LEGAL UPDATE: WHAT’S NEW IN THE NEW DRAFT LAW ON LAWYERS 2026?

LEGAL UPDATE: WHAT’S NEW IN THE NEW DRAFT LAW ON LAWYERS 2026?

bởi | Th6 5, 2026 | Civil, EN, Legal Update, Uncategorized

LEGAL UPDATE:

WHAT’S NEW IN THE NEW DRAFT LAW ON LAWYERS 2026?

A. OVERVIEW

  • Promulgation and Effectiveness: The Draft Law on Lawyers (Amended) is expected to be passed by the 16th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its second session in 2026. This Law is anticipated to officially take effect on March 1, 2027, completely replacing the current Law on Lawyers No. 65/2006/QH11.
  • Scope of regulation: The draft comprehensively regulates the principles, standards, conditions, scope, and forms of practicing law. Besides, the law also governs the rights and obligations of lawyers, trainee lawyers, law-practicing organizations, socio-professional organizations of lawyers, the management of lawyers, and the operations of foreign law-practicing organizations and foreign lawyers in Vietnam.
  • Transitional provisions: To protect the legitimate rights and interests of personnel in the process of joining the profession, the draft stipulates that those currently undergoing traineeship under the old law will continue to have their traineeship period calculated under the new law. The results of the law practice traineeship examination under current regulations remain valid to request the issuance of a Lawyer Practicing Certificate until the end of January 1, 2030. Notably, cadres, civil servants, public employees, and military officers, after being granted the Practicing Certificate, have the right to join the Bar Association to become “public lawyers” (luật sư công) in accordance with the pilot Resolution of the National Assembly.

B. SEVERAL NEED-TO-KNOW ISSUES

  1. Supplementing stricter standards on “Political fortitude”
  • Main content: The breakthrough highlight of the draft is the codification of the standard “having firm political fortitude” into a prerequisite and mandatory condition to join the contingent of lawyers. This is an orientation to build a team of lawyers with pure ethics and a firm political stance.
  • Legal basis: Article 7 of the Draft Law.
  • Conditions, procedures, obligations: Besides professional foundations such as holding a bachelor’s degree in law or higher and completing vocational training, Vietnamese citizens wishing to become lawyers must demonstrate absolute loyalty to the Fatherland and the Constitution. Concurrently, practitioners must prove their good moral character, courageous spirit, and determination to protect justice, integrity, and honesty.
  1. Elevating legal status with the designation “Trainee lawyer”
  • Main content: The draft replaces the term “apprentice in law practice” with “trainee lawyer”, thereby approaching international practices and elevating the status of this group of subjects. Along with the new title, trainee lawyers are officially allowed to join the Bar Association right during the traineeship stage and have an expanded scope of practice.
  • Legal basis: Article 2, Article 9 of the Draft Law.
  • Conditions, procedures, obligations: The standard traineeship period is 12 months. Trainee lawyers are entitled to participate in legal proceedings in civil cases and administrative cases at the regional People’s Court, and simultaneously provide legal advice and draft documents. However, all these activities must be subject to the assignment and supervision of the guiding lawyer, with the client’s consent, and they must absolutely not sign legal advisory documents themselves.
  1. Supplementing a series of new rights for Lawyers
  • Main content: The draft grants more powerful “legal weapons”, allowing lawyers to participate more deeply and broadly in the economy and legal life. Lawyers are empowered to represent clients in dispute resolution as mediators, arbitrators, or directly participate in corporate recovery and bankruptcy handling under the title of bankruptcy administrators.
  • Legal basis: Article 12 of the Draft Law.
  • Conditions, procedures, obligations: The draft also adds a flexible mechanism allowing lawyers the right to transfer cases to other lawyers. To execute this right, the lawyer must ensure the prerequisite condition of having the client’s consent or proving the occurrence of a force majeure event.
  1. Tightening the National Examination and restricting the training exemption
  • Main content: The input quality management structure is tightened through the establishment of the National Examination Council for Lawyers. The draft also restricts the scope of training exemption, requiring those who formerly held judicial titles (judges, prosecutors, investigators) to undergo a short-term lawyer vocational training course in order to change their procedural mindset and strictly comply with the legal professional code of ethics.
  • Legal basis: Article 8, Article 10 of the Draft Law.
  • Conditions, procedures, obligations: Every trainee lawyer, after completing the 12-month traineeship, must mandatorily pass the national examination for lawyers to be considered for the Practicing Certificate. Incumbent cadres, civil servants, public employees, and armed forces personnel (except for law lecturers) shall not be permitted to attend this exam.

