Team size: 30

What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

Over the past year, the most significant project my team and I have undertaken is the adaptation to the new regulatory framework, in particular, the new regulations on data and personal data protection, as well as the new safety and security requirements for the systems of Home Credit Vietnam. In an era where data has become an immensely valuable asset, it is essential for companies – particularly those handling vast amounts of data – to implement proper controls to protect the data as well as the subjects of such data. In addition to our usual advisory activities, my team have also taken part in defining gaps between the new legal requirements on one side and the daily operations and new business initiatives on the other side, detecting related risks and proposing reasonable solutions/mitigations for the company. Similar to many general counsels in the market, sometimes it might be difficult to balance between compliant status and the normal operation of a company, especially when business result is involved. Yet, it is the goal that myself and my team are always targeting in our day-to-day activities.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

During the periods of instability or crisis, it might be easy for an in-house legal counsel to be “flooded” with inaccurate or non-relevant information, and hence losing focus on the most critical topic that he or she needs to deal with at such time. Therefore, in my opinion, it is crucial that the legal counsel needs to remain calm under the stressful situations and analyze the situation using his/her expertise, experience and common sense to determine which actions need to be taken and in which priority. Of course, it is the best scenario to have to everything fulfilled and completed, but in reality, having a priority list and getting relevant actions done one by one accordingly is the 2nd best scenario that a legal counsel might have. Also, to ensure the continuous operation of the company and to enhance its resilience against crisis, a legal counsel may prepare a general actions plan to deal with certain types of crisis that the company might be facing and test and update this action plan periodically.

Further, in many circumstances, it is impossible to have the “perfect answer” or “perfect solution” to the issue that a general counsel might be facing during “crisis mode”. In such case, a legal counsel should rely on a reasonable and ethical approach as his/her guidelines for the actions to follow.

General counsel often speak of the need to be strategic to reach the pinnacle of the profession. What does being strategic mean to you?

I think being strategic includes a couple of aspects as follows:

For general operations, it means being capable of analysing the regulatory framework and market conditions and advising the management team on the trend/ direction of the regulator that might impact the business and operations of the company.

On a specific matter, it means being able to analyze the related situation then advising on different approaches for the management team to balance between short-term results and long-term sustainability of the company.

Of course, it is also dependent on the role and responsibility of the counterparty that a general counsel might be discussing with as well. For example, the discussion on direction and trend might not have the same effect when the listener is tasks-based and is only looking a concrete answer.]

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

I used to think of creativity, business mindset and willingness to learn are the most important attributes for an in-house counsel. However, with the fast changing of regulatory environment as well as the emerge of AI recently, I would add also the ability to think reasonably and ethically. It will be even more crucial when the everyday activities of analysing and verifying of a typical legal counsel will now be affected by AI.