How Do Enterprises Benefit from Legal Consultancy Services?

Having developed since 2000, just four years after the Law on Foreign Investment took effect, and having witnessed a strong development since 2002-2003, legal consultancy services have become well known to many enterprises. Many private companies each month spend amount equal to salary of three or four staff members to have a safety in their legal documents.

 

In its early years, director of Tan The Ky (New Century) Joint stock Company, Dao Xuan Anh, had to draft economic contracts by himself for each transaction. However, economic contracts have become more complicated with various foreign partners. Its contracts are complicated in terms of language use, in particular, when the company specialises in researching and developing software products and implementing outsourcing contracts for foreign markets. That is why for one year, the company has used legal consultancy services of the Leadco Law Firm.

 

Anh said that for his company, outsourcing contracts were the most important. When drafting contracts, the company’s partners often put in the contracts those articles that benefited them. Therefore, the company used consultancy services of law firms, asking them to adjust these articles to fit the company’s interests. ” Also, Leadco helps Tan The Ky to translate contracts from Japanese into English. This benefits Tan The Ky more as English is a common language and the company and its partners can understand each other better, especially in security, maintenance and guarantee.

 

US$400-500 per month is not a small amount for a private company but it is small in relation to the safety of economic contracts and hundreds of information contracts implemented each month by Tan The Ky.

 

However, not all enterprises, State-owned or private, have used legal consultancy services. Vietnam Airlines’ case is an example. Only when the corporation was involved in a court case, did the company use legal consultancy services.

 

 

Pham Thanh Long, director of the Pham Law Firm, said that with job specialisation having become clearer, enterprises have shifted to using professional legal consultants, instead of using internal consultancy systems. This will help increase enterprises’ business activities. In particular, when Vietnam soon joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with lessons learned by Vietnamese enterprises during recent international court cases, local enterprises have become more cautious in their transactions. To meet the demand of enterprises, each consultancy company has developed in detail lists of costs according to concrete services. Long said that within the association of legal firms, each company had its own advantages. The Pham Legal Firm, for example, provides consultancy services on the investment and intellectual property law systems.

 

Apart from regular consultancy services, suitable with the demand of enterprises, the legal consultancy companies have developed two specific products. The first is an hourly-based consultancy service, which is considered as a ‘high-end’ service because consultants are often paid high amounts. The service, which is divided into three levels, is suitable with foreign-invested enterprises or corporations, who are involved in important transactions needing quick and effective consultancy. Consultants are paid between US$150 per hour (for those who have the highest level in the law firm) and US$100 per hour for senior lawyers, as well as between US$60 and US$70 for assistants. The second service is case-based. The service’s charges are negotiable. This service is used most by enterprises as disputes are small and medium-sized only.

 

Apart from providing services for Vietnamese enterprises, law firms have provided services for foreign-invested enterprises when they are interested in a specific market of Vietnam. Legal consultancy companies will propose feasible projects for foreign investors’ production activities, or help them find local partners.