Lawyer Ethics & Professionalism in Vietnam

A Lawyer is a professional whose services are valued, not only for their competence and capacity, but also in regard to their trust and prestige.  Therefore, in addition to proficiency in the law, Lawyers must obey ethical standards while protecting the legitimate rights and interests of their clients in order to deserve the confidence and esteem of society.  This is the reason that most countries in the world have a separate system of rules governing the ethics and conduct that all Lawyers are required to follow.

In Vietnam, this ethical Code was issued by the Lawyers’ National Council of the Vietnam Bar Federation through Decision 68/QD-HDLSTQ dated July 20, 2011.  Accordingly, Lawyers are required to absolutely abide by this code of conduct in relation to colleagues, clients, state agencies and other specific behaviors.  However, it remains an unfortunate fact that some Lawyers still deliberately violate these rules in various cases, including the following notable instances:

Use of dishonesty and tricks on their clients

Lawyers are knowledgeable about the law, whereas the application of legal knowledge to carry out the higher mission to protect clients is the “skill”. However, the abuse of legal knowledge to chase material interests has the potential to lead to false promises and tricks that benefit only the Lawyer.

Referring to the state management of Lawyers, Minister of Justice – Le Thanh Long explained to the Prime Minister 1 as follows: “In our country, there are a few Lawyers who not only violate the law, but also naturally still ignore the moral rules – which are very sacred to the practice”. Mr. Long also said that in other countries, while the regulations on Lawyers are important, compliance with the code of conduct by Lawyers is considered even higher than the law.

There is no exception to Vietnam. The Code of Occupational Ethics and Conduct is absolutely essential to preserve the reputation and professional prestige of Lawyers. In order to become a Lawyer, it is compulsory to undergo a training course on the Attorneys’ Code of Occupational Ethics and Conduct. In fact, the vast majority of active Lawyers comply with the Code of occupational Ethics and make great contributions to our Justice system. Nevertheless, there remain certain Lawyers who only care about their personal interests and finding ways around moral norms to gain profits without being shouldered with the consequences.

The following are dishonest practices and tricks that unethical Lawyers use on their clients:

  • Promising successful results for clients in order to obtain service contracts with a high remuneration; abetting and inciting clients to file a lawsuit despite having knowledge that there are no legal grounds;
  • Being aware that the Lawyer’s relations are providing legal services to persons who have opposite interests to their clients, yet still deliberately considering themselves unaware in order to receive cases from clients. When discovered, the Lawyer expresses that he does not know or claim it is a situation which is out of his/her control;
  • Deliberately creating difficult situations, false information, and disadvantages for clients to entice, threaten, and pressure them in increasing the agreed remuneration or to seek other illicit benefits from clients;
  • Directly providing information to clients or using hints about their personal relationship with the proceeding agency, the prosecutor or other competent state agency, which aims to create clients’ trust in their ability to obtain results;
  • Suggesting clients provide “thank you” gifts to people conducting the legal proceedings to speed up the settlement of the case or to “pay attention” to the requests of the involved party;
  • Fostering close relationships with presiding officers in order to be introduced to clients and to share commissions with them, which will affect the objectivity of the case;
  • Some lawyers even participate in the practice of “making charms” of papers and documents that are not legitimate in order to legalize evidence. Also, hiring or obtaining fake “witnesses” to persuade the Trial Panel.

Typical cases include 2 the violations of Lawyer Nguyen Van N – Vice Chairman of the Can Tho City Bar Association who was disciplined for receiving money without fulfilling his commitments to his clients; Lawyer Nguyen Thanh H – of the Can Tho City Bar Association, for setting up a service contract with clients and “promising clients a probationary suspension”; Pham Thi A.L – a Former Lawyer of Dong Thap Province Bar Association took advantage of the legal status of the litigant to receive money from the Judgement Enforcement Authorities and then arbitrarily used it; Luong Anh T – Former Lawyer of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association promised obtain the suspect’s bail, asked his/her relatives to give “fugitive” money, and then appropriated the funds.

