THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE RELATIONSHIP OF LAWYERCLIENT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In International Business By Ms.: Dang Ngoc Thuy Trang ID: MBA06039 International University - Vietnam National University HCMC September 2014 THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE RELATIONSHIP OF LAWYERCLIENT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In International Business By Ms.: Dang Ngoc Thuy Trang ID: MBA06039 International University - Vietnam National University HCMC September 2014 Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its members, this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Approved: ---------------------------------------------Chairperson -------------------------------Committee member ---------------------------------------------Committee member -----------------------------------Committee member ---------------------------------------------Committee member -----------------------------------Committee member Acknowledge The thesis is a meaningful result that I contribute to the legal services which are developing day by day. Thus, I would like to show my deep gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Van Phuong – my respectful advisor for guiding me during 6 months. Thanks to all of my classmates and my colleagues Mr. Quang, Ms. Tuyen who are always enthusiastic about supporting me to finish this thesis. Also, thanks to my best friends Bao, Nguyen, Vy who help and encourage me all the time. Last but not least, I would like to appreciate my family for staying by my side and love me unconditionally. -i- Plagiarism Statements I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions. I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Hochiminh City. - ii - Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author‟s prior consent. © Dang Ngoc Thuy Trang/MBA06039/2012-2014 - iii - Table of content Acknowledge .............................................................................................................................. i Plagiarism Statements ................................................................................................................ii Copyright Statement ................................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures ..........................................................................................................................vii Abstracts ................................................................................................................................ viii Chapter one - Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1. Background ..................................................................................................................... 1 2. Problem statement ........................................................................................................... 3 3. Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 4 4. Research question ........................................................................................................... 4 Chapter two – Literature review ................................................................................................ 6 1. Professional service ........................................................................................................ 6 2. Lawyer ............................................................................................................................ 7 3. Lawyer – Client relationship ........................................................................................... 8 4. Related research .............................................................................................................. 9 4.1. Fee: ........................................................................................................................ 10 4.2. Independence: ........................................................................................................ 11 4.3. Communication: .................................................................................................... 11 4.4. Marketing: The legal service ................................................................................. 12 4.5. Trust: ...................................................................................................................... 12 4.6. Ethics: .................................................................................................................... 12 4.7. Expertise: ............................................................................................................... 12 4.8. Empathy: ................................................................................................................ 13 4.9. Decisiveness: ......................................................................................................... 13 Chapter three – Research methodology and Analysis ............................................................. 18 1. Research design ............................................................................................................ 18 - iv - 2. 3. 4. Data collection and analysis.......................................................................................... 19 2.1. Data collection ....................................................................................................... 19 2.2. Data analysis .......................................................................................................... 20 Result ............................................................................................................................ 20 3.1. Characteristics of the main factors ........................................................................ 20 3.2. Main factors affecting the relationship between the clients and the lawyers ........ 59 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter four - Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 71 References ................................................................................................................................ 73 -v- List of Tables Table 1 Related studies of the anticipating themes. ................................................................. 14 Table 2 The comparision among the finding and the related research .................................... 50 - vi - List of Figures Figure 1 The category of the legal service price. .................................................................... 25 Figure 2 The interest of the private clients with Professionalism factor ................................. 56 Figure 3 The interest of the commecial clients with Professionalism factor .......................... 57 Figure 4 The interest of the lawyers with Professionalism factor ........................................... 58 Figure 5 The real prerequisite of the clients ............................................................................ 60 Figure 6: The model of decision making. ............................................................................... 65 Figure 7 The interest of the commercial clients ...................................................................... 68 Figure 8 The interest of the private clients .............................................................................. 69 Figure 9 The interest of the lawyers ........................................................................................ 70 - vii - Abstracts When the economics develops day by day, many services related to the ethical issues are wondered how to survive with their nature. Indeed, many clients are doubtful of the services‟ quality. The lawyer is one of the professional services which raise the human value and the social value. Many lawyers nowadays are confused with the phenomenon of the „stok‟ lawyers or „running-case‟. Furthermore, the clients are no longer trust in the lawyers and the justice. The research aims to clarify the factors affecting the relationship between client-lawyer. Nevertheless, there are not many papers related to this topic which mention clearly all factors. Thus, the qualitative method is used to identify the suitable factors affecting the relationship of client-lawyer in Ho Chi Minh city. The Nvivo is also used to coding the data which is collected from both the lawyers and the clients in Ho Chi Minh city. The research raises the new finding and the conceptual model, hopefully, those can be applicable for the lawyers and the clients. - viii - This page is intentionally left blank - ix - Chapter one - Introduction 1. Background As the society develops, there are more relationships between citizens and citizens, citizens and authorities, organizations (such as companies, the associations and so on) and authorities, organizations and organizations. These relationships sometimes conflict together, which affects the interests of each party. The trial lawyers who have the legal knowledge and experience in the activities of law defend the rights and the lawful interests of individuals, agencies and organizations most effectively at the Court. Through litigation activities, lawyers not only contribute to reducing the wrongfully convicted case, protecting the best interests of clients on the basis of the law provisions, but also improve the position of lawyers in society. In the field of legal advisers, the lawyers