Dang Chien Thang, a native of Vietnam on his first visit to the United States earlier this month, brought with him gifts indicative of his country’s economic growth: business cards.

First was the one for his membership to the Bar Association of Hanoi, his hometown. The next one featured the logo for Huong Viet Travel, which he started with friends in 1999. A gold sheen reflected off his senior legal advisor card for Golden Bridge Vietnam, an offshoot of a Korean investment firm.

Last but not least was his identification as Vietnam legal counsel for the Global Community Service Foundation (GCSF), an American nonprofit that performs grassroots humanitarian work in Southeast Asia and his host earlier this month.

Thang, 35, had a chance to sample Maryland crabs, see Fourth of July fireworks, tour Washington, D.C., and talk legal shop with his American counterparts.

“We all had so much information to share, we didn’t have time for all of my questions,” he said with a laugh.

Gary S. Smuckler hosted Thang at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Washington, where Smuckler is a partner.

“He is fascinated and impressed about what’s happening here, but he’s quite proud and respectful about what’s been going on in Vietnam the last 10 years,” said Smuckler, a GCSF board member.

Thang also took a daytrip to Baltimore with William P. Young Jr., a principal at Meyers, Young & Grove P.A. in Hagerstown, and Young’s wife, Frances, both of whom are also GCSF board members. And while in town, he stopped at The Daily Record’s office to discuss what it’s like to be a lawyer in Vietnam.

Growing economy

Vietnamese law is modeled on the French system of civil law rather than the common law of the American system. Thang’s private practice focuses on litigation and consulting, primarily for businesses. He became a lawyer because of the challenges of the profession.

“To be a lawyer is very difficult,” said Thang, his impressive command of English only slowed by the occasional word or phrase. “We have to have a clear mindset about everything. To be a lawyer requires a lot of study in every field.”

Another obstacle is that law is considered a “controversial” profession in Vietnam, Thang said. Lawyers in the U.S. may be the butt of jokes, but most people acknowledge their need. In Vietnam, though, many people attempt to solve problems face-to-face no matter how complex the issue.

“The need for lawyers has not been expressed so much because people prefer to negotiate everything themselves,” he said. “Lawyers in Vietnam have the job to show that it is a good career.”

They are being helped by Vietnam’s expanding financial clout. The Southeast Asian nation has seen its economy grow by an average of 7 percent per year this decade, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which earlier this year named Vietnam the fastest-growing country among “emerging markets.”

The influx of outside investment has meant more interactions with foreign law and competition from foreign lawyers, Thang said.

“Now the door is open. We have to evaluate ourselves,” Thang said.

Smuckler visited Vietnam recently to give a presentation to one of the country’s largest banks on mortgage banking, his area of expertise. As he did research on a certain area of Vietnamese law, he found only one-and-a-half pages of official material, most of it ambiguous, whereas the American material on the topic would be in “multivolume treatises,” he said.

“The fundamental system is very different and the extent of a published body of information is thin in some areas,” Smuckler said.

As the country grows, however, so does the number of laws on the books and subsequently what a lawyer must know.

Traditionally, lawyers lacked real-world experience, only able to repeat what they learned in school, Thang said. A lawyer might have known laws governing factories and factory management, for example, but did not understand labor law and how the two areas overlapped.

“Most lawyers have not been equipped with the necessary knowledge,” he said. “Most people think they can know the law and that’s it.”

Long training process

Vietnamese law students now learn English as part of their training as well as the presentation and mediation skills common in the West.

“If they don’t try to improve on trying to have professionalism, they will fail,” Thang said.

Bill Young noted the “common thread” of striving for professionalism among both American and Vietnamese lawyers. But simply seeing similarities in the two legal worlds is amazing to Young, who fought in the Vietnam War.

“Just that there are lawyers there doing what he is doing was unheard of back then,” he said. “Lawyers were well off the radar screen.”

Law school in Vietnam is a four-year process, Thang said. The first two years are devoted to general studies, including a history of the country’s legal system. Following the second year, a law student declares for one of five legal fields: international, criminal, civil, business or labor. The final two years provide in-depth study of Vietnamese laws, and the final exam is focused on a law student’s selected practice area.

Law school completed, an aspiring lawyer then must undergo eight months of training in what is called the Judicial Academy, part of the government’s Ministry of Justice, to obtain a government license. Direct government regulation of lawyers might sound odd to American lawyers, but Thang said it shows the Vietnamese government is paying attention to the legal profession.

“They want to unify the training and have well-educated lawyers,” he said.

Even after government certification, a lawyer then must perform a two-year apprenticeship in one of the country’s provincial or municipal bar associations, trying a minimum of 10 cases both civil and criminal, Thang said. Only when lawyers receive bar association memberships can they begin practicing, he said.

Bar associations in Vietnam oversee ethical conduct and lawyer training just as in the United States, Thang said, but there are some differences.

A Vietnamese lawyer can only be a member of one association but can then practice anywhere in the country, he said. Additionally, lawyers who lose bar association membership automatically lose their license from the Ministry of Justice, Thang said.

Small firms, low pay

Most lawyers in Vietnam are in firms of no more than three people, he said, adding he was surprised at the size of some of the larger firms in the United States. William L. Goldman, a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery in Washington, said Thang was interested in how the more than 200 lawyers in his office communicated and cooperated, and how the firm stays organized.

Thang estimated 90 percent of lawyers in Vietnam earn less than $6,000 a year, though per capita income in Vietnam is approximately $2,600, according to Pricewaterhouse.

Outside of his law practice, Thang is chairman of his travel agency, which promotes “voluntourism,” or sightseeing combined with charitable work. It was in that vein he met with representatives from the Global Community Service Foundation in 2003 and thought he could help.

“The people in America come to help the people in Vietnam,” he said. “I thought I should do something to contribute to their kindness.”

Since 2005, he has served as the organization’s legal counsel in Vietnam and overseen much of its charitable work there, including the delivery of more than 1,600 wheelchairs to land mine victims in Da Nang.

“His participation has been invaluable,” said Goldman, a GCSF board member who as chairman of the program committee works closely with Thang.

“He’s been a pillar for us,” added Smuckler. “He holds our hand and looks after us.”

Thang said his goals are simple.

“I want to make sure each donation is given to the right beneficiary,” he said. “We can maximize the utility of the fund.”

He sees a similar upside to the next generation of Vietnamese lawyers, who will come of age in their profession as their country continues its integration into the global economy.

“They will take advantage of the situation and be well equipped,” he said.