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

It is my pleasure to share highlights from a successful year for NAB Vietnam as we continue our journey to build a world-class Global Capability. Our focus has been on creating a great workplace, empowering and developing our people, and driving excellence in banking capabilities and technology delivery. This year, we have reached key milestone by growing our workforce by 60%, with a headcount of almost a thousand onboarded during this year. We also completed our new office project in Hanoi, to global standards, within the shortest timeframe ever, marking an outstanding achivement. NAB Vietnam is also becoming one of the most trusted and customer-centric innovation centers, with increasing requests from NAB’s information technology (IT) and other enabling functions globally.

Behind this success is the effort of the entire workforce of NAB Vietnam – a Home that we are building together, and where our Legal Team is an integral part. We recall the intense months when we operated at 200% of our capacity, working side by side with our supporting teams to finalise a series of contracts with vendors and stakeholders, as well as preparing the necessary procedures and policies to ensure an appropriate framework for sustainable growth in line with both local regulations and NAB’s global standards. I also recall how happy I was on the day we finalised the new leasing agreement for the office in Hanoi, and after that is the implementation stage for related capital funding, construction and licensing work to make it happen. As one of the first Innovation Centre models in Vietnam, we also need to be mindful regarding our legal advice for our operation, which requires deep analysis of the context and understanding about the regulations and its interpretation and the local market.

Finally, the recognition of our Legal Team’s clients also motivated us a lot. It is of help for us to understand how they experienced with us and how we can bring more values to our Home.

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

From my point of view, it would not only be the management of the legal aspects, but also of a combination of all related aspects.

We would need to step back to view the case in its entirety, examining the overarching context, the established facts, and the resulting consequences. If we call crisis a kind of the sickness, we will find out the root of that rather than papering over the cracks. If we just focus on the short-term, such sickness will come again later. Once the problem/issue is defined, we would be able to find out related action plans to manage such a situation. As said, the whole protection team – including Business, Corporate Affairs, Legal & Compliance and Management – would need to work together to discuss further solutions and actions.

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

From my point of view, strategic is the skill to see things further and wider than what they are. I remind myself that a lawyer is not just a legal adviser to provide the client with interpretations of the legal regulations. We also play the role of the business partner of our client. What does this mean? It means that we are treated as part of the business and look at how we can, together with them, drive the business forward. The legal advice should cover and take into account all perspectives, rather than a standalone context. For that purpose, an understanding of the business model, market practices and the legal frameworks at that time, and development materials for the future is required in order to strike a balance between regulatory compliance and commercial objectives.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of? 

There are two key words that appear in my mind for this question. They are digitalisation and globalisation.

For digitalisation, trends include the increasing importance of technology and data in business operations, and the corresponding need for legal expertise in areas such as data privacy, cybersecurity, and Al. So, our attention to data protection will become more significant in this situation. Regarding Vietnam legal framework, the series of the new regulations on this matter have been released, such as Data Law – effective from 1st July 2025. In addition, the newly enacted Law on Personal Data Protection (issued on 26 June 2025) will take effect from 1st January 2026, introducing specific requirements regarding the protection of personal data. The penalties for personal data protection may reach up to 5% of the previous year’s revenue. It is a significant amount to which we need to pay attention.

For globalisation, it is about the impact of the global events, trade agreements, and geopolitical tensions on business operations and legal frameworks. A treatment from one country to another country can impact whole supply chains across the world. The capacity to adapt to the situation and manage such movement is a critical skill so that we can overcome and manage the “movement” together.