advise to ensure the best legal rights to their clients: consulting contracts, consulting for business or other legal services and so on. All of the other activities of lawyers that contribute to a business environment, promote development of economics and society, futhermore, lawyers also help to spread out the propaganda and popular legal knowledge when customers find a lawyer to ask for protecting their legal rights and interests. Lawyers have many advantages but also face difficulties and challenges. There are three main difficulties : The first difficulty comes from the professional qualifications, professional skills of lawyers and law organizations to solve the complex problems in the society. The current economic relations that the research mentioned have complexly interwoven contradictions and if a lawyer is not qualified, he or she is very hard to provide the quality of legal services. -1- The second difficulty is litigation system. The system in the past is transiting while the one in the present has not formed yet. The current legal proceeding has many general rules. The right and obligations of lawyers are not stipulated specifically and consistently. There are not many opportunities for lawyers from investigation to prosecution and trial as well as participating in the legal relationship of the proceedings . The third difficulty comes from the awareness of the people. There are very few customers collaborate and provide lawyers with the adequate information. Futhermore, there is approximately 1 lawyer for every 14.000 people in Vietnam, which is too lower than other countries. The statistics of the Ministry of Justice also showed that there are 62 bar associates including more than 6,250 lawyers and over 3,000 legal apprentices who practice in 2,750 law organizations. The country has 90 million people but only 6,250 lawyers is very low- the lawyers per capita in Vietnam is approximately 1/14,000, while the ratio in Singapore is 1/1,000, Thailand 1/1,526, Japan 1/1,546. Moreover, most lawyers in Vietnam concentrate on two major cities: Hanoi (1,630 lawyers) and Ho Chi Minh City (2,880 lawyers), the number of lawyers in other provinces only 3-5 lawyers in every province (Nguyen, 2014) (Saigon Times). When the low lawyers per capita is only 1/10 all countries in the region and the world, people cannot access to the high legal services as require or must paid high fee to have these services. In many cases, people are unable to have the lawyers protect their lawful rights and interests. Hence, there is only 10% of the cases that the people hired the lawyers (Saigon Times). Although now the number of lawyer are increasing with the high quality and the legal knowledge of the people is low, the people still wonder whether the cases should be had the lawyers join in. -2- 2. Problem statement A good working relationship between the client and the lawyer will result in a better outcome, a smoother process, a lower fee and a satisfied client. The lawyers rely on the clients and the clients need the lawyers. A good relationship can bring many benefits for both of them. The author observed during the working process and recognizing the problem in many law firms. The lawyers do not know how to use many methods to attract the new clients excepting the famous lawyers and the large law firms, or even the clients do not know where to find a good lawyer. The lawyer is a professional service (like architects, auditors, engineers, doctors), thus, the marketing may depend on factors such as skills, knowledge, experience, reputation, capacity, ethics, and creativity, which makes lawyer more specific (Crosby, Evans & Cowles, 1990). But lawyers do not use the right way to promote and convince the clients. The clients are not also aware of the benefits and the roles of lawyers that can guarantee their rights and interests. In a criminal case, some defendants refused the lawyers‟ help for thinking that the lawyers would make the case more complicated and increase their penalties, which wastes of money. When the client-lawyer relationship is formed, the lawyers are still embarrassed in maintaining the relationship and the clients‟ trust. As a result of it, some clients drop, and other stay. The reasons that the clients leave are the lack of the sympathy, theprofessional skills and the communication as well as the reliability of the lawyers. Trust is an important element but when the clients need the lawyers, their demand is that their lawyer can do right like their expectation. Besides, the lawyers truly want the clients to maintain their business, some of them ignore the ethical issue to achieve their profit goal, which causes many -3- professional ethical violation. Through the observation, the lawyers are not good at managing and controlling as well as justifying the relationship with the clients. This issue was wondered what factors affect not only the clients to hire the lawyers to protect their rights and interests, but also the lawyers attract the clients. Did the marketing practitioners not appreciate this relationship to have effective strategy or is the professional competence of lawyers not reliable? Did the clients not trust in the lawyers or are they afraid of any factors else? This relationship is very important for both the lawyers and the clients to satisfy the goals that both of them aim to. Owing to this research, the lawyers can solve many conflicts with the clients through discussion during the working process as well as clarify the case fact and satisfy the clients‟ expectation. The issue was raised to evaluate the most important factor of the relationship as the lodestar the lawyers must consider before making decisions or solving any problems or conflicts with the clients. 3. Objectives The research discusses about the characteristics which not only create but also affect to the clients-lawyers relationship are neccessary to maintain. Also, building up the model can help to easily improve the disadvantages and develop the advantages. This research relies on the related research, Vietnamese law, the experience and the observation to build up theory conceptual model to identify the fators affect the clients-lawyers relationship. Moreover, it also gives the suggestion and improvement for the effective relationship through the experts‟ experience. 4. Research question The research aims to answer these questions below: What factors affect the client-lawyer relationship? -4- What is the most important factor that the lawyer consider before solving problems to maintain the relationship as the lodestar and the clients rank the priority salience? -5- Chapter two – Literature review 1. Professional service Professional services are occupations in the tertiary sector of the economy requiring special training in the arts or sciences. However, academic analyses usually define the root term, profession, on the basis of multiple characteristics, of which a distinct knowledge base is only one. For instance, sociologists generally distinguish professions from other occupations by their strong control over the application of their knowledge base via a range of institutions, such as training and licensing (Abbott, 1991; Starbuck, 1992; Torres, 1991). Some professional services require holding professional licenses such as architects, auditors, engineers, doctors and lawyers. Other professional services involve providing specialist business support to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors; this can include tax advice, supporting a company with accounting, or providing management advice. Many industry groups have been used for academic research when looking at professional services firms, making a clear definition hard to attain. Some work has been directed at better defining professional service firms (PSF). In particular, Von Nordenflycht (2010) generated a taxonomy of professional service firms, defining four types: (1) Classic PSFs (e.g. law and accounting firms) characterised by a high knowledge intensity, a professionalised workforce, and low capital intensity. (2) Professional campuses (e.g. hospitals) - characterised by a high knowledge intensity, a professionalised workforce, and high capital intensity. (3) NeoPSFs (e.g. management consultants) - characterised by a high knowledge intensity and a low capital intensity. (4) Technology developers (e.g. R&D firms, biotechs) characterised by a high knowledge intensity and a high capital intensity -6- The marketing and selection of professional-service providers may depend on factors such as skills, knowledge, experience, reputation, capacity, ethics, and creativity. Large corporations may have a formal procurement process for engaging professional services. Prices for services, even within the same field, may vary greatly. Professional-service providers may offer fixed rates for specific work, charge in relation to the number or seniority of people engaged, or charge in relation to the success or profit generated by the project. 