vietnam Law Company Limited is a Vietnamese law firm that specialises in areas including banking and finance, commercial, energy, infrastructure M&A and technology. Equipped with more than 20 Vietnamese and foreign lawyers, it is led by managing partner Minh Duong. The firm recently became a sister Vietnamese law firm of Kinstellar, a full-service law firm in central and eastern Europe and central Asia with offices in 11 jurisdictions.

Asia Counsel Vietnam Law Company Limited has been active in competition and antitrust advisory work. In the past year, the firm has advised a major Southeast Asian wind energy developer on a transaction involving more than USD30 million in equity investment and an additional commitment of up to USD110 million for project capital expenditure by a European renewable energy company. The deal required multiple merger filings in Vietnam for a series of related transactions that took place concurrently. In the M&A space, the firm played a lead role in assisting the shareholders of a Vietnamese dairy products wholesaler in seeking merger clearance with the National Competition Committee in Hanoi for their sale of a 100% equity interest to a major Japan-listed company.

DN Legal was established in 2014 by founding partner Dao Nguyen, who previously served as Vietnam office managing partner for Mayer Brown and A&O Shearman. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, DN Legal has successfully won mandates for lead counsel roles in competition and antitrust cases, including acting for IFF Holdings throughout the process of filing the economic concentration notification with the Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority. DN Legal succeeded in helping IFF Holdings secure a clearance decision for a USD64 million transaction. It also played a pivotal role in advising AerCap Holdings NV during its landmark USD24 billion global acquisition of GECAS in 2021.

Led by managing partner Pham Nghiem Xuan Bac, who has 35 years of legal advisory and business experience, Vision & Associates is staffed with more than 90 lawyers, patent and trademark attorneys, and consultants. With offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the firm boasts 24 years of experience advising clients including regional and global brands such as LG Electronics, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Tencent and Sony, on the full life of an investment project or enterprise in Vietnam, from establishment to exit.

A key area that Vision & Associates focuses on is competition and restrictive trade, covering matters such as price fixing, refusal to supply and distribution arrangements. Additionally, the firm has been advising clients on trade practices compliance and M&A, which involves conducting dominance and concentration analyses.

Phuoc & Partners, an independent law and consulting firm, was founded in 2003 by Nguyen Huu Phuoc, an experienced attorney in tax, labour and employment law. With more than 20 years of operation, the firm has come to be acknowledged for its expertise in labour and employment, tax, litigation, real estate, banking and finance, as well as M&A. It is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City with offices in Hanoi and Danang.

The firm runs a robust corporate governance and legal compliance group, consisting of a team of experts in corporate law, corporate governance law and compliance legal risk. Together, they advise personnel including directors and managers at domestic and foreign-owned enterprises on complying with statutory obligations in Vietnam.

As the first law firm to have received a foreign law company licence in Vietnam, Frasers Law Company has, in the past 30 years, grown into a leading independent law firm offering legal services in 17 practice areas and industries. Equipped with a team of Vietnamese and foreign lawyers, including founding managing partner Mark Fraser with 30 years of legal practice in Vietnam, Frasers has been advising domestic and foreign clients from its offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The firm has also recently added to its senior legal team partner Gwendoline Brooker, an energy specialist and previously a senior disputes adviser at TotalEnergies.

The firm’s corporate and M&A team provides legal and commercial advice in Vietnamese and foreign laws to companies in a broad range of industries including education, financial services, insurance, manufacturing and telecoms. It previously acted as Vietnam counsel advising one of Australia’s largest listed building material companies on a merger control notification in Vietnam, and has also provided Vietnam competition law advice to Japan’s largest steel manufacturer for a proposed acquisition of a strategic minority stake in Vietnam.

KPMG Law, led by partner and head of infrastructure Richard Stapley-Oh, offers a broad range of legal services in areas including corporate and commercial law, M&A, restructuring, liquidation and tax law. In December 2022, KPMG Law merged with regional law firm ZICO Law to strengthen its legal services throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition to its worldwide expertise in tax, KPMG Law has been active in assisting clients in data compliance and cybersecurity measures in Vietnam. In particular, the firm has been advising companies and organisations on how to mitigate risks of non-compliance with Vietnam’s data privacy and protection laws. Such laws include the personal data protection decree, network information security regulations and industry-specific network information security regulations.

Bangkok-based Tilleke & Gibbins has been serving clients on the ground in Vietnam since 1992, when it became the first foreign law firm in the country to be licensed to open a representative office. With offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the firm is now one of the largest and most well-known in the country, providing a full range of corporate legal services.

