Law on Lawyers · 20.11.2024

How to Become an Intellectual Property Lawyer in Vietnam

Becoming a lawyer in Vietnam is a defined statutory route, not a matter of degree plus experience. Four things have to be collected in order: a law degree, a professional training certificate, a completed probationary period, and a practising certificate — and only then does join…

Lawyer UnilawReading time: 5 min

By Lawyer Nguyen Nhu Hai – UniLaw LLC

This note sets out that route for law graduates and for foreign-trained lawyers asking how the Vietnamese qualification works. It is about the profession, not about instructing a lawyer; if you are looking for counsel rather than a career, our practice pages are the better starting point.

The framework is the Law on Lawyers No. 65/2006/QH11, amended by Law No. 20/2012/QH13. The figures below are the amended ones.

The statutory standard

Article 10 sets who may become a lawyer: a Vietnamese citizen loyal to the country, observing the Constitution and the law, of good moral character, holding a bachelor of laws, who has completed professional lawyer training, has been through the probationary period, and is in health sufficient to practise.

Article 11 then separates standard from permission: a person meeting the Article 10 standard who wants to practise must hold a practising certificate and join a bar association. Both, not either.

Step one — professional training: twelve months

Under Article 12 as amended, a holder of a bachelor of laws may enrol in a lawyer training course at a lawyer training institution. The course runs twelve months (the original 2006 text said six; the 2012 amendment doubled it), and completion earns a graduation certificate in lawyer training. The Ministry of Justice sets the framework curriculum and decides recognition of lawyer training completed abroad — which is the provision a foreign-trained lawyer needs to look at first.

Step two — probation: twelve months, with real limits

Article 14 as amended sets probation at twelve months at a law-practising organisation, counted from the day of registration with the bar association, and subject to the reductions in Article 16. Three details matter:

The supervising lawyer must have at least three years of practice and not be under disciplinary sanction, and may supervise no more than three probationers at a time.
What a probationer may not do: represent, defend, or protect a client’s rights at a court hearing, and sign a legal advice document.
What a probationer may do: accompany the supervising lawyer to meet detainees, the accused, defendants, victims, civil plaintiffs and defendants and interested parties in a criminal case, and parties in civil and administrative matters, where that person consents; help study the file and gather documents and evidence; and give legal advice, act as representative outside proceedings and perform other legal services as assigned by the supervising lawyer, where the client consents. The supervising lawyer supervises and is answerable for all of it.

Article 16 provides the reductions: those exempt from professional training are also exempt from probation; those exempt under Article 13.4 get a two-thirds reduction; and ten years or more as a specialist, researcher or lecturer in law, a court examiner or a procuracy examiner earns a half reduction.

Step three — the probation examination

Article 15 as amended puts the examination in the hands of the Ministry of Justice together with the national bar organisation. The bar association’s management board compiles the list of those who have completed the probation period under Article 14.1 and sends it to the Vietnam Bar Federation. The examining council is chaired by a Ministry of Justice leader, with representatives of the national bar organisation and serving lawyers as members. Those who pass are recommended to the Minister of Justice for the certificate of passing the probation examination.

Step four — the practising certificate

Article 17 as amended lists the file, submitted to the bar association where the probation was registered:

application for the practising certificate;
curriculum vitae;
judicial record certificate;
copy of the bachelor or master of laws degree;
copy of the lawyer training graduation certificate, or documents showing exemption under Article 13.4;
copy of the certificate of passing the probation examination;
health certificate.

Article 17 also lists the grounds for refusal — the first being that the applicant does not meet the Article 10 standard — and Article 18 the grounds for revocation, including no longer meeting that standard. Article 19 allows a certificate revoked on certain grounds to be reissued where the Article 10 standard is met again and further conditions are satisfied.

The realistic timetable

Stage	Time
Bachelor of laws	as per the university programme
Professional lawyer training	12 months
Probation at a law practice	12 months (reduced by half, or by two-thirds, in the Article 16 cases)
Probation examination	per the examination schedule
Practising certificate and bar admission	on the Article 17 file

So the post-degree minimum is around two years of training and probation before a practising certificate is realistic, and less where an Article 16 reduction applies.

Foreign lawyers

A separate regime applies. Article 74 of the Law on Lawyers sets the conditions for a foreign lawyer to practise in Vietnam, and Article 68 the conditions for a foreign law-practising organisation. Those are permissions to practise here as a foreign lawyer, not a route to the Vietnamese practising certificate — the two should not be confused when planning a career.

A note on specialising in intellectual property

There is no separate IP practising certificate for lawyers: qualification is the general route above. Representing clients before the IP office in registration matters is a separate industrial property representation regime with its own requirements, which a lawyer may or may not also hold.

This note is general and reflects the position at the date of writing; it is not careers advice for an individual and not legal advice.

Legal basis: Law on Lawyers No. 65/2006/QH11, amended by Law No. 20/2012/QH13 — Articles 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 68, 74.

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