Ongoing corporate counsel
LexData's legal retainer services in Vietnam give your company an outsourced legal team for a fixed monthly, quarterly or annual fee: answers to day-to-day legal questions, contract drafting and review, employment matters, work permits for foreign staff, and a calendar of the filings and reports Vietnamese law requires. The retainer suits foreign-invested enterprises and local SMEs with no in-house legal department, or a small one that needs back-up, and we work in English.
Book a consultationServices in this practice
Draft or review sale, services, distribution, agency, NDA and bilingual contracts before you sign.
Timeline 3–10 working days
View detailsLabour contracts, internal labour rules, discipline and termination handled under the Vietnamese Labour Code.
Timeline 2–4 weeks
View detailsCheck whether a permit or an exemption applies, prepare and file the application, and track renewal dates.
Timeline 3–4 weeks
View detailsSplit a company, spin off a business line or convert the company type, with debts, staff, projects and data covered.
Timeline 4–12 weeks
View detailsDissolution resolution, creditor and employee notices, IRC termination and the dissolution file, or a temporary suspension.
Timeline 3–6 months
View detailsHow it works
We review your existing legal documents: the Enterprise Registration Certificate, the Investment Registration Certificate where you have one, the charter, template contracts, internal labour rules and work permits of foreign staff. You receive a list of risks to fix first and a calendar of your recurring obligations.
Choose a monthly, quarterly or annual retainer and agree the tasks it covers, the people responsible, how requests come in (email, phone, regular meetings) and response times.
We answer questions, draft and review contracts, internal policies and employment documents, and comment before you sign, issue a document or reply to a partner or a state authority.
We flag deadlines and prepare the filings and reports, keep you updated on new laws that affect the business, and send a short report on the work done and what to prepare next.
Recurring obligations
| Obligation | Legal basis | Time limit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registering changes to the Enterprise Registration Certificate | Clause 2, Article 30, Law on Enterprises No. 59/2020/QH14 | 10 days from the date of the change. | Applies to the items shown on the certificate (Article 28): name, head office address, legal representative, members of a limited liability company and charter capital. |
| Notifying changes to enterprise registration details | Clauses 1 and 2, Article 31, Law on Enterprises (Clause 1 as amended by Law No. 76/2025/QH15) | 10 days from the date of the change. | Covers business lines, founding shareholders and foreign investor shareholders of a joint stock company, and beneficial owner information (except listed companies and companies registered for securities trading). |
| Registering internal labour rules | Articles 118 and 119, Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14 | File within 10 days of issuing the rules. | Required for employers with 10 or more employees, whose rules must also be in writing. If the rules contain unlawful provisions, the provincial labour authority asks for changes within 7 working days. |
| Investment project reports | Point a, Clause 2, Article 47, Law on Investment No. 143/2025/QH15; Article 94, Decree 96/2026/ND-CP | Quarterly report before the 10th of the first month of the next quarter; annual report before 31 March of the following year. | Filed by the company implementing the project with the investment registration authority and the local statistics office, in writing and through the National Investment Information System. |
| Extending a work permit for a foreign employee | Articles 28 and 29, Decree 219/2025/ND-CP | File at least 10 days and no more than 45 days before the permit expires. | A work permit can be extended only once, for up to 2 years. |
Legal documents
The laws, decrees and decisions we advise on in this practice, with English summaries and their current status.
Most SMEs and many foreign-invested companies in Vietnam have no legal department, yet legal questions come up almost every week: a contract that has to be signed quickly, an employee resigning, a change of capital or legal representative. Hiring advisers matter by matter is slow, because each time you start by explaining the business again. With legal retainer services in Vietnam, one team knows your operations, template contracts and history, so answers come faster and stay consistent, from commercial contract drafting and review to employment law advice.
Many obligations have short deadlines that are easy to miss without someone tracking them: registering or notifying changes to enterprise registration details within 10 days of the change (Articles 30 and 31 of the Law on Enterprises), registering internal labour rules within 10 days of issuing them (for employers with 10 or more employees), and quarterly and annual investment project reports. Foreign-invested companies also need to watch the expiry of work permits for foreign employees and the changes that require an IRC or ERC amendment. LexData sets up the compliance calendar at the start and reminds you before each deadline.
Employee and customer personal data are now part of everyday legal work under the Personal Data Protection Law No. 91/2025/QH15. Where needed, LexData combines the retainer with PDPL compliance consulting and an outsourced DPO. Larger projects with their own scope, such as corporate restructuring or company dissolution, are quoted separately and can be handled by the team that already knows your files.
FAQ
A retainer usually covers day-to-day legal questions, commercial contract drafting and review, employment law advice (labour contracts, internal labour rules, discipline and termination), work permits for foreign employees, tracking of registration and reporting obligations, and updates on new laws. When you need corporate restructuring or company dissolution, we quote that work separately.
An in-house hire knows the business in depth but comes with fixed salary and insurance costs and rarely covers every field. Outsourced legal counsel costs what the agreed scope costs and gives you a team with corporate, employment, investment and data protection expertise. Companies that already have in-house counsel can still use a retainer for specialist questions or busy periods.
The fee is usually fixed per month, quarter or year and depends on scope: the hours or tasks included, the number and complexity of contracts, headcount, whether the company is foreign-invested, and how much work is in English. Work outside the retainer is quoted before we start, and state fees and charges, if any, are billed separately.
On top of the obligations every company has, a company implementing an investment project must report on it quarterly, before the 10th of the first month of the next quarter, and annually, before 31 March of the following year (Point a, Clause 2, Article 47 of the Law on Investment No. 143/2025/QH15; Article 94 of Decree 96/2026/ND-CP). A work permit extension must be filed at least 10 days and no more than 45 days before the permit expires (Clause 1, Article 28 of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP).
You can choose a monthly, quarterly or annual term. You can also start with a short term to test how we work together and then move to an annual retainer; the scope is adjusted as the business grows or changes.
No in-house legal team?
Talk to LexData about the right retainer scope.
Tell us your sector, headcount, the contracts you sign most often and any filings coming up, and we will propose a monthly, quarterly or annual retainer.
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