Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR) has grown its Vietnam operations to 23 lawyers, since it took over two offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from Phillips Fox on 10 January this year. The firm looks to add a further three or four lawyers.

The new additions comprise a mixture of internal and lateral moves, said Jim Dunstan (pictured), AAR's executive partner Asia, in an interview with ALB.

The firm has enlisted several Vietnamese lawyers educated in Australia. "They are Vietnamese born, went to university in Australia and are now going back to Vietnam to work in Australian law firms," said Dunstan. "They're a small but very powerful force for us, because culturally they fit into the Australian operations while they also are fluent Vietnamese speakers."

The growth of the Vietnamese offices has been stimulated by foreign investment by major corporations, especially in areas such as financial services and property. "There is an absolute tidal wave of investment in property," said Dunstan. "We're talking about people who not only want to develop new houses, but want to develop whole suburbs and all the infrastructure that goes with it: hotels, sports grounds, the lot."

When AAR took over the operations from Phillips Fox, Dunstan said he was pleasantly surprised to see how much Asian investment goes into Vietnam. Most high-level investment comes from Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. "Because of our regional presence, we've been able to pick up a significant part of that work."

AAR's Asian activities have seen steady growth; its revenues and profit margins having growth on average of 25% pa in the last five years. Singapore is the firm's largest Asian office, counting 50 lawyers when including the recently concluded joint venture with TSMP Law Corporation.

Although the office attracts local work in areas such as fund management and REITs, its main role is to function as the regional centre for the other Asian offices - flying in specialists where needed. Even Dubai and Mongolia are serviced from here.

The office - AAR is the oldest foreign law firm in Singapore after Freshfields packed its bags last April - finds much work in cross-border M&A and financial services work. Gavin MacLaren, managing partner of the Singapore office, expects growth to continue. "We certainly would be happy [...] to become the largest foreign law firm in Singapore," he said.