LNT & Partners’ dispute resolution team is one of Vietnam’s most versatile, handling complex litigation and international arbitration across construction, infrastructure, energy, finance, and more. With offices in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the firm manages high-stakes cases nationwide and often coordinates multi-jurisdictional strategies with foreign counsel. It is frequently entrusted with cross-border disputes that test novel points of law, from enforcing foreign judgments in Vietnam to confronting parallel proceedings overseas, reflecting a practice comfortable in both local courts and international forums. Over the past year, the firm has led some of the largest arbitration matters in the country, while also achieving noteworthy results in domestic litigation and regulatory investigations. Its clients, include a wide array of state-owned entities, multinational investors and major private companies. In the past year, the firm has seen its disputes practice reach new heights in both volume and complexity. It reports a busy docket of large arbitrations and a steady flow of court matters despite Vietnam’s ongoing push for mediation and alternative resolution.
A core strength for the firm is its work on major infrastructure and energy disputes, often through international arbitration. The firm has been at the forefront of Vietnam’s landmark project arbitrations, having represented public authorities in disputes over the country’s first urban metro lines and expressway projects, each valued in the billions of dollars. In one ongoing case, LNT & Partners is sole counsel to a Hanoi transport agency in an arbitration at SIAC concerning a delayed metro rail project, defending against extensive contractor claims for cost overruns and successfully upholding the client’s position on key technical issues. In a related matter, the team is advising Ho Chi Minh City’s metro authority in a multi-forum dispute over another first-of-its-kind railway construction, where it has managed to pare down hundreds of millions in claims through jurisdictional and procedural wins.
Commercial and cross-border finance disputes are another pillar of the practice. The firm often handles matters that span Vietnam’s courts and foreign proceedings, requiring creative strategy to protect clients’ interests. A prominent example was the firm’s defence of an international financial institution facing parallel litigation in Vietnam and England after the collapse of a major aviation financing arrangement. When a Vietnamese airline initiated a $400 million lawsuit in local court, the team coordinated with UK counsel to obtain a rare anti-suit injunction from the English High Court, effectively halting the Hanoi action. This move forced the dispute into a single forum and safeguarded the bank from duplicative litigation. This was a first-of-its-kind outcome affirming that Vietnamese parties can’t easily sidestep forum clauses by suing at home.
In domestic courts, the firm has similarly guided clients through complex shareholder and contract disputes. Last year, the firm brought an end to a decade-long shareholder feud in a manufacturing company by persuading the Appellate Court to dismiss the opposing party’s series of delaying tactics as an abuse of process and allowing its client to enforce a judgment debt. The firm’s commercial litigators are also adept at multi-jurisdiction enforcement. Notably, they recently assisted a foreign creditor in achieving one of the first recognitions of a foreign court judgment in Vietnam. Here, the enforcement authority agreed to attach a local debtor’s assets based on a Singapore judgment, an unprecedented breakthrough in a jurisdiction where such enforcement is exceedingly rare. By opening that door, the firm paved the way for multinational creditors to see Vietnamese courts honour foreign decisions, enhancing predictability for cross-border commerce.
LNT & Partner’s disputes practice also encompasses labor and employment conflicts and white-collar investigations, where it has been especially active in the past year. On the employment side, the firm is a trusted adviser to major employers in Vietnam’s consumer goods, real estate, and manufacturing sectors, helping them handle sensitive workplace disputes. Recently the firm successfully defended a large real estate company in a lawsuit brought by a long-serving employee who challenged the termination of his contract. The case turned on whether the employee’s fixed-term contract had inadvertently converted to an indefinite term, a nuanced point under Vietnamese labour law, which would have made the firing unlawful. The LNT team carefully demonstrated that all extensions and notices were handled properly and that the contract remained fixed-term. The Ho Chi Minh City court agreed and dismissed the claim in its entirety, upholding the company’s right to let the employee go when the contract period ended. This decisive win set a helpful precedent on contract renewal practices, giving employers clearer guidance on how to avoid unintentionally creating indefinite employment. In another matter, the firm quietly resolved a high-stakes internal misconduct investigation for the local arm of a global consumer goods company.
The firm’s expertise in white-collar crime and investigations has likewise come to the fore with Vietnam’s heightened corporate governance scrutiny. Rather than criminal defence in court, its focus is on helping companies detect and address issues early, often working alongside auditors and forensic accountants. In the last year, the firm conducted several large-scale internal investigations for clients in the renewable energy and pharmaceutical industries when red flags emerged. In one case, a whistleblower at a foreign-owned renewable power company alleged kickbacks and accounting irregularities in its Vietnam operations. The firm’s investigations team moved swiftly across multiple sites in Vietnam to gather evidence. They scrutinized procurement records, interviewed key personnel in Vietnamese and English, and preserved digital data, all while ensuring business continuity. In coordination with external forensic experts, the team mapped out how certain procurement and bookkeeping controls had been overridden. In another investigation, for one of Vietnam’s largest pharmaceutical companies, the firm was tasked with probing a suspicious shortfall in inventory and possible fraud by supply-chain employees. Here again, the team traced transactions, coordinated surprise inspections of warehouses, and liaised with local authorities in case criminal proceedings became necessary.
Key figures of the firm’s dispute practice include some of Vietnam’s most respected litigators and arbitrators. The practice is co-led by Dr. Le Net, a founding partner with over 25 years’ experience who is regarded as an authority on Vietnam’s arbitration and litigation process. Dr. Net is himself an arbitrator on the panels of SIAC and VIAC, having served in roughly 100 arbitrations, and brings that dual perspective to his counsel work. He has been the lead partner on many of the firm’s headline and is known for his strategic acumen and measured, analytical advocacy style. Working closely with him is Vu Thanh Minh, another senior partner who often takes charge of construction and energy disputes. Based in Hanoi, Vu has significant experience in FIDIC-contract arbitrations and has overseen the day-to-day conduct of the big metro and expressway cases, coordinating technical experts and managing sprawling evidentiary records. On the litigation front, Thai Binh Tran in HCMC is frequently called upon for complex commercial cases and real estate-related disputes. Bui Ngoc Hong, who heads the firm’s investigations and compliance offerings, is another key member. He previously worked on corporate transactions, which gives her an insider’s understanding of how large companies operate internally. She leverages that background to guide clients through multifaceted fraud inquiries and regulatory issues, ensuring that legal advice is grounded in business reality. In the labor and employment arena, Nguyen Thi Diep and Luong Van Nhi Trung are recognized specialists.
