Wounded tigers

In 1993, the US lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam and the Asian economy was on the up.

Soon, firms such as Freshfields opened offices in Thailand, and Freshfields - like Clifford Chance - set up in Vietnam.Four years later, in 1997, the economic crash hit Asia, recession set in and in 1999, Clifford Chance left Vietnam.

Thailand remains attractive, however, with City firm Watson Farley & Williams becoming the latest to set up shop there.Freshfields continued to maintain a presence in Vietnam and, according to the firm's managing partner in the country, Tony Foster, there is still work around.'The country was pretty much destroyed after the war and nothing much happened with the embargo in place.

In 1992 people realised the US would end the embargo and that everything would have to be rebuilt.

We have a lot of large infrastructure projects in this country and the bulk of our work is still the financing of these projects.'He adds that general corporate work and mergers and acquisitions work are also on the up - despite the slowdown in the US economy and fears of an impending worldwide recession.'We are still fairly insulated from the world here.

The country doesn't really trade with the US although there is a new trade agreement which is about to be ratified.'Stephen Hayward, managing partner of Lovells' Vietnam office, says: 'For a person who has spent a lot of his life out here, the crash was dramatic.

All the currency was cut by half.

It changed the face of Asia.'Since the Asian crisis, things haven't really picked up enough to notice a downturn from the US.

The trade agreement is a positive thing that's happened but as the US slows down, it's not as much value as it might have been.

It's tough here.'Chris King, managing partner of Linklaters & Alliance's Bangkok office, a city from where many international firms also service Vietnam, says the slowdown in the US economy is likely to hit Thailand - partly because the country is increasingly dependent on exports.He adds: 'Any slowdown in the US will impact elsewhere, which will have an impact on incoming investment into Thailand.

Most of what we do has a cross-border element to it, so clearly there will be an impact if export markets are hit.'Linklaters' move into Bangkok coincided with the 1997 crash.

Mr King says: 'Linklaters had been doing business from Singapore for a long period and was expanding generally throughout the world and particularly in Asia.

The opening of the new office in Bangkok coincided with the worst recession Asia has ever seen and although eventually we were doing quite well, it was not necessarily in the areas we thought we would be.'He explains that the areas the firm originally planned to focus on were cross-border securities, mergers and acquisitions, and project finance.

As a result of the crash, there has been less work than there had been in each of these areas and instead the office has been busy with mergers and acquisitions work related to restructuring - acquisitions following the economic crisis - and issues relating directly and indirectly to insolvency are more important.Mr King says the market has recovered to a certain extent, but not as quickly as many anticipated.

'There are still significant problems with the banking sector - it's still depressed.

But certain sectors are doing quite well and may have benefited from the crisis, such as exports and tourism.'He says one saving grace is that Thailand remained fairly stable throughout the crisis.

'It has not had the political problems that Indonesia had, for example.'He says the change in the law on the ownership of retail outlets has generated a lot of work, with foreign companies now allowed to own Thai supermarket chains.This law change has clearly brought in work for Freshfields.

According to its joint managing partner in Bangkok, Suparb Vongkiatkachorn, the firm is advising Tesco on its expansion programme in Thailand.Mr Vongkiatkachorn - who worked for US firm Coudert Brothers in Bangkok before joining Freshfields - says the Thai market is very competitive.

'It is a recession period and I know of firms that are offering services at rather big discounts.

We are not doing that.'Local firms by nature compete for business, but I understand international firms look for more sophisticated work, such as project finance, while local firms work on joint ventures or intellectual property issues.'Watson Farley & Williams - having established a practice in Singapore focusing primarily on maritime law, corporate finance and litigation - opened its office in Bangkok in May.

Office head Stephen Burkill says the practice has corporate and litigation capability and houses himself, two assistants plus support staff.

This, he says, is soon to be 'beefed up significantly' and the firm hopes to move to bigger offices within six weeks.He says: 'For years we were doing a lot of work for Thai clients - shipowners, commodity traders and so on - and we started to develop our projects practice, and the corporate and litigation side.

It was becoming such a big part of what we were doing that it made sense to open an office and serve our clients from here.'He says that although the Asian crash had an impact on finance deals and corporate transactions, there had been an upturn in litigation work.

'Recession doesn't mean that everything goes completely flat.'Unlike many parts of Asia, Thailand allows English firms to set up an office and employ local lawyers to practise Thai law.

Strangely though, English lawyers are not allowed to describe themselves as lawyers on the required work permits, since this would imply that they have rights of audience in the Thai courts.

Instead, they must call themselves 'consultants'.However, Mr King says this rule is now under review by the Thai authorities, 'which we welcome'.Freshfields' Bangkok office employs 44 lawyers - only a quarter of whom are expatriates.

Mr Vongkiatkachorn says: 'It is better to work here as a Thai because we can understand the culture and the legal system better than expatriate lawyers.

We can do research in the local language.

Expatriate consultants need Thai lawyers to understand Thai law.'Mr King says there is no single mentality which a new ex-pat lawyer would need to thrive in Thailand, but adds: 'It helps if they are open-minded and able and willing to understand the local culture and something of the language.

Most Thai businessmen speak English, but you miss a lot if you don't speak Thai.'Thailand is clearly popular with the expatriate community.

Mr King says: 'There is, of course, bureaucracy which is certainly different to the bureaucracy in the US or UK.

The legal system is more akin to civil law than common law, which can lead to uncertainty - but is that any worse than a bookshelf stuffed with statutes?'I prefer this system.

I came here to be somewhere completely different from England - somewhere exotic.

I planned to stay for 12 months, but I was having such a good time that 32 years later I'm still here.

It's a stimulating economy, lots of a fun, a very pleasant country to be in.

That's the reason I have stayed so long.'Lawyers looking for an easy ride should not consider Asia, according to Mr Foster.

He says: 'The workload has been very heavy recently and if people are looking for a doddle, this is not the place.'Mr Burkill adds: 'I think lawyers in Asia work harder across the board than they do in Europe.

Because there are more opportunities and the teams here a necessarily smaller, the day-to-day existence is a bit harder.

Deals, court cases and arbitrations do not run as fast or in a sophisticated a manner as they do in Europe, but it is better than you would imagine.'I certainly like it here more in every sense.

There are more opportunities and it is more satisfying in the sense that for many of the Thai clients, once you have their trust, they want your guidance.

Asian companies like to build up a relationship with individuals rather than law firms.

Being able to build a rapport with clients counts for far more than being at a big-name law firm.'Mr Foster says Vietnam has enormous potential and a determined population, and most recognise that the country will go the same way as China - another former closed communist state - in developing an impressive economy over the next few years.He adds though: 'It is very bureaucratic here - probably as a result of being run by the French and the Chinese for far too many centuries.

Things take a long time to do which is sometimes difficult, especially if you recognise the time value of money.'He does not miss much about the western world either.

Having worked in San Francisco and Tokyo before moving to Vietnam, he says he 'successfully avoided working in London for 20 years'.However, the perils of his new homeland were brought home to him recently when a lake rose after four days of torrential rain and swallowed the house he was living in.

'The only way you could get to it was in a contraption like a pedalo and even then the water went over you.

I had to go to the Saigon office until the water went down.'Lucy Hickman is a freelance journalist