Client Communication

We currently have a few lawyers and consultants who can speak Japanese and French. Therefore, if you can speak one of these languages, we will be able to effectively discuss your legal work. However, if you can speak only a language other than any of the languages mentioned herein and still wish to work with us, you can either hire a professional interpreter or we will hire an interpreter for you and you will pay them directly.

We maintain two main direct channel of communication that our clients can use to contact any of our offices i.e. via telephone +84 (28) 36223522 or email: info@phuoc-partner.com. If you have any questions or need urgent legal support, please call or email us and we will either respond to you immediately or at the earliest possible time. Should you still not receive our reply, please call our hotline number at any time, seven days a week at +84 (0)933 766632.

We acknowledge the fact that there are now quite a lot of popular free-of-charge on line communication channels such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger and Viber and always appreciate their efficiency. However, due to the exchange of information between client and lawyer is generally confidential and private information, werarely use these popular online communication channels to exchange work with clients (except for emergency cases) for fear information leakage. We currently use Skype and Viber as an internal communication channels only. If you need to exchange work with us, please call our telephone or send email to our lawyers and we will try to send our reply to you as soon as possible.

We as a law firm are always listening and willing to work with clients to ensure maximum convenience for the client, including using the most efficient communication channels such as meetings and telephone, per your request.

Legal work often requires lawyers to constantly cross-check and reference their previous information and advice; due to the often ambiguous nature of some provisions of the current laws of Vietnam, the understanding and interpretation of the law can change for each person. To ensure the correct course of action is taken, our lawyers may still need to note consultations with the client for their easy reference later (if necessary) and also to help reference between the work that has been done and what has been advised to the client. On that basis, even if you do not require it, from time to time we are still obliged to send an email/fax/letter to you of the legal work that we have been assigned; we request that you or your secretary simply hold this information for use as needed.

Languages used in our main communication are Vietnamese and English, or another language in some special cases (including French and Japanese). However, in the documents exchanged between us and clients through email/fax/mail, we will only use one of the languages as mentioned above. We will write in one or more languages should a client request, provided that an additional fee will be charged for our translation services.

Yes, you do. Our lawyers are often very busy with a schedule including attendance at client meetings and court hearings, attendance and/or presentating at legal seminars/events/training courses, conference calls with clients, State bodies and third parties etc. In addition, our lawyers also need to be well prepared before any client meeting, especially consultations, and therefore without making an appointment in advance at a reasonable time either via telephone or email, it is difficult for us to have a lawyer ready and well prepared to meet you and in some cases where we have no other choice, we will have to say “No” to you even though you may already be at our front office reception. We do hope that you will understand the workload of our lawyers and will sympathize and follow this guidance.

In the course of providing legal services to clients, similar to other types of services, we are always looking for ways to make matters more convenient for our clients at the lowest possible cost. Therefore, we usually suggest a meeting place in our offices in order that we do not have to travel and charge the clients for our travelling time. However, if requested, our lawyers are available to meet the clients at any place requested by them provided that:(i) the travelling cost and the travelling time cost of our lawyer are paid by the clients;(ii) are reasonable period of notice has been given; and (iii) the location of the meeting is safe, clean, and convenient for transport.

The first meeting between client and lawyer usually aims to get information of the two sides and for the client to provide basic information related to the legal work that the client will assign to the lawyer. Therefore, you need to bring documents relevant to you (ID card or passport) or your company (establishment license, business registration certificate, profile and a brief introduction of the services/products of your company) and basic information related to legal case(s) that you will assign to us so that we have the information to prepare the fee quote/legal services agreement to be sent to you for your consideration after the meeting.

Our recommendation is that you call Phuoc & Partners’ phone number +84 (28) 36223522 to be transfered to the lawyer’s extention (even if your telephone call is transferred to your lawyer’s mobile phone when they are not present in the office) instead of calling their cellphones for two main reasons: (1) when you communicate with our lawyers through Phuoc & Partners’ telephone line, your telephone call will be recorded in order for us to examine and improve the quality of our lawyers’ professional services; and (2) record the content of conversations between clients and lawyers so that they can be used to compare between our attorneys’ advice and what you have done based on those advice, where necessary.

The Law on Lawyers and the Code of Ethics of the Vietnam Bar Federation do not contain any regulations that clearly prohibit this. However, in order to create professionalism in the client-lawyer relationship, the internal guidance of our law firm includes certain restrictions on the receipt of gifts or participating in dinner events and entertainment between lawyers and clients. Accordingly, our lawyers are not allowed to receive from clients high value gifts (over 1 million VND or 50 USD). For food or entertainment, our lawyers are only allowed to participate in moderation when they are invited by the client, but only in places where they have a business license and have transparent business practices in accordance with current law.