2. Lawyer According to the Office of Fair Trading, professional services are occupations in the tertiary sector of the economy requiring special training in the arts or sciences. Some professional services require holding professional licenses such as architects, auditors, engineers, doctors and lawyers. A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." There are many differences between Lawyer, Attorney, Counsel and Solicitor in the world but the research is mentioned about the Vietnamese lawyers who are qualified to practice law, perform legal services as requested by individuals, agencies and organizations (referred to as the client). But the research also gives some definitions to make it clear. The definition of lawyer expands to overlap definition of attorney. A lawyer can not only provide advice and aid on legal matters but also conduct suits in court proceedings and represents clients in various legal instances. An attorney (attorney in-law) who represents a client in court may act on the client‟s behalf and plead or defend a case in legal proceedings (Daicoff, 1997). -7- In UK, there is the distinct between barrister and solicitor definition. A barrister performs trial work in high court and not deal directly with clients. But a solicitor who speaks with clients and prepares documents may appear as an advocate in a lower court (Albert and Lewis, 1995). In some countries, it is not necessary to study in the law school to become an attorney, which is totally different from Vietnam. A person wants to be a lawyer has to graduate from the law school and the course of Ministry of Justice. After practicing law for a while, he or she must qualify the lawyer test of the Bar Association, hence, there is only one lawyer definition. It means a lawyer in Vietnam can do from the legal service to the proceedings. 3. Lawyer – Client relationship “The lawyer-client relationship is a formally recognized legal relationship that enjoys special protection under the law. A lawyer, along with a doctor, spouse and priest, are one of the few people who cannot be obligated to testify or reveal information when that information would incriminate another. A lawyer also has certain special obligations to a client, and a lawyer's failure to fulfill those obligations can result in penalties including monetary fines, a malpractice verdict, and/or loss of the lawyer's license to practice law” (Peter Zhu, 2012). When Is a Lawyer-Client Relationship Formed? Lawyer-client relationship is formed when a client has reason to believe that the lawyer is representing the client's legal interests. This "reason" can be express or implied. Lawyer-client relationship can obviously be formed when a client pays a retainer and/or signs a contract with a lawyer that the lawyer will represent them or when the court send the announcement of inviting a designated lawyer that he or she agrees as well in the criminal cases. The key question in determining whether the -8- relationship exists is the client reasonably believes the lawyer is representing his interests and/or providing him with legal guidance (Cleary, 2000). 4. Related research As the research mentioned before, there are not many studies about the relationship between client-lawyer. However, the research based on some reliable studies of Hilton and Migdal (2005), Kritzer (1984), Elbers, Wees, Akkermans, Cuijpers and Bruinvels (2012) According to Hilton and Migdal (2005), they researched the factors influence client dependency upon lawyers and can be attributed to the environment, the client, the lawyer, or the interaction within the relationship. Accordingly, each of them were identified to find out some specific factors can influence the commercial and private clients. After analysis, the authors conducted 4 strategies that lawyers can develop within the commercial and the private clients: Relationship Specific Investments, Development of Client Specific Relationship, Recognition of Client Expertise and Social Bonding. The study only mentioned about the impact toward the clients, did not focus on the influence toward the lawyers too much. Kritzer (1984) identified 3 dimensions of the relationship: Professionalism, Business and Social. The author clarified that professionalism dimension is control interaction, define nature of problem, define nature of the task to be done and will be done as well as trust. Also, business dimension is income or fee factor. The dimensions that the author described are conceptual distinct and they are not independent of the others. Accordingly, the author ranked the salience of the dimensions as business first, professional second and social third based on the clients‟ view when a client chose a lawyer but from the lawyers‟ opinion, the ranking would -9- be different. However, the study did not determine the factors creating each dimension clearly. Unlike those 2 studies, Elbers et al. (2012) argued that the positive lawyer characteristics derived from: communication, expertise, decisiveness, empathy and independence. Those characteristics are what the personal injury victims need from their lawyers can improve their well-being during the claims settlement process. The limitation of this study is not to discuss about the necessary characteristics of a positive lawyer toward a defendant or a plaintiff, furthermore, the scope is only in the criminal case. The purpose of the study is to empirically investigate the lawyer-client relationship from the client‟s perspective, specifically clients‟ preferences and experiences regarding their lawyers. Therefore, this research will base on those previous studies to examine the factors, collect the information and build up the conceptual model is suitable for the lawyers in Ho Chi Minh city. Anticipating a factor consist of small items which are difficulties, challenges, or even advantages of lawyers and clients, enables to need more related research for each of them. Basing on the inductive thematic analysis and grounded theory style, the author hopes the small items are potential themes as the problems that can happen with the relationship between clients and lawyers. They may be fee, communication, independence, trust, ethics, marketing, decisiveness, expertise… may be necessary for this special relationship. But the foreseen characteristics need examing. 4.1. Fee: Kritzer (1984) also determined in analysing the business dimension that fee is considered initially as a client chooses a lawyer. Hence, a lawyer who is to receive a fee based on a standard free schedule need not worry about how to calculate the fee or how to justify the fee to the client, likewise, clients need not worry about - 10 - the meter running if they should decide to raise a particular issue or question with their lawyer. Actually, there are 3 types of fee arrangement: (1) a lawyer is paid a fixed hourly rate or specified sum bases on the number of hours worked, but only if successful, (2) a lawyer charges a flat or hourly fee, with a bonus accuring to he or she if he or she is successful, or (3) a lawyer is paid only a percentage of any recovery obtained for the client (Shajnfeld, 2009) 4.2. Independence: The lawyers must be independent with the corporation, politics, and clients in order to perform properly their political roles as the guardians of individual rights, the defenders of the legal framework, and the balance wheel of society (Gordon, 1988). The author also raised the types of independence as well as some social factors affecting independence. Besides, Elbers et al. (2012) consider the independence was an important problem, especially in the case that „clients may sometimes suspect that lawyers recommend a particular course of action because they are friends with the opposing attorney, afraid to take a case to court, afraid of hurting their own relationship with the opposing client, or seeking to aggrandize their own reputation‟ (Sternlight & Robbennolt, 2008, pp. 500–501) or the lawyer‟s attitude is independent with the client‟s insurance company. 4.3. Communication: Elbers et al. (2012) clarified the important role of the communication enabling to provide the information. Many communication factors influenced the client‟s perception of his/her lawyer and the relationship between client and lawyer were raised with the communication skills and solutions in order to be helpful for the lawyer to enter into a friendly relationship with the client. A client is unique, each lawyer-client relationship is also unique. Communication is merely the method for them to achieve a desired legal result.(Smith and Nester, 1977) - 11 - 4.4. Marketing: The legal service is a special service, hence, its marketing is also different from the others. Lackey and Minta (2012) mentioned about the way that lawyer use marketing on social media: Tweeting, Facebook and Blogging can bring the potential benefits in not only marketing but also networking and litigation resource. In despite of it, the authors determined that the lawyers should be careful about the risk of social media. Besides, the lawyers also can use another types of internet marketing for their law firms: paid per click (PPC), video marketing, viral marketing, email marketing, forum marketing, article marketing and SMS marketing (Hussain, Yaakub, Rahman, Zainol and Mujani, 2010). 4.5. Trust: Trust is the essential part of human relationships, is hard to regain once it is lost especially lawyer-client relationship. Burt (1981) emphasized how important the trust plays role via the lawyer and client. 