IN SUMMARY: The Draft Law on Lawyers (Amended) 2026 clearly reflects a new and integrative legislative mindset: on one hand, it grants more tools and an open legal space for lawyers to maximize their role; on the other hand, it establishes strict technical barriers regarding political, training, and examination standards to filter, elevate the position, and improve the quality of the legal services market in Vietnam.

 

Need-To-Know Joint Children Of Spouses

Need-To-Know Joint Children Of Spouses

bởi | Th7 12, 2024 | Civil, EN, Legal Guidance

NEED-TO-KNOW

JOINT CHILDREN OF SPOUSES

  • What is the purpose of determining the joint child of the spouses?

The determination of joint children of spouses is intended to record the relationship of father, mother and child, thereby serving as a basis for resolving issues of child custody when divorcing, inheritance, fulfillment of alimony obligations,…

  • When to call a joint child of the spouses?[1]

Children born (including assisted reproductive births, surrogacy for humanitarian purposes) during marriage period or because the wife becomes pregnant during the marriage are joint children of the spouses.

Children born within 300 days from the time of termination of marriage are considered children due to the wife’s pregnancy during the marriage period.

Children born before the date of marriage registration and recognized by their parents as joint children of the spouses.

  • What about exceptions?

If the father and/or the mother does not admit the child, if there is evidence (e.g. the results of the AND assessment), a petition must be filed and it must be determined by the Court.[2]

In case the natural father and/or mother wants to recognize a child, if there is evidence (such as the results of the AND assessment), the application for registration of adoption shall be submitted to the commune-level People’s Committee[3] (detailed dossier and procedure, see instructions at the National Public Service Portal: Link here).

Joint children of spouses

[1] Clause 1 of Articles 88, 93 and 94 of the Law on Marriage and Family No. 52/2014/QH13.

[2] Clause 2, Article 88 of the Law on Marriage and Family No. 52/2014/QH13.

[3] Article 25 of the Law on Civil Status No. 60/2014/QH13.

NEED-TO-KNOW

VALIDITY OF DIGITAL SIGNATURE

1. What is a digital signature? A digital signature (DS) is a form of electronic signature of an individual or organization. DS can be provided by an official unit (providing DS certification services in accordance with Vietnamese law, such as VNPT, Viettel, FIS CORP,…) or unofficially (not licensed by the Government of Vietnam).

2. Does DS invalidate a civil transaction?

Transactions signed with DS have the same legal validity as directly signed[i], when DS meets the security conditions prescribed by law (validity, secret key, public key, control of the signer’s secret key,…). In other words, signing with a legally satisfactory DS will not render the transaction invalid.

Note, according to Vietnamese law[ii], Transactions are considered invalid when the subject establishing the transaction laDS capacity (passive legal, active legal). Simply, we need to verify that the DS really belongs to the partner’s representative and is it legal?

We think that the use of DS provided by an official unit would be advantageous in this verification, as well as when requesting the deed as evidence if a dispute arises in this regard (using unofficial DS, even provided by a world-renowned unit,  but it will be difficult to prove this).

3. Does the Company’s individual DS have a legal risk for transactions?

If the transaction is signed using the Company’s legitimate DS, then it is essentially valid, the likelihood of invalidity will be very low.

If the transaction is signed with a personal DS (whether a individual of the Company, a legal representative, even with the Company’s seal), then it can still be disputed as to the validity of the transaction resulting in the transaction being invalid. Because then, the conclusion will depend on the evidence proving the legitimacy of DS as mentioned above.

 

[i] Article 8 and 9 of Decree No. 130/2018/ND-CP

[ii] Articles 122 and 117 of the Civil Code No. 91/2015/QH13