Led by Hanoi-based counsel Waewpen Piemwichai, the firm’s TMT practice in Vietnam has been active in advising clients on matters such as data privacy and security. It has advised clients on the Personal Data Protection Decree, which took effect in July 2023. At that time, the country conducted its first private data protection decree (PDPD) compliance investigation, despite having not issued a decree on sanction provisions for non-compliance with the PDPD. The inspection covered companies in 14 sectors, including e-commerce, aviation, banking and finance, ride-hailing and healthcare.

Allens, in alliance with Linklaters, was one of the first foreign law firms to be licensed to operate in Vietnam following the country’s opening in 1993. With offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the Australian firm has, in the past three decades, acted on some of Vietnam’s largest projects and commercial transactions.

As one of the firm’s core areas of strength, Allens has been actively involved in the energy, resources and infrastructure sectors in Vietnam. Recently, it advised Mitsui Oil Exploration on its investment in the Vietnam Block B Gas Project, the largest gas-to-power project in Vietnam to date. In 2021, it also advised Iberdrola, a global energy leader, on its acquisition of two Vietnamese subsidiaries of German renewable energy group Sowitec.

Founded in 2016, Lexcomm Vietnam is a full-service commercial law firm with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In Vietnam, the firm has recognised expertise in energy and natural resources, as well as projects and infrastructure, project finance and public-private partnerships, among others.

The firm’s dedicated group of specialist energy lawyers is one of the most experienced in the country. Managing partner Pham Ba Linh heads the firm’s energy, infrastructure and project finance group in the Ho Chi Minh City office, while partners Nguyen Viet Ha and Nguyen Hong Hai are both key contacts for the firm’s energy group in the Hanoi office.

ASL Law was established by lawyer Pham Duy Khuong, the firm’s managing partner, who has more than 17 years of legal experience in franchise and IP, corporate law, trade remedies, anti-dumping and countervailing. The firm has been active in the entertainment and sports space, having advised a US company on legal action against media outlets in Vietnam for a football-related copyright violation.

Established in 2014, ATS Lawyers is headquartered in Hanoi with an office in Ho Chi Minh City, regularly advising on investment, corporate M&A, human resources management, taxation and litigation. It has, in the past decade, assisted international and domestic clients in sectors including real estate, trade, project finance and energy.

ATS Lawyers has also been active in the entertainment space. For example, it assisted LotteCinema Vietnam, which operates 40 theatres in the country, in protecting its legitimate rights and interests to two premises lease contracts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. LotteCinema Vietnam requested that the lessor refund the rent that it had paid during the shutdown due to the covid-19 pandemic, and reduce the monthly rent due to low occupancy rate and other changes.

DNA Vietnam is a boutique corporate law firm that specialises in advising on foreign investment and operations of business entities in Vietnam, with its areas of practice consisting of corporate, M&A, TMT, commerce, banking and finance. Clients served by the firm are active in industries including retail, financial services and infrastructure development.

Led by founder and chairman Chi Lieu Dang and founder and managing partner Thanh Son Dang, DNA Vietnam has been active in advising companies on the evolving regulatory landscape concerning fintech development in Vietnam. The firm’s advice covers matters including the development of digital cross-border payments, challenges facing payment organisations in Vietnam, and the adoption of potential regulatory policies by the government to promote e-payment business.

Established in 2006, Indochine Counsel has more than 45 lawyers and staff across two offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The firm serves a diverse range of clients ranging from multinational corporations, foreign investors, financial institutions to asset management companies and securities firms.

Indochine Counsel was ranked by Asia Business Law Journal for its outstanding performance in the field of fintech under the Vietnam Law Firm Awards 2023. The firm regularly advises clients on fintech-related legislation, including the Vietnam government’s issuance of Resolution 100 in 2021, approving the prior proposal of the State Bank of Vietnam for developing a decree on a regulatory sandbox for fintech.

As one of the first international law firms to launch in Vietnam, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which runs offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, has been serving global and domestic clients on the ground since 1994. Led by managing partner Tony Foster, who has lived and practised in Hanoi since opening the firm’s offices in 1994, Freshfields has now a 30-year track record of advising on areas including infrastructure, with leading roles in different projects from power to airports.

The UK-based firm has made a mark in Vietnam by winning mandates for some of the landmark projects in the country, including advising on the largest build-operate-transfer project development and financing in the power sector. It has also worked on multiple solar and wind projects in Vietnam at different stages of development, as well as the financing and restructuring of two of the country’s leading port projects.