4.6. Ethics: Robbennolt and Sternlight (2013) revealed that the nature of legal practice means that the lawyers face a set of difficult challenges. It is difficult to recognize some psychological phenomena, though there are many complex and ambiguous ethical and standards, agency relationships, position or feelings of relative status and power, and cues or pressure from others. They found out the reason and recommendation for lawyers in order to notice and avoid ethical issues in the first instance. The research also use another study to clarify the question what kind of ethics large corporate clients want of their lawyers (Whelan, 2012) 4.7. Expertise: The clients appreciate their lawyers working out effectively owing to the legal knowledge. Of course, they do not expect their lawyers for making “mess” or any careless mistakes (Elbers et al., 2012). According to Felthouse (2011), a lawyer must be a person who can have competence to stand trial required by the supreme court or the states. - 12 - 4.8. Empathy: Empathy refers to the various experiences of clients as to whether they felt respected and treated with dignity. They used words such as compassionate, understanding, interested, involved, human, accessible, personal, friendly, and nice. They indicated that they appreciated the lawyer asking how they felt, showing genuine interest, always being there for them, being able to put their mind at rest, and realizing how the injury hampered them in doing the things they value in life. Empathy also involved being acknowledged by the lawyer and being understood and taken seriously. The need for empathy could change during claims settlement. (Elbers et al., 2012) 4.9. Decisiveness: Clients in the sample were burdened by feelings that it was left up to them to ensure that their lawyer got on with his work (Elbers et al., 2012). Decisiveness had not previously been discussed as an important characteristic, which is remarkable, given that an important frustration is that the claims settlement process takes too long. Lack of decisiveness caused their case to stagnate for unacceptably long periods of time. The lawyer should adopt a proactive approach in order to avoid or prevent litigation before it araises. - 13 - Table 1 Related studies of the anticipating themes. Anticipated Related studies Scope and limitation - Herbert - Fee is considered initially as a client M.Kritzer (1984) chooses a lawyer. The clients think lawyers themes Fee work for the business. - There are 3 types of fee arrangement, but Independence - Adam in Vietnam, the lawyers also use another Shajnfeld. (2009) type. - Robert - The lawyers must be independent with the W.Gordon. (1988) coporation, politics, and clients. - The author also raised the types of independence as well as some social factors affecting independence. - Nieke A.Elbers, - The independence was an important Kiliaan A.P.C.van problem, in many cases, the lawyers can be Wees, Arno hurt their own relationships. J.Akkermans, Pim Cuijpers, David J.Bruinvels. (2012) Communication - Nieke A.Elbers, - The important role of the communication - 14 - Kiliaan A.P.C.van enabling to provide the information for the Wees, Arno lawyer to enter into a friendly relationship J.Akkermans, Pim with the client Cuijpers, David J.Bruinvels. (2012) - Allen E.Smith & Patrick Nester. (1977) Marketing - Communication is merely the method for them to achieve a desired legal result - Michael E. - The lawyer using marketing on social Lackey Jr. (2012) media: Tweeting, Facebook and Blogging can bring the potential benefits. - The lawyers should be careful about the risk of social media. - Wan Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain, Noor Inayah Yaakub, Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, Zinatul - The lawyers also can use another types of internet marketing for their law firms: paid per click (PPC), video marketing, viral marketing, email marketing, forum marketing, article marketing and SMS marketing. Ashiqin Zainol and Wan Kamal Mujani. (2010) - 15 - Trust Ethics - Robert A.Burt. - The study emphasized how important the (1981) trust plays role via the lawyer and client. - Jenifer - It found out the reason and K.Robbennolt & recommendation for lawyers in order to Jean R.Sternlight. notice and avoid ethical issues in the first (2013) instance though it is difficult to recognize some complex psychological phenomena, - Christopher - It clarified the question what kind of J.Whelan. (2012) ethics large corporate clients want of their lawyers Expertise - Nieke A.Elbers, - The clients appreciate their lawyers Kiliaan A.P.C.van working out effectively owing to the legal Wees, Arno knowledge. Of course, they do not expect J.Akkermans, Pim their lawyers for making “mess” or any Cuijpers, David careless mistakes. J.Bruinvels. (2012) - Alan R.Felthouse, MD. - A lawyer must be a person who can have (2011) competence to stand trial required by the supreme court or the states. Decisiveness - Nieke A.Elbers, - Lack of decisiveness caused their - 16 - Kiliaan A.P.C.van case to stagnate for unacceptably long Wees, Arno periods of time. The lawyer should adopt a J.Akkermans, Pim proactive approach in order to avoid or Cuijpers, David prevent litigation before it araises. J.Bruinvels. (2012) Sympathy - Nieke A.Elbers, - Empathy refers to the various experiences Kiliaan A.P.C.van of clients as to whether they felt respected Wees, Arno and treated with dignity. Empathy also J.Akkermans, Pim involved being acknowledged by the lawyer Cuijpers, David and being understood and taken seriously. J.Bruinvels. (2012) - The need for empathy could change during claims settlement. Source: Data - 17 - Chapter three – Research methodology and Analysis 1. Research design The research will approach the relationship of client-lawyer in Ho Chi Minh city to have a general view of this professional service situation. Therefore, the research concentrates on 2 types of participants: lawyers and clients will use the in-depth interview method to clarify the factors based on many previous journals. There are not many papers that mention about this problem, so the research must combine the previous studies (Herbert M.Kritzer, 1984; Toni Hilton & Stephen Migdal, 2005) using the qualitative method to examine the potential factors affecting the relationship of client-lawyer. From each factor, the research will investigate the impact of that factor which plays the important role as the lodestar of lawyers. To implement the idea, the qualitative research method is selected. The unstructured and semi-unstructured forms of inquiry are used to reduce the problems and are better suited to the analysis. The questions will be posed for observation and in-depth interviews through face-to-face with lawyers and clients in order to make it clear because there are several lawyers who never work with the clients in the reality instead of doing another jobs although they are qualified, hence, it is impossible to interview via email or telephone instead of vis-à-vis with the lawyers. The interview is accomplished with 10-15 lawyers who have over 2-work-experience-years and 1520 clients who are commercial and private used to work with lawyers. It enables to approach the experts‟ experience and prediction as well as the clients‟ attitude, and have the information of conflicts solution. Owing to this method, their “stories” are known as the valid information. - 18 - 2. Data collection and analysis 2.1. Data collection The research based on the inductive thematic analysis and grounded theory have the process insist of (1) reading through textual data, (2) identifying themes in the data, (3) coding those themes, and (4) interpreting the structure and content of the themes. After interview of the participants and observation, the process entails systematically reviewing the unit of the text as they are coded, creating the emergent codes for the unit, and writing the memos to expand on the related codes and the relationship between codes. During that process, the research will also follow Toni Hilton and Stephen Migdal (2005) and Herbert M.Kritzer (1984) to extract the information and collect the data. Each theme may be a small item (difficulty, problem or even advantage) that creates a factor. The research hopefully can figure out new characteristics as well as potential factors. The conceptual model is built up after data collection and analysis. The semi-structured interviews were used to conduct in person or via using when this was not possible. Interviews took about 30 minutes for each participant and audio was recorded and transcribed. Interviews involved open-ended questions about the relationship of client and lawyer. Hence, the data are only collected from the participants who are not pleasure to cooperate with the interviewer or who answer perfunctorily. It aims to prevent from the bias datum. The research constructs 17 questions of the factors affecting the relationship of client-lawyer for the questionnaire, however, during the interview process all participants mentioned a newly same point, which increases more 2-3 questions to clarify that new one. - 19 - 2.2. Data analysis Transcripts were analysed by NVIVO to identify major themes related to informants‟ views on the relationship between clients and lawyers. The research approached the transcripts using concept-driving coding, where the research created a coding scheme which followed topics outlined by the interview schedule, derived from the best practice in data-driven coding where topics were allowed to emerge from reading the data, and these were added to the coding framework. 