Allen & Overy has announced its intention to enter Vietnam by opening offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and has hired Mayer Brown JSM’s Vietnam managing partner, Dao Nguyen, to spearhead the firm’s push there.
A&O will join international firms such as Allens, Baker & McKenzie and Freshfields that are currently based in Vietnam, apart from regional firms such as DFDL and Tilleke & Gibbins. Last year, Asian powerhouses Rajah & Tann and Nishimura & Asahi also opened offices in Vietnam.
Even without having formal offices in Vietnam, A&O has been active in the country, having acted for the Vietnamese government on its last international bond issuance in 2010. More recently, it advised VietinBank, the country's largest partly private lender, on its $250 million overseas bond issue.
A&O’s offices are expected to open in the third quarter of this year, with Nguyen joining shortly after. In a statement, the firm’s Asia-Pacific managing partner, Thomas Brown, called Vietnam “a key jurisdiction within Southeast Asia” that was of “increasing interest to international companies and investors".
“We have an unrivalled footprint across the ASEAN region where we are able to advise clients on both international and domestic law in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and now Vietnam, as well as bringing our broader network across Asia-Pacific to bear,” Brown said.
The addition of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will take Allen & Overy's global network to 42 offices in 29 countries. ALB
Ranajit Dam is Southeast Asia Editor at ALB. Follow him on Twitter: @RanajitDam_ALB.
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