Clifford Chance’s Vietnam focus group, operating principally from the firm’s Singapore office, offers considerable combined experience in structuring and implementing transactions in the country. The practice has a well-established relationship with leading local law firm, VILAF, as well as with Vietnamese local authorities, including MOF and MOJ. The group is jointly led by finance partner Fergus Evans, specialising in banking, asset finance, and leasing matters, and projects practice co-head Ross Howard, with expertise advising sponsors and lenders in relation to the financing of large-scale energy and infrastructure projects. Tokyo-based projects lawyer Hans Menski works closely with practitioners at VILAF to advise clients on their Vietnamese investments. Valerie Kong, managing partners of the firm’s Singapore office and member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Group, regularly handles high-profile M&A deals involving companies based in Vietnam.

Linklaters’s Vietnam desk, led by Philip Badge, Amit Singh, Wanwisar Nakarat, and Ying Fu, combines local knowledge with international experience and leverages the firm’s integrated alliance with Australian law firm Allens, with offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, to advise clients operating in Vietnam in relation to international and Vietnamese legal issues. The team specialises in assisting corporations looking to expand into Vietnam in the projects and energy sector and makes use of strong working relationships with key ECA, DFIs, and commercial banks to advise on project financing. Badge, who leads the firm’s banking offering in Asia, and Singh, a capital markets expert leading operations in South and Southeast Asia, are both based in Singapore. Project finance and M&A specialist Nakarat is managing partner of the firm’s Bangkok office, while Hong Kong-based Fu is an energy and infrastructure expert who is active in the Vietnamese renewables sector.

DLA Piper Tokyo Partnership Gaikokuho Kyodojigyo Horitsu Jimusho’s widely experienced and growing Vietnam practice, jointly led by Lance Miller in Tokyo and Trinh Hoang in Hong Kong, offers clients M&A, project finance, restructuring, intellectual property, data privacy, employment, and real estate expertise. Native Vietnamese speaker Hoang joined the firm from Linklaters LLP in December 2022 as head of the Hong Kong and China restructuring and insolvency team, bringing considerable expertise in special situations financing and debt restructuring. M&A and finance specialist Miller continues to assist overseas clients in relation to their investments into Vietnam, as well as Vietnamese clients on their outbound investments. Having joined from Baker McKenzie in 2023, Bangkok-based Thananan Sangnuan strengthens the team’s M&A, asset management, restructuring, private equity, and capital markets offering.

Latham & Watkins LLP’s Vietnam practice, led by Hong Kong and Singapore-based Amy Beckingham alongside Sharon Lau based in Singapore, continues to assist major Vietnamese companies, financial institutions, private equity firms, and fintech startups. Global corporate vice chair Beckingham specialises in M&A, joint venture, and equity capital markets deals throughout Asia. She has considerable experience advising international investors in relation to their investments into Vietnam. Lau, a member of the firm’s global executive committee, regularly represents issuers and underwriters in connection with IPOs and securities offerings in Vietnam or with Vietnamese elements. She has recently led a team representing electric-vehicle producer VinFast in relation to its US IPO, the first Vietnamese company to publicly file for an IPO in the US.

Milbank’s 9-strong Vietnam practice, jointly led by Jacqueline Chan in Singapore alongside Hong Kong-based James Grandolfo, has considerable experience handling high-end transactions in Vietnam. The firm has a strong presence in the Asia Pacific region, including in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo, and continues to gain traction in Ho Chi Minh City, specialising in energy and infrastructure, capital markets, technology, aviation, and commercial mandates. Chan regularly acts for financial institutions, corporates, investment funds, and private equity funds in relation to cross-border matters throughout Asia. With capital markets, M&A, and private equity expertise, Grandolfo heads the firm’s Hong Kong office and having helped launch the firm in the Philippines, is now active in Vietnam.

White & Case Pte. Ltd.’s global banking and M&A practices continue to expand its operations into Vietnam, particularly through cross-border financing, M&A, and trade mandates. With expertise in credit transactions across Southeast Asia, ‘standout partner‘ Charles McConnell in Singapore heads the firm’s Vietnam Practice Group. He regularly advises clients on a wide variety of financings, including leveraged, acquisition, margin, and structured financings.

A&O Shearman’s Singapore practice regularly advises clients operating in Vietnam in relation to large-scale energy and infrastructure projects. The multidisciplinary team, drawing on the expertise of projects, finance, M&A, and capital markets lawyers, handles cases for both sponsors and lenders. Project development and finance lawyer Bill McCormack leads the team.

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP’s Vietnam focus group, drawn from lawyers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China, regularly handles cross-border energy and infrastructure cases, particularly in the renewables space, involving Vietnam. Singapore-based senior partner Glynn Cooper heads the firm’s Southeast Asia energy and infrastructure practice and leads the focus group. He specialises in renewable energy and transport infrastructure, as well as M&A and equity investment into infrastructure assets.

Stephenson Harwood LLP’s Vietnam desk, operating principally from the firm’s Singapore and Hong Kong offices, regularly advises both domestic and multinational clients on their operations in Vietnam, including in the aviation, consumer goods, energy, financial services, healthcare, real estate, and telecommunications sectors. Tom Platts, Saugata Mukherjee, and Gregory Xu in Singapore lead the practice alongside Hong Kong-based Simon Wong. Platts is a cross-border M&A and capital market deals specialist with considerable experience in Southeast Asia.