3. Result 15 lawyers were invited to be interviewed and only 12 (80%) participated and the author dropped the interviews of 2 lawyers who were not pleasure to cooperate with. 5 private clients and 5 commercial clients were invited and 10 (100%) participated. The informants were interviewed through Skype and face-to-face conversation. After collecting the datum, the research emerged 10 small themes as the characteristics of the main factors. Each of the themes was diccussed in the interviews of the participants which are the experts, so the data is reliable, especially, the research found out one new theme which is different from many previous studies. 3.1. Characteristics of the main factors 3.1.1. Theme 1 - Fee Lawyers: According to the interviews, the fee of legal service in Ho Chi Minh city was set based on “the complexity and simplicity of the case, the time lawyer spending for a case, number of lawyer take part in a case, expected cost to solve a case”, as the lawyer 10 who works in VPbank said, it can be called service quality of legal service. So that is the reason the price is incredibly as the lawyer 9 works in QL law firm “The - 20 - price of the legal service is emotional”. The price is charged depends on each case and each client. As the criminal cases, standard cost is 120,000VND/ hour, should not be over. And it is the exception. Toward foreign investors, they also prepared budget to comply law, it is easy to set price. According to company size, there is another way to charge (Kalb, 1993). Lawyers should have charismatic appeal fee for the small companies. If the consulting case is calculated a package, lawyer partner is paid $250/hour, paralegal associate and junior lawyer are paid $120-180/ hour. The fee is right and very competitive, there are some other law firms can charge $350/hour for senior lawyer such as Mc Kenzie ... and possibly thousands of dollars/hour. Kalb (1993) declared that the price was set according to the following criteria: (1) parity with local competition; (2) status, whereby more experienced and famous lawyers charge higher price; (3) education status; (4) supply and demand, with the lawyers having expertise in unique specialities charging more for their services. According to the informants, the fee is set by hour or by full package. The charging by hour way is suitable for the consultative case, however, in the proceedings case, the foreigners want the explicitness of the time that the lawyers spend for the case, so the lawyer in Vietnam represent for personal work not based on time sheet which is only for the large companies, the foreigner people and the foreign companies, because the administrative cases are often prolonged, so the time sheet is disadvantage, such as the proceedings cases in the court which is postponed or canceled because of administrative procedures can extend, then the fee clients must pay will increase. This charging by hour way is also divided into many types which is belong to the clients‟ financial ability: (1) by basic fee plus the percent if they are successful, but in terms of perspective, the law does not allow the lawyers to show the success assurance, so when he says to get the cost as a certain part if he gain victory, - 21 - which will make people think he aims to guarantee results (the Lawyer 4 in Saigon Asian law firm, the lawyer 1 – the lecturer, the lawyer 10, the lawyer 6); (2) by the percentage of the recovery obtained for the clients (the lawyer 10 in VPbank, the lawyer 1 – the lecturer); (3) by the hour but not go over certain amount of hours negotiated by all parties involved, which is the combination of the charge by hour and by full package also a new point compared to the previous studies (the Lawyer 3 in YKVN); (4) from 120,000VND/hour to 210,000VND/hour with the legal aid fee, depending on consultant or compiling the instrument that prices are given by government (the Lawyer 7 in the Legal Aid Center, the lawyer 4 in Saigon Asean). The lawyers can charge by full package because lawyers in Vietnam set price based on not time sheet but the case results, so prolonging cases is detrimental to both lawyers and clients. Lawyers should not do so intentionally. In the other countries, if the case is prolonged unreasonably, the clients do not agree to pay for their lawyers on the time sheet given. The criminal cases are the exception that the lawyers will be given by the goverment. By hour charge way, some companies like Rouse company the Lawyer 5 works in have a software to record the work, then count the hours after the process ends. But this method is unreasonable because sometimes the work can be coincided in a team. Hence, the full package charge was only set when it is suitable to the must-do forecasted work. Clients: All clients who were interviewed have the same opinion. The private clients said that the price of legal service in Ho Chi Minh city was resonable, and the commecial clients did not. The Commercial clients 3 - Vietphuong corporation mentioned “The - 22 - fee is quite high. The fee made up 50% of required debt‟s customers. Maybe because those customers are individual. The fee in Ho Chi Minh city is higher than in Binh Dinh or Hue. Lawyers‟ fee in Binh Dinh or Hue make up only 30% of total required debt. So i always consider what issues need lawyers solve.” Apparently, there is no many fee policies to encourage the companies cooperate with the lawyers. Hence, the companies, especially the small companies, rarely need the lawyers at the beginning of the case, which only find the lawyer when the risk happens. Finally, the total fee that the companies must pay for the legal service to remedy is higher than for the companies must pay to avoid risks at the beginning, this is what the Commercial client 5 – Thien Bang construction company admitted. However, the large companies realize the lawyer‟s role for their benefits, they can agree the price until it is reasonable for them. The large foreign companies often prepare the cost for the legal service so that their business goes smoothly and avoid the risk. The private clients who were interviewed also need the lawyers to remedy the damages. The clients always think that it wastes of the money when the clients can do the procedures or solve the issues by themselves. But when the damages happen will be particularly serious and hardly remedied, then, the price increases as well as the clients spend long time until the problems are solved. However, the price for the private clients is friendly as the private client 4 said because most of the private clients know the lawyers from the acquaintance. The lawyers balance the elements to give reasonable fee for the private clients to maintain the relationship (Darken, Darken & Kiser, 1981), hopefully, the private clients can have the opportunity to use the legal service‟s quality and introduce to the others. The types of relationships that form between the lawyers and the clients can significantly affect prices, especially the - 23 - pricing of goods where high trust can reduce the transactions costs typically viewed as irreducible through contracts (Uzzi & Lancaster, 2004). The foreign clients, in addition to elements of professional issues, they also care about is the remuneration of services. Along with the same professional qualifications, the foreign clients will choose the lawyer or law firm with low price. The foreign clients often regard the fee as a serious, frankly and fairly problem. Therefore, all lawyers should calculate the cost for the foreign clients to accept or not accept. Therefore, this research also categorises the legal service price in Ho Chi Minh city. - 24 - By fixed fee given by government By basic fee plus the percent if lawyers are successful By hour charge By the percentage of the recovery obtained for the clients By the hour but not go over certain amount of hours negotiated by all parties Price By full package charge given by the lawyers By full package charge By full package charge that the government pays for the criminal cases Source: Data Figure 1 The category of the legal service price. 