In the decade since Duane Morris established offices in Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country has opened up its economy and experienced rapid growth and increasing inflow of business. As a result, the Philadelphia-headquartered firm has been able to grow its Vietnam offering pretty much in tandem with the market, and now stands as one of the leading law firms in the country.
When Oliver Massmann and Giles Cooper opened Duane Morris’ Vietnam offices back in 2007, they were hardly new to the country. Former colleagues at Baker McKenzie Vietnam, they each had a decade of experience in the local market at that point, and spoke fluent Vietnamese.
“We started off very small with just two Vietnamese lawyers and built up on that step by step,” says Massmann, one of Duane Morris’ two directors in the country. “Our experience in the Vietnam market contributed to a good start for the firm.”
The year 2007 was an important one for Vietnam. On Jan. 11 that year, the country officially became the 149th member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), following some 11 years of preparation. Today, it is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. And Duane Morris Vietnam has grown side by side with the country. At present, the firm’s Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh offices have about 15 lawyers, including directors Massmann and Cooper.
OUT OF THE WOODS
Having spent its first few decades as a highly centralised planned economy, Vietnam began experimenting with a mixed economy in the 1980s that used both directive and indicative planning through five-year plans. However, prior to its ascension to the WTO, there was much uncertainty for investors.
“Until 2006, there were a lot of grey areas,” says Massman. “Whenever a client would ask if they could establish an entity, and how long it was going to take, the standard answer was ‘I don’t know’.” But the WTO changed all that. “That was the moment when doors opened in many different sectors in the country,” says Cooper. “Market access restrictions came off with a very clear road map. It was a bright time for Vietnam. It was a happy coincidence that this happened when we moved to Duane Morris.”
Being immersed in both the language and the culture was a big help for both Massmann and Cooper, whether it came to mingling at a local event, negotiating a deal, or interacting with government personnel. “When clients see us speaking their local language, it certainly does provide a boost, and they start to relax and open up in meetings and converse more freely,” shares Cooper. “It creates a lot of trust with the government as well.”
In the past decade, the market has swiftly evolved to become a lot more sophisticated. Key laws have changed – on multiple occasions, in some cases – and Duane Morris has started seeing more complex transactions.
WORK, WORK, WORK
In the early years, Duane Morris’ Vietnam offices only had foreign clients, but the mix has been changing. “Today, foreign clients make up 85 percent of our clients, while the rest are domestic. These are local companies that need help with things like overseas listings or bond issuances, or even expanding overseas to countries like Myanmar or Singapore.”
In 2016, Vietnam received a record $15.8 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), up 9 percent from the previous year, and that is something that the firm has been involved in. However, FDI can be a crowded space for law firms, and Duane Morris says it is focusing on M&A as well. “M&A is high-level work, and there we show what we can do with the valueadded services we provide,” explains Massmann.
He adds that he has worked on some of the largest deals in the last four or fi ve years. “We have worked on M&A deals in the infrastructure and oil and gas and power sectors. We are also working on deals related to real estate, and insurance.”
Cooper also points out, “Historically, the law didn’t even allow for M&As, but these have grown very rapidly in the last decade. M&A in energy, especially renewable energy, is of immense interest. This is an exciting time.”
THE NEXT DECADE
From Duane Morris’ point of view, its biggest achievement in the fi rst 10 years has been to turn its Vietnam operation into a profi t centre. But from a personal perspective, Cooper cites how they have managed “to develop a great team, and the team has been with the fi rm for a long time.”
However, despite the increase in work, the firm has chosen to not grow too quickly. “While we have grown from the very beginning, we remain agile and have deliberately tried not to grow too fast like other firms have done,” says Cooper. “We have been pretty slow and steady.”
He continues, “We’ll expand, but not just purely for the sake of headcount. We recently hired a Vietnamese lawyer who studied in France and has spent a lot of time in Russia. So he is good in dealing with French investors and can also speak Russian fl uently. We are also looking at complimenting regional offerings.”
For both Cooper and Massmann, the expectation for the next decade is the continued growth for both the fi rm and its work, as well as the Duane Morris brand in Vietnam. The work is expected to come from more free trade agreements, which in turn should lead not just to the further opening of the Vietnam market, but also morecompetition and heightened sophistication.
“We will need more specialisations and expertise, and the next 10 years will be defi ned by specialisations that the Vietnam legal market has never seen before,” says Massmann.