Vietnam's economy is increasingly internationally integrated, and the demand for in-depth and flexible legal services is increasing sharply. One of the prominent trends is Secondment Service – a service that sends lawyers or legal experts from law firms to work directly at the business for a certain period of time.
In Vietnam, secondment services are gradually becoming an effective solution for businesses that need in-depth legal support but do not want to invest in the internal legal department for a long time. With the participation of domestic law firms and international law firms, secondment services promise to play an important role in meeting the increasingly diverse legal needs of the market.
1. What is secondment service?
Secondment service is a service model in which a law firm sends one or more lawyers/legal experts to work in a client's office for a fixed period of time, usually from a few months to several years. Lawyers appointed "secondees" or "seconded employees" will be directly involved in the internal legal activities of the business, such as drafting contracts, advising on legal compliance, assisting in commercial negotiations, or handling disputes.
Unlike traditional legal advice, secondment allows lawyers to operate as part of an internal team, providing a combination of high expertise and integration into the corporate culture.
Outstanding features of the secondment service.
- Temporary: The secondment period is clearly defined, suitable for the short-term needs or specific projects of the business.
- Internal integration: Lawyers work on-site, integrate with the corporate process and culture, and act as a member of the internal team.
- Highly specialized: Lawyers often have in-depth knowledge and experience in areas such as real estate, finance, labor, intellectual property, or mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
- Support from a law firm: Despite working at a firm, lawyers still receive support from the law firm's team when it comes to handling complex matters.
Compared to traditional legal advice, secondment brings more closeness and continuity, helping lawyers understand the internal issues of the business. Compared to hiring a full-time in-house lawyer, secondment is more cost-effective and offers flexibility, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or short-term legal projects and needs of the business.
2. Secondment services in Vietnam
2.1. Growing Demand
Vietnam's legal market is witnessing an increase in demand for secondment services, especially in specific and specialized legal fields of multinational companies. It is easy to see that international corporations operating in Vietnam, such as in the real estate, technology, or finance sectors, need lawyers who are knowledgeable in local and international laws. However, they often do not want to maintain a fixed legal department due to the high cost. Besides, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam often lack the resources to build an in-house legal team. Secondment becomes the ideal solution, providing legal expertise without requiring a long-term commitment. In addition, short-term projects of enterprises in the transition stages such as mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, or preparing for IPO need highly qualified lawyers in a short time to provide specific and detailed project support for businesses to conduct "launching".
Currently, large law firms in Vietnam, both international law firms and large domestic law firms have provided these services to clients. However, the understanding and use of these services often come from large foreign enterprises, from manufacturing enterprises, large financial institutions, to multinational logistics companies.
2.2. Current challenges
Despite the great potential, secondment services in Vietnam still face a number of challenges.
First, limited awareness from many businesses.
Many Vietnamese businesses, especially SMEs, are not familiar with the secondment model and tend to prioritize traditional legal advice or hiring permanent personnel.
Second, the cost of the service is high.
Although more economical than a full-time legal department, secondment costs can still be a barrier for small businesses. Not to mention many other incurred costs that must be paid to the secondee such as accommodation rent, meals, travel expenses, etc.
Third, high requirements for service quality from law firms.
Clients require lawyers to not only be good at their profession but also quickly integrate into the corporate culture and understand the specific industry in which the business operates. Enterprises require lawyers sent to work for enterprises to have full skills and experience to handle complex and in-depth legal issues of enterprises in the business process. In addition, businesses also require quick and effective support from law firms for lawyers sent to businesses.
Fourth, competition from in-house lawyers.
Currently, large enterprises often want to immediately build their own legal department, which reduces the demand for secondment services in the legal field in Vietnam. Because it is strategically oriented and sustainable, building a strong legal department is still a priority for businesses for long-term business activities in Vietnam.
Source: Papershift
3. The potential of secondment services in Vietnam
Vietnam is an attractive destination for foreign investment, with free trade agreements (FTAs) such as CPTPP, EVFTA, and RCEP opening up many business opportunities. This entails a great need for in-depth legal advice to ensure compliance with national and international regulations. The secondment service, with its flexibility and efficiency, is perfectly suited to meet this need.
In addition, the emergence of technology tools, especially AI in the legal field such as contract management software, online legal compliance systems, and legal document storage platforms are helping law firms provide secondment services more efficiently. Secondee lawyers can use these tools to optimize workflows, thereby enhancing service value.
Vietnam's current legal policies prioritizing the development of new industries such as fintech, e-commerce, and renewable energy that are thriving in Vietnam also require in-depth legal advice on issues such as data security, fintech regulation, or energy contracts. Secondment service allows law firms to provide highly specialized personnel to support businesses in these areas.
Not to mention, the trend of outsourcing professional services, including legal, is becoming popular in Vietnam and Secondment service is in line with this development trend. This allows the business to access high expertise without the need for a long-term investment in personnel or infrastructure.
4. To develop secondment services in Vietnam
In order to maximize the potential of secondment services in Vietnam, provide truly quality and effective legal services and meet the increasingly demanding needs of businesses, law firms not only focus on training and improving the quality of their lawyers but also ignore technological factors at the present time.
In our opinion, in order to be able to develop this service in Vietnam in the coming time, law firms need to invest in the following factors:
Invest in an excellent team of lawyers. The quality of services provided is always the highest requirement of legal services. In particular, for secondment services, this requirement is even more important. It is important to ensure that lawyers have both the legal expertise, soft skills and experience to integrate quickly with the business and meet the immediate and complex legal needs of the business.
Build professional processes. In order to be able to provide the best service to clients, a law firm not only needs to have a team of excellent lawyers but also needs to have many other factors. In particular, a professional secondment service provision process operates smoothly and efficiently from determining customer needs, selecting personnel, to managing and evaluating service effectiveness. This will help the law firm's services to be appreciated by clients, an important factor for the law firm to maintain and grow its operations.
Increase promotion. In the context of the current development of technology and communication, a good legal service that is not known and used by clients will be a shortcoming of law firms. Therefore, in order for clients to know and use the law firm's secondment services, organizing introductory seminars, sharing articles, or cooperating with business associations to raise awareness of the benefits of secondment services in the legal field are effective solutions for this service to develop in Vietnam in the coming time.
Incorporate legal technology. The use of AI tools to increase service delivery efficiency and reduce operating costs for businesses is a requirement that law firms cannot ignore in the current period. We believe that leveraging AI as an effective tool to strengthen the capacity of secondee lawyers will help law firms partly meet the needs of businesses and reduce resource consumption for these services.
Cooperation with the world's leading law firms. Admittedly, secondment services are not yet a popular service for Vietnamese law firms and in the Vietnamese legal market. Therefore, it is very necessary for Vietnamese law firms to be able to learn from the experience of international law firms in this service. International cooperation will help Vietnamese small and medium-sized law firms learn from the experience of the world's well-known and long-established law firms to improve the quality of services provided to clients.
Overall, secondment services in the legal sector in Vietnam are facing strong growth opportunities thanks to economic integration, increasing legal demand, and the trend of outsourcing professional services. With its flexibility, efficiency, and ability to provide high expertise, secondment is the ideal solution for businesses that want to optimize costs and reduce legal risks. However, to unlock the full potential of this service, law firms need to overcome the challenges of awareness, cost, and staffing quality. By investing in teams, technology, and promotional strategies, law firms can assert their position in Vietnam's rapidly growing legal market. Secondment is not only a service, but also a bridge between legal expertise and practical needs of businesses, contributing to the sustainable development of the economy.
