What type of business can a law firm open?

In Article 34 of the Law on Lawyers 2006, the types of businesses of Law Firms are specified as follows:

Company law firm

1. Law firms include partnership law firms and limited liability law firms. Members of the law firm must be lawyers.

2. A law partnership established by at least two lawyers. The law partnership has no capital members.

According to this regulation, law firms will include partnership law firms and limited liability law firms, and members of the law firm must be lawyers.

What are the procedures for registering a law company? How much is the fee for issuing a Law Firm’s Business Registration Certificate?

For procedures to register a law firm at the Department of Justice, please refer to the following instructions:

About conditions:

According to Article 32 of the 2006 Law on Lawyers as amended by Clause 15, Article 1 of the 2012 Amended Law on Lawyers, the conditions for establishing a law practice organization include:

– Lawyers establishing or participating in the establishment of law practice organizations must have at least two years of practice Continuously work under a labor contract for a law practice organization or practice as an individual under a labor contract for an agency or organization as prescribed.

– Law-practicing organizations must have an office.

– A lawyer may only establish or participate in the establishment of a law practice organization. In case lawyers from different Bar Associations join together to establish a law firm, they can choose to establish and register operations in the locality where there is a Bar Association of which one of those lawyers is a member.

Implementation order:

– Law practice organizations register their operations at the Department of Justice in the locality where the Bar Association of which the law firm Director is a member is located. Law firms jointly established by lawyers from different Bar Associations must register their operations at the Department of Justice in the locality where the company’s headquarters is located (Clause 1, Article 35 of the Law on Lawyers 2006).

– Within 10 working days from the date of receipt of complete documents, the Department of Justice shall issue an operation registration certificate to the law practice organization; In case of refusal, it must be notified in writing and clearly state the reason. The person who is refused an Operation Registration Certificate has the right to complain according to the provisions of law (Clause 3, Article 35 of the 2006 Law on Lawyers).

Dossier components:

Application for operation registration according to a uniform, specific form Form TP-LS-02 issued with Circular 05/2021/TT-BTP (applicable to one-member limited liability law companies), TP-LS-03 issued with Circular 05/2021/TT-BTP (applicable to law partnerships and companies limited liability law with two or more members);

Draft Charter of the law firm;

Copy of Law Practicing Certificate, copy of Lawyer Card of the lawyer establishing or participating in establishing the law firm;

Documents proving the headquarters of the law practice organization (lease contract or certificate of land use rights).

Number of documents: 01 set.

(4) Fees:

50,000 VND/document (According to Circular 47/2019/TT-BTC).

(5) How to do it:

Documents are sent directly or through the postal system to the Department of Justice.

After being granted the Business Registration Certificate, where does a law firm need to publish its operating registration content?

Announcing the contents of the registration of operations of law-practicing organizations is stipulated in Article 38 of the 2006 Law on Lawyers as follows:

Announcing the contents of the registration of operations of law-practicing organizations

1. Within thirty days from the date of issuance of the Certificate of Operation Registration, a law-practicing organization must publish a daily newspaper of the central or local area where it registers its operations or a specialized law newspaper in three consecutive issues with the following main contents:

a) Name of the law-practicing organization;

b) Address of the law-practicing organization’s headquarters, branches, and assigned offices translation;

c) Field of practice;

d) Full name, address, law practice certificate number of lawyers who are Head of the law office, Director of the law firm and other founding members;

đ) Number of Operation Registration Certificate, place of operation registration, date, month and year of issuance of the Operation Registration Certificate.

…

Thus, within thirty days from the date of issuance of the Operation Registration Certificate, the law-practicing organization must publish the following main contents in the daily newspaper of the central or locality where it registers its operation or in a specialized law newspaper in three consecutive issues:

 Name of the law practice organization;

Address of the headquarters of the law-practicing organization, branch, and transaction office;

Field of practice;

Full name, address, law practice certificate number of the lawyer who is the head of the law office, the director of the law firm and other founding members;

Number of Operation Registration Certificate, place of operation registration, date, month and year of issuance of Operation Registration Certificate.