Based in Ho Chi Minh City, ACSV Legal is a Vietnamese law firm that specialises in corporate and M&A with extensive experience in private equity transactions. Led by founder and managing partner Mark Oakley, who was previously a special counsel at Duane Morris Vietnam and a solicitor at Trowers & Hamlins, ACSV Legal has advised clients on matters in a wide range of sectors and industries including healthcare, beauty, pharmaceutical and technology.

Equipped with a team of experienced lawyers qualified in both civil and common law jurisdictions including Vietnam, the UK and Germany, the Ho Chi Minh City-based firm has advised not only foreign companies investing in Vietnam through M&A, but has also represented clients in insolvency and winding-up proceedings to restructure their debt and asset portfolios.

Founded in 2002, Bizconsult, led by managing partner Nguyen Anh Tuan with 35 years of legal practice, has built a strong reputation for its expertise in practice areas including corporate and commercial, M&A, finance, banking, capital markets and dispute resolution.

Bizconsult, which runs offices in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, has also been advising companies on restructuring matters in addition to other practice areas including M&A, private equity, corporate and commercial transactions. Le Hong Phong, an equity partner at the firm with more than 20 years of professional experience, specialises in corporate restructuring as an area of focus for his practice alongside cross-border investment projects, corporate and commercial transactions and M&A, among others.

Ageless IP Attorneys & Consultants has, since its establishment in 2001, grown into one of the leading IP firms with offices in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. The firm is led by managing partner Nguyen Duc Xuan, the firm’s founder, with more than 25 years of experience in IP law and a particular focus on IP infringement prosecution, appeal, investigation and litigation.

As one of the country’s top five IP firms, Ageless IP Attorneys & Consultants has represented clients in handling various IP litigation matters including 30 infringement cases and 105 complaints last year.

UK-based international IP firm Rouse first established its practice in Vietnam in the late 1990s. It now has offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with a total staff of more than 50 people including Vietnamese and foreign lawyers together with patent and trademark attorneys.

With its Vietnam offices also running a team managing IP issues in Laos, Rouse focuses on core services including trademark and patent prosecution, litigation and administrative enforcement as well as commercial advice. Besides acting on all aspects of IP registration, acquisition and commercialisation, the firm has litigation and enforcement teams advising on cases from brand protection to high-technology patent and pharmaceutical enforcement.

Founded in 2008 following the merger of two law offices and consulting companies in Vietnam, Bross & Partners has a team of more than 30 lawyers, legal experts, legal assistants and consultants across offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. With intellectual property law being the core strength of the firm, it has been advising clients on both IP rights establishment and litigation concerning patent, trademark, copyright and domain names before courts and IP enforcement agencies.

Besides representing clients in IP disputes, Bross & Partners also handles cases on the infringement of trademark, counterfeit goods, design and patent.

IPMax Law Firm has been offering IP law services in Vietnam since 2010. It is led by managing partner Son Doan, who has more than 25 years of experience practising IP law in Vietnam and was a former deputy country manager at UK international IP firm Rouse. With offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the firm advises on IP matters including dispute resolution and enforcement of IP rights, and registration of licensing and franchising agreements.

IPMax Law Firm has extensive experience advising on the prosecution of applications for patent at the National Office of Intellectual Property in Vietnam, as well as prosecuting applications for trademark and copyright registrations.

Founded in 2011, Le & Tran is a Ho Chi Minh-based law firm in Vietnam led by Stephen Le, a senior trial lawyer with extensive experience in litigation, arbitration and criminal defence. Since its establishment, the firm has come to be known as one of the top civil and business litigation law firms in Vietnam.

In addition to Le, the firm’s team of senior lawyers includes Chad Meek, who is a California state-licensed attorney with more than 20 years of litigation experience and expertise in cross-border matters between the US and Vietnam. As one of the firm’s founding members, Katherine Tran serves as a tax partner at the firm with deep knowledge of Vietnamese tax law and corporate finance and has been leading the tax litigation team for more than a decade.

Since 1995, DFDL has been advising on both domestic and international legal and tax matters from its offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. For close to 30 years, DFDL has represented Asia investors, including global financial institutions, in major projects in Vietnam such as those relating to power and real estate. The firm has also been active in the M&A space, having advised Softbank on the Thai and Vietnamese aspects of its USD1.5 billion investment into Grab, a Singapore-based multinational ride-hailing company.