South Korea’s biggest law firm, Kim & Chang, is set to open its second Vietnam office in the national capital Hanoi by next month.

This will be the firm’s fourth office outside Korea. The others are in Singapore (which opened last year), Hong Kong, and Ho Chi Minh City, which was launched in 2018.

The Hanoi office will be led by partners Youn Joon Han and David Yongkyu Han, and will have five fee-earners in total.

“Many of our important clients’ Vietnam operations are based in Hanoi, and there is a growing need for us to be closer to such clients,” said a spokesperson for the firm. “It is important for us to have a presence in Hanoi for working with the central government agencies with respect to regulatory and licensing matters.”

The new office comes at a time when Vietnam is experiencing the fastest economic growth in the Southeast Asian region. Pham Minh Chinh, the country’s prime minister recently said he expected the country’s GDP to rise 8 per cent in 2022 and 6.5 per cent in 2023.

As a result of this growth, regional and international firms are bolstering their presence in the Southeast Asian country. In 2021, Dentons entered Vietnam through a combination with local law firm LuatViet, and a year before that, Singapore’s largest law firm, Allen & Gledhill, opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City.