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VIETNAM
Vietnamese economic slump hits law firms
A
n economic slump in Vietnam could hit private law firms. Fewer mergers and a slowing residential property market have left some firms with less work. Fred Burke, managing partner of Baker & McKenzie in Vietnam, says property projects are being put on the back-burner because of the spiralling labour and material costs. “New large residential properties financed by pre-sales have dried up because of the credit crunch. The Vietnamese prime minister has been trying to dampen credit and prevent banks lending for speculative property purchases,” he said. The Vietnamese Government’s delayed equitisation of large state-run enterprises has also reduced work for firms. The government is waiting for the stock price to rise; however, this has caused disappointment. “Those ‘equitisations’ [partial privatisation of state-run enterprises] were very big and interesting jobs to work on … I hope those will get going again but it’s not likely for the next four or six months, due to the low share prices in the public market,” said Burke. John King, a partner at Tilleke & Gibbons’ Hanoi office, played down fears that Vietnam could be headed for recession resembling Thailand’s 1997 slump. He admits that, in the short term, stability in Vietnamese economy is uncertain, but remains confident that the consensus view across firms is that “the government is on top of it”. “No, it’s not a repeat of Thailand. This is pretty much a cash-driven
society here and people don’t have a lot of US-dollar debt,” said King, a former partner at the firm’s Bangkok office. Tilleke & Gibbons believes the slump will not affect its workload, because foreign investors are finding it easier to invest in Vietnam. This has brought an increase in commercial and luxury residential property work, and acquisition of shares from foreign companies. “We don’t see a slow up,” said Thomas Treutler, a senior associate at the firm. “A huge percentage of investment from the first half was in real estate.” Truetler agrees that work related to residential complexes for middle- and low-income earners could downsize, but believes that Vietnam is still an attractive market. “Most of the big business coming here doesn’t see Vietnam as a short-term investment,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest markets in the world; at present, it is cheaper than China, and the law and markets are opening up,” he explained. Short of hands Recently, the Vietnamese legal market has also faced a skills shortage, which has left some multinational law firms with no choice but to hire and train law graduates or expatriates, with minimal legal experience. This phenomenon is also common in Vietnam, says Burke, not only in the legal profession but also in other professions such as architecture and engineering. “We are seeing deals hitting the ground because of [the skills shortage],” he said. ALB
“Most of the big business coming here doesn’t see Vietnam as a short-term investment. It’s one of the biggest markets in the world; at present, it is cheaper than China, and the law and markets are opening up”
01000100111010011 01010010101001010 11 01001010111001 IT report 01001010111001 1001 Interwoven expands presence in Asia Interwoven has continued its impressive takeover of the legal document management world with the announcement of a number of Worksite customers across India, Singapore and Malaysia. The move further cements Worksite as the defacto standard for law firms. They’re currently claiming that they are used by 71% of the AmLaw 100, 71% of the Global 100 and 84% of the Legal Insider 250. With such a high percentage of the western market, it makes sense to branch out into the emerging Asian legal industry. For the record, the new Worksite customers are: • India: J Sagar Associates • Singapore: Allen & Gledhill, Colin Ng & Partners, KhattarWong, Rajah & Tann, Rodyk & Davidson, WongPartnership • Malaysia: Shearn Delamore, Zaid Ibrahim & Co The law gets all Web 2.0 LexisNexis has taken an interesting step into the Web 2.0 world with the announcement of an agreement with LinkedIn to feature their content on Martindale-Hubbell. Although not commonly used in the AsiaPacific, the martindale.com site serves as a tool to rank and assess the capabilities of law firms in their chosen areas (much like a legal directory). The new deal will see LinkedIn content related to the Martindale-Hubbell assessment of law firms and lawyers and allow buyers of legal services to view not only the lawyers they are considering hiring but also the lawyers’ business associates. Could be a blessing or a curse really. Mallesons plugging the virtues of iPhones In a move that is likely to scare RIM, the makers of the omnipresent BlackBerry, Australian toptier firm Mallesons has been singing the praises of the iPhone as a platform for rich web applications. Gerard Neiditsch, the firm’s business technology executive director, sees the iPhone as a way to introduce to mobile devices more than simple e-mail – for example, Mallesons’ staff directory application. The approach makes sense. The iPhone is really the first mobile device to allow a web experience nearing that of a desktop. This is born out in the number of Google searches conducted by iPhone users being many times greater than users of other ‘smart phones’. It will be interesting to see whether the new touchscreen BlackBerry, codenamed ‘Thunder’, will change the perception of BlackBerrys enough to counter the move towards Apple’s new darling.
THOMAS TREUTLER, TILLEKE & GIBBONS www.legalbusinessonline.com
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