WHY WORRY ABOUT ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWS IN VIETNAM? At certain points of my career the question of corruption became relevant. Not only was there corruption in the government as they seized assets and claimed taxes—which they had already signed off as having received—weren't paid, but there was the question of what we, as a company seeking [...]
Reunification Day in Vietnam. Forty-five years ago today the helicopter lifted from the roof of the American embassy, the tanks rolled down what became Le Duan Street, and the Vietnam War officially came to an end. For the United States this ushered in nearly half a century of recriminations, regrets, and disbelief. For Vietnam a [...]
Manager liability. It's a major issue for boards of directors and executives in companies throughout the globe. Insurance companies offer a specific product to protect against costs for such liability. In many jurisdictions, the legislatures and courts have created major obstacles to finding management liable and find that there is a preference to defend management [...]
"Indochine Counsel are experts in their areas, understanding and reasonable." Every year international legal rankings publish their results by jurisdiction of the best law firms in each practice area. Sometimes Indochine Counsel ranks and wins, sometimes it doesn't. While the rankings companies say they are impartial and aren't influenced by law firm advertising budgets, they [...]
Criminal liability accrues to a commercial legal person if the violating act was performed (1) in the name of the legal person, (2) for the benefit of the legal person, (3) under the direction, management or approval of the legal person, and (4) the relevant statute of limitations has not expired. Criminal prosecution of a [...]
While I have been examining minority shareholder rights in privately held corporations in Vietnam, I have failed to handle a vital piece of business regarding such. I have failed to discuss who, exactly, is a minority shareholder. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a minority shareholder is “a shareholder whose proportion of shares is too small to [...]
In the United States and, with some adaptation, in most common law countries, a member of the board of directors has a three-fold fiduciary duty to shareholders. First, he must show good faith in completing his responsibilities. The duty of good faith is a general presumption that the parties to a contract will deal with [...]
For those familiar with shareholding companies where venture capital (VC) is better established than in Vietnam, the concept of voting preference shares is familiar. I remember in law school discussing the differences in classes of shares for startups and shareholding companies, and the idea that classes of shares are treated differently from each other. That [...]
Quorums. I'm currently researching an instance in the Cherokee Nation, a Native-American tribe in the United States, where a question of the quorum requirement for the legislative branch created a constitutional crisis that put the entire Cherokee government into paralysis. When I was in-house counsel in Lao, we made some major changes without the minority [...]
As this month marks the tenth anniversary of my career in Asia, I thought I would look back again on some of the interesting transactions from earlier in my time in Vietnam. In particular, I am thinking of an acquisition on which I worked that involved a rushed tax deadline, two parties who claimed they [...]