3.1.2. Theme 2 - Marketing Lawyers: The lawyers claimed the main marketing channel that they used is word-of-mouth (from friends, old clients, CEOs of the companies, the other acquaintances and so on) (Kalb, 1993). In addition, lawyers work must be effective to create the prestige which spread everywhere to attract the clients. The Lawyer 10 in the legal Aid Center said - 25 - that the lawyers needn‟t seek the clients, the clients will find the lawyers by their own. They believed that the marketing strategy of a law firm must be different than that of a fast moving consumer good company, because the law firm is a professional service. Not only the small law firms but also the large law firms try to create the reputation from their competence, clients‟ trust, and social relationships (Kalb, 1993), “To brand for firms, lawyers need to build a brand for themselves first”, the Lawyer 3 in YKVN declared. Many lawyers use marketing channels differently from the others as well. Basing on the data of the infomants, there are two types: the first type is the large law firm, to attract commercial clients, they will send the brochure of the firm, or celebrate the workshops, conferences to invite visitors. They can host the workshop or the conference, but the agencies or the other firms will communicate, through which they will exchange their experiences with each other. They also use the international awards “Our firm use the good channel is the international awards. Our firm brand is published international law magazines which is the best reliable source for the clients to guarantee the quality” or they had their own marketing department in Vietnam or in foreign countries to do it internationally. Besides, they exploit other channels such as Associations (Amcham of American companies) for advertisement as the Lawyer 3 in YKVN did. Or they can promote like the Rouse the Lawyer 5 stated that there are some exceptions when the Commercial Chamber of the embassy introduce the companies to the reliably large law firms. Secondly, law offices (small law firms) will hold training sessions for the introduction of laws to workers, thereby it can build the lawyer‟s image with the workers, from which the workers will remember when having legal issues, they will find the lawyers who consultant. Some activities that offices will implement are the - 26 - free consultation in order to attract the clients. They should have a website to introduce about their offices. Lawyers who are more famous do it by theirselves such as newspaper article writing on Dan Luat, Law Soft, Phap Luat and Tuoi Tre newspaper, free communication, collaboration with judicial agencies of many districts to promote law followed theme, if resolved by briefly short consultation for free short, the reputation greatly increased, or teaching in the universities or judicial academy is also a way to promote the image as the Lawyer 4 in Saigon Asean law firm said. They also made the personal topic or company topic to introduce the law, promote through the press or on the radio, television as legal advice and answer questions (Story of everyone). Unlike many industries, lawyers did not use Facebook or Twitter, Yahoo because it is not professional and safe politically, they have inciting or indecent content. The form of SMS or Email is cheaper so a lawyer should not use. Those ways which will detract from the lawyers‟ image as they are too economical and disturbing the people. The advertisement will make people think wrong about the lawyers. People will disgust, dislike and then not choose those lawyers anymore. The lawyer 10 in VPbank asserted that the lawyer is like the doctor. Nobody will trust in a doctor if he appears too much on the unprofessional advertisement. Clients only come when he is a good doctor. Hence, Darken et al. (1981) suggested the suitable strategies for the law firms are that the types of educational programs are possible at both the individual and local bar association levels, legal service columns in newspaper or use TV and radio time slots are also help. Clients: - 27 - The lawyer does not find clients but clients find the lawyer. Clients have the right to choose a lawyer or legal consultant company that they want and trust. Relying on the informants, the research summarizes that the clients can also choose a lawyer because of the personal relationship as acquaintances, through the introduction and so on. Clients come to lawyers through the channels, such as prestige, knowledge and expertise of newspaper publishing, lectures at the scientific Conference, introduction of other clients, patrons, good personal relationships, personal contact, organization, contests or development market. After collecting the data, the author recognizes that the Vietnam clients have a winner mentality. At the start of each case, they find ways to win even finding a good lawyer to advice. Besides, the Vietnam clients also get formalism, as the companies usually offer a good lawyer to advise in the business and production activities, to negotiate and conclude the contract of the company. Knowing this psychology is the advantage to attract the Vietnam clients by using flexibly the skills and capacity. The foreign clients may be individuals or businesses, companies, foreign organizations established and operating in the territory of Vietnam. The foreign clients often have the legal knowledge, professional qualifications, capacity of management and organizational mind. So their requirements are usually clear and coherent. Unlike Vietnam clients, they rarely require lawyers advising them things contrary to law, they really respect for the lawyer‟s reputation. So, when working with them, a lawyer must show that he understands the laws of Vietnam, have the prestige and the experience in the protection of the interests of the client in accordance with the laws of Vietnam. The foreign clients will not be satisfied, if the lawyer works through his personal experience or his acquaintance to lobby. After coding, the - 28 - research recommends that the lawyers may conduct the following activities to attract the foreign clients: Marketing: is a method commonly used in the national market economy. The agencies and individuals in the market economy are usually busy with work without a deep understanding other areas than theirs, so to dominate the market a lawyer needs marketing through the channels such as workshop, introduce his firm in the brochure or the leaflet or in-home counseling to create the relationship with the clients, or greet the clients is an important way to create the relationship, or the press, the conferences, advertising. ... Advertisements can be expected to play an increasingly important but only partial role. The lawyers should consider the right of the consumers to necessary information. (Smith & Meyer, 1980). Prestige: is a mean of the most precious marketing and the important factor for clients when they choose lawyers. Creating a good reputation of a lawyer has been a fortune. A famous law firm and a reputable lawyer will certainly attract to the best clients and have the opportunity to participate in the largest transactions. Thereby the lawyers will accumulate more experience and attract to more clients (Kalb, 1993). Honesty: the lawyers should never set the type of trading relationship with clients, must build relationships with clients on the basis of realistic, collaborative, sustainable and mutually beneficial. The clients have to know that the lawyers or the law firms are doing serious and decent, will not do to get the money targets. That reinforces the credibility, creates clients faith and maintains a connection to the regular clients (Humbach, 1999). Patience: The lawyers do not ever show impatience. The relationship of clients- lawyer must be formed step by step. The Private client 4 is a retired teacher said that the clients also have the challenge for the lawyers before their choice. The - 29 - effectiveness of the work, qualifications, professional ethics, reputation combined with patience will make a successful lawyer. Most of the participants knew their lawyers owing to the acquaintances. They reckoned that it was more reliable than other channels because they knew their lawyers from their friends, collegues or any social relationships who hired the lawyers can guarantee the quality of legal service. It means the prestige and the reputation of a lawyer is the most important marketing mean. Therefore, a lawyer must focus on the methods to expand their prestige and employ flexibly with each client target (Kalb, 1993). 3.1.3. Theme 3 - Communication Lawyers: The communication is very important so that the clients can estimate the competence of a lawyer (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). Therefore, the lawyers really need the communication tools and face-to-face conversation is the easiest tool to exchange the information and see emotions (annoyed, confused, sad…) and body language, as well as understand the concerns (Darken, Darken & Krister, 1981). Before meeting, clients should send their case files so that the lawyers can prepare the questions and issues need clarificating, then hold more information. But it has the disadvantage for the clients who do not live near Ho Chi Minh city. If the law firms have branches in many provinces and cities, the clients can come those branches which are near them. But the Internet is easier to arrange a meeting. If using face-toface meeting, it spends time and traveling cost for lawyers and clients, the internet cuts cost a lot for the clients (Darken, Darken & Krister, 1981). So, depending on circumstances or cases, telephone, email and post office are used. The lawyers can work with clients through emails, voice chat, or conference - 30 - call. It is not necessary to meet up in person especially for consult. For example, for establishing a company, clients can just send their lawyers the documents and allow the lawyers to legally represent them. Many people are afraid of the information security of the exchange on the internet, so the lawyer 3 in YKVN stated “We work through email of the firm which is using the Clouds Computing to ensure the information or any document in the high security level. As you know, the law firms always have many sensitive issues. So that‟s the reason we must hire the international server and buy the license of the security systems so that the information is guaranteed”. A few lawyers also use Skype, Viber... to report briefly but most of them do use face-to-face meeting, phone call, email and post office like the main communication tools. The way the lawyers communicate to help the clients understand is very important. As one lawyer mentioned “When working with the people belong to social policy, the elderly, the people