“Foul play” regarding legal colleagues

The Attorneys’ Code of Occupational Ethics and Conduct requires Lawyers to show respect and cooperation with legal colleagues. However, there are Lawyers who are unable to control their actions, such as pointing at colleagues at the trial for opposing their interests. Even in the process of consulting and working with their clients, some Lawyers also use vulgar or untrue words to discuss their colleagues in order to obtain clients or to induce the client to turn away from another Lawyer.

Additionally, in this period of time where information technology is prevalent, Lawyers take advantage of social networks to post articles related to the resolution of the case, to tout their own abilities, and to make negative comments in order to slander the reputation and competence of opposing Lawyers. In addition, the scope of this problem is sometimes not limited to Vietnam, and some unethical Lawyers also deliberately defame and tell untruths about their colleagues in international forums, such as the International Arbitration Center.

Furthermore, some Lawyers have also deliberately disobeyed the Code and prevented opposing Lawyers from accessing records and documents related to the case. Specifically, according to the provisions of the Vietnam Code of Civil Procedure, when the involved parties submit documents and evidence to the Court, they must also send such documents and evidence to the other litigants or their legal representatives. In these cases, it is only after a meeting is held to examine the submission, access, and publicity of evidence and reconciliation, that the opposing Lawyers become aware of the existence of these documents. Remarkably, rather than submitting the evidence after their actions are discovered, the unethical Lawyer provides a passive response, claiming in Court that they require more time to research the records. As such, the period required to resolve the case is lengthened.

These are some examples of violations of the Attorneys’ Code of Occupational Ethics and Conduct. However, how to resolve them is a matter of concern to both the State and society.

Handling ethics violations – is it easy?

For some violations of the Attorneys’ Code of Occupational Ethics and Conduct and also for violations of other legal provisions, the process of handling the violation is both easy and clear.

For example: Lawyers commit “Obtaining property by fraud” of their clients when intentionally creating false or confusing circumstances in a case that results in clients paying Lawyers “bribe” money that is subsequently appropriated by the Lawyer. Or cases where Lawyers borrow money from clients but do not pay them back.

Accordingly, Lawyers who commit these violations can be charged with criminal liability, sanctioned for administrative violations, or will be held liable for civil compensation, depending on the level of seriousness of the violation. In other cases, violations of Lawyer Ethics are very difficult to handle. This is because the actions of the Lawyer are either vague or unclear, or there is no evidence to determine whether a violation has been committed. This is especially true in cases where the Lawyers violate the law but are in conformity with the interests of clients and receive the support of their clients. Specifically, it becomes quite difficult in cases where lawyers use insinuating words to their clients to inform them about their “close relationship” with the proceeding agencies and suggest “giving gifts” to presiding officers, etc. Perhaps, Lawyers have provided fabricated information to their clients and complicate matters by claiming benefits from clients, which results in finding proof that the Lawyer violated ethical standards almost impossible. Of course, this does not include Lawyers who know how to manage or cover up their conduct so that their violations are unable to be detected or proved.

For the above reasons, in order to deserve to be honored by society, a team of Lawyers should be self-aware of their professional ethics. Being a Lawyer is a professional job, but it is also not a pure business with the sole aim of bolstering reputations or making money. Lawyers must be brave, independent, honest, and have respect for objective truths. Overall, Lawyers should be above material and spiritual interests, or any other pressure, to act against the law and their professional ethics.


  1. Source: https://plo.vn/phap-luat/xu-ly-nghiem-ls-vi-pham-phap-luat-dao-duc-nghe-nghiep-761832.html
  2. Source: http://cand.com.vn/Ban-doc-cand/Tuyt-coi-nhung-luat-su-vi-pham-dao-duc-nghe-nghiep-355625/ and https://anninhthudo.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/khi-luat-su-bi-xoa-ten-do-vi-pham-dao-duc-nghe-nghiep/727112.antd