who contributed to the revolution, the minors, they do not know the law, lawyers spend a lot of time explaining to them. I had the same things to consult but then I still continue consulting because they do not understand or remember the issue clearly”. Hence, the lawyers must explain many times and use the words of normal life, not the legal words. It is the difficulty for the lawyers to overcome (Kalb, 1993). The second thing is that the clients try to hide the information. In principle, the lawyer must ensure the security of information with the clients. They are not allowed to release the information and evidence toward any third party but the law still requires security according to law. There is a case which happened with the lawyer 7 in the Legal Aid Center, people asked the question if a client is a murder, a lawyer commits the client about the security that the lawyer will not say to anyone because it - 31 - is ethical violation, but if not say, it is able to be the criminal violation about hiding crime. It is difficult for the lawyers because they must follow the certain rules. The problem must still adhere to the common law, which is still denounce the offenders, but first and foremost the lawyers still need advice from the head of lawyer agencies before giving evidence prove that client is guilty to the competent authorities. As the Lawyer 6 in FRIESLANDCAMPINA Vietnam LTD clarified “In the criminal case, when a client found a lawyer, he didn‟t answer and tell whole story because he was afraid that his benefits could be hurt. It is absolutely wrong. The lawyers must explain clearly to create the faith of the clients. The lawyers should also show the clients the devotion and sincere. As the lawyers understand the main points, they can give the best argument to defend benefit of clients. According to the law, the clients who are put above all, should trust the information security. It‟s not necessary for them to be worried about.”. So, the clients must be assured that their information will be kept secret, many law firms did refuse many clients because their benefits and rights are overlapped. One more thing is that the lawyers must always remember to communicate with the clients is that clients are too much pressing, so when asked they will not give right answers of the case. They will tell many problems, many supplements of their own emotions. Meanwhile, the lawyers must consistently and clearly hear them to have information and a summary of the case and ask the clients to confirm that the incident is true like what they mean or not. Sometimes there is no serious incidents as they say, that they blow-ups themselves, which makes the lawyers drawn into their information. The lawyers have to know what the content is, the purpose of the meeting is, and the evidence clearly demonstrated to determine the legal case exists or not (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). - 32 - As many pevious studies said that communication is merely the method for lawyers to achieve a desired legal result (Smith & Nester, 1977). That is true to the lawyers in Ho Chi Minh city. Clients: “I called the lawyer first to mention about the customer‟s problem and what i want the lawyer to solve. Then the lawyer contacted the accounting department of my corporation in order to be provided the debt amount or any information. The lawyer told about the fee so that i could consider to sign the legal contract. We often communicate through the phone, email and fax...” commercial client 3 – Vietphuong company stated. Therefore, even the commercial clients also use the traditional communication tools such as phone call, post office, email, fax, face-to-face meeting, however, Viber, Skype... are not used popularly. According to the participants, the communication tools are fine in despite of the geographical distance problem. All the clients participated in the interviews recommended that some lawyers do not know exactly their issues and the lawyers explained unclearly about the legal information. So, that is one of the reasons that they are not satisfied with the lawyers. The Vietnam clients or the foreign clients, despite the difference in some points, they are confident and expect for a lot of lawyers (Bryant & Peters, 2001). So when working with a client, a lawyer must have a number of must-required-actions. First of all, a lawyer should not be pessimistic or over-optimistic after knowing the information of the clients. Need to listen is required, if one time is not enough, the lawyer suggests the client can present many times and ask the client to provide more information or make an appointment to understand a concrete nature of the problem that the client asks for. There are problems that the clients ask for advice immediately, the lawyers still have to be cautious before making any conclusions, because a wrong - 33 - conclusion affects the interests and obligations of the clients and reduces the lawyers‟ credibility. The foreigners are often very direct, clear and fair. So a plan to complete information for foreign clients needs making specifically so that they know where the lawyer is going to lead them to, what they will obtain, how much they pay and how long case lasts. After interviewing, the research found out that the Vietnam clients often express the following two types: First, it is the heavily subjective thinking, it means that they think they are always being right. So when in contact with lawyers, the clients find ways to overwhelmingly convincing the lawyers understand that the client is being right. In some cases, the clients are right, but in many cases, the clients have the subjective fallacies and misconceptions. Meanwhile, the lawyers must explain, and ask the clients for presenting by a coherent way, providing the necessary information for consultation, on the basis that the lawyer will take steps later. Second, they know they are wrong, even they have the full facility proved wrong but still trying to defend their wrongs. The clients in this case want to turn the wrong to the right, to exploit the benefits from the same wrong problem that they are beneficial; or they want the lawyers to consultant overcoming, in order to reduce losses, reduce the damages caused by their fault. The lawyers should help the clients relieve the psychology, so that they can realize that the law only protects the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, doing things against the law is contrary to the lawyer‟s role. - 34 - 3.1.4. Theme 4 - Trust “The lawyer proves his ability by talk about the issues that the clients care about, the problems that they have not provided clear information, then the lawyer has a broader view of the incident and can speculate the case, to prove the client his ability of solving this. The most important is his attitude for the clients to trust this lawyer. Attitudes, gestures, voice, way of thinking, their reasoning will affect the clients‟ thinking is that they should trust in this lawyer or not”, as the Lawyer 6 in FRIESLANDCAMPINA Vietnam Ltd said. A new client will definitely have questions to value his lawyer because effective communications plays in impacting on perceptions trust and relationship commitment (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). At the first time the clients and the lawyers meet, the lawyers need to conquer first trust through the analysis and specific comment. In the consultative case, after hearing the clients say, owing to experience and complying law, the lawyers show the clients the only problem from the beginning as well as the risky result ability of the clients as a fortune teller. Nobody can answer all of the legal problems immediately. The clients have many complicated legal problems so if the lawyers do not specialize in that practice law area and cannot give answer because the lawyers do not clearly understand and research the situations of the clients. Thus, the clients are not disappointed with this issue when at the first meeting they are very honest to admit that they are not sure and do not consult right away (Humbach, 1999). The clients will understand that. That is the way that Lawyer 10 in YKVN did. Some lawyers convince the clients by their competence and the result of cases (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). Some have another way to prove it such as by the charge way. “That is, when finished, i will take charge 100% of fee, 50% of fee is charged first, when there are new results, i will take charge the rest, or in the form of - 35 - commitments, clients can pay 100% of fee at the end, if not work well, lawyers won‟t get fee, if do their best, lawyers can get fee. Lawyers do not have the right to commit result of success because it‟s contrary to the rule, which is committed on the charge and the results will be proved by the charge. For example, in the immigration case, a client paid the amount of 50%, I would sue for her, when I had the winning result, i would receive the remaining fee, but what if did not win, she had the right to withdraw all fee. So client will be no longer skeptical”, the lawyer 1 who is the legal advisor of Tan Son Nhat airport stated. Trust plays important role via lawyer and client, is hard to regain, so, the lawyers try all their best to build and maintain it (Burt, 1981). Clients: Although the lawyers tried hard to gain the trust of the clients, some clients have trust in the lawyers, some do not “I only worked with the lawyers in 3 or 4 cases. So i trust the lawyer not too much”, the commercial client 2 – Lu Gia engineering corporation said. Because the clients often think there are no many lawyers so that the clients can choose. So when the client works with a lawyer who is introduced through the acquaintance can satisfy the client, the client will only work with the lawyer if having chance, the client rarely finds the other lawyers. It‟s about the faith and the relationship (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). Futhermore, in the working process, the lawyers must explain clearly, and not promise clients the good results for the profit which will make the clients suspect the lawyers‟ sincere. They will turn back to the lawyers immediately. The lawyers should tell all the prediction as well as the lawyers truly care about the relationship, hopefully, they will sympathize (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). - 36 - 3.1.5. Theme 5 - Expertise Lawyers: Each lawyer has a particular skill accumulated from experience. In the Institute of Justice, lawyers should be also taught how to behave but between knowledge and application in different reality are not easy. As rhetoric, approaches and problem solving, negotiation as tensions, accessible directly or indirectly are different... finally achieved that goal. In many cases, they only debate on who is right and who is wrong. The lawyers need the skills and the capacity of handling work. The lawyers should understand what clients expect for, what the main points are, and solve with the experience and law compliance to get the benefits of clients. For example of the lawyer 4 in Saigon Asian law firm, in M & A transactions, buyers and sellers have their own lawyers, two lawyers are trying to find problem of each other, such an approach would not be successful, that most M & A in Vietnam are not successful because the lawyers only pick holes in each other without finding a solution. Meanwhile, Karsten et al. (2013) argued that the M & A transactions in the world is better day by day, the lawyers with more legal expertise yield better negotiation outcomes for their own clients along three important dimensions: contract design, the bargaining process, and acquisition pricing. The lawyer 3 in YKVN said that a good lawyer is only need to be competitive in his own field. A patent and copyright lawyer cannot be expertise in finance law. He will be considered as a good lawyer as long as it is knowledgeable about packaging, copyright and patent laws. He is the best one in his field. A good lawyer is the one who is appreciated by others in the same field and knows to how to satisfy clients‟ need. Nowadays lawyers have no expert, and they do whatever expertise is, while - 37 - foreign lawyers work in their own expertise such as: criminal, property, civil, marriage and so on, it is difficult for lawyers in Vietnam. Futhermore, the different in culture of the clients is a difficulty (Bryant & Peters, 2001). There are things considered as suitable in eastern countries but not in western countries. Korean clients are different from European and American clients. According to the informants, there will be diversity like that and lawyers must have a lot of experience, but those experiences do not result from mistakes lawyers have but from learning from the elders. A law firm cannot afford mistakes for gaining experiences, because if it makes a mistake, clients will have to suffer. Clients: “He solved very quickly, and the result is as good as my expectation”, as the Private client 2 – a housewife - said. A lawyer who has a methodical working style can satisfy the clients. Futhermore, the clients require that the lawyers should constantly improve and update legal knowledge; enhance reputation with the clients; struggle to protect the legal rights of clients based on accurate the legal procedures (Leventhal, 1980). The clients can see the expertise of the lawyer at the first meeting through the way that he exchanges the information, alerts to the clients avoid behaviors that can lead to the damage, or the violation of law. The foreign clients often evaluate through several lawyers following factors as the Commercial client – Boston Pharmaceutical Inc. USA mentioned “Through the information exchange, lawyer said whether doing it will get benefits, my choice should be respect the lawyer. But i also criticize then listen to what the lawyer analyzes to see the real expertise and the skills of the lawyer.” Where lawyers are trained (Kalb, 1993): This is not only related to the qualifications, but also related to language and cultural habits of lawyers. Foreigners - 38 - often said that a person trained in a university's reputation is respectable. In addition to graduating abroad, it will help lawyers understand the language, lifestyle and culture of that country or region. It is the reason there is no coincidence that entrepreneurs of France or the French law firm selects Vietnam lawyer has studied in France who has French knowledge to competently advise them. Asian countries often choose English lawyer and basic training in capitalist countries like Britain, the United States or other countries in the region. Actual knowledge of the law (Kalb, 1993): Some Vietnam lawyers often assume that they can advise in any matter. A criminal lawyer is willing to give advice on the economic law of a foreign company, whereas a lawyer only know about commercial law but agree to advice clients in criminal law. Lawyers should never think that they can know all problems. But they should take a deep research issues and areas. Before accepting clients, lawyers must consider what service clients require decide earnest and honest. 3.1.6. Theme 6 - Decisiveness Lawyers: The clients always think about their benefit so that is why it is very hard for them to make decision. The lawyers are outsider who can easily see what happened. The lawyers give not only many solutions but also what solution can bring more benefits or bring less benefits (Daicoff, 2006). What if they are hesitate when the the deadline ends, the lawyers will make decision based on the client benefit guaranty. Especially they authorize matter, only in some works and some issues. But some lawyers participated in the interviews thought that the lawyers have no right to show the decisiveness. The lawyers help the clients through consulting and analysing the bad and good points. Because the problems are attached to the clients - 39 - who suffer all the consequences. The main responsibility of a lawyer is to give solutions. How to solve a problem legally is a skill and the expertise of a lawyer. A lawyer cannot decide instead of a client because the client will not allow that. Clients: “My company must make decision. It only happened when my company authorized the lawyer to participating in the confrence, the lawyer could make decision in the limitation. Not only lawyers in Ho Chi Minh city but also in Binh Dinh, Hue, my company also gave the limitation of decision making, the fee, or the court fee that the corporation need to take back”, the commercial clients 3 said. It is different from the previous studies when the clients need the decisiveness of lawyers more highly. The clients in Ho Chi Minh city want to make decision by their own. When a new difficulty arises, the lawyer explaines the disadvantage and advantage of the issue for the client until the client perfectly understands. He gives many plans as well as the weakness and the strength of solution so that the client can choose. The client does not allow the lawyer show the decisiveness too much. 3.1.7. Theme 7 - Ethics Lawyers: The lawyer and medical fileds are ethical issues showed clearly in legal documents and obviously belong to the sanction of goverment. Teaching is also an ethical profession but express unspokenly. Lawyer and doctor are prescribed under written documents. So, if a lawyer does wrong, he will be disciplined by the lawyer unions. Sadly, many lawyers work for the profit, use and even lie to the clients so that they can appropriate the clients‟ property. They also promise clients the good results and uncomplete the work although they have no ability to do. - 40 - The ethical value shows through working process. The ethical value does not mean that the lawyer consults and try all their best if having the fee. Although the client comes to the lawyer, the lawyer must tell adequate information that the client needs to know, so that the client can trust and sympathize with the lawyer, which maintains the relationship (Sharma and Patterson, 1999). Lawyers cannot skip the ethical issues to achieve what they want despite all. Therefore, many lawyers consult free through the Legal Aid Center in Ho Chi Minh city and help the elderly, the poor, the minors, the murders who cannot afford to hire lawyers. Besides, many law firms have many policies to support the small companies which do not have enough financial ability “But there are some exceptions when the Commercial Chamber of the embassy introduce those small companies to our firm so that they can have a chance to have the good legal service”, the commercial lawyer 5 in Rouse clarified, but some large law firms think that all companies target certain market segment and certain group of clients. It is like the lawyer 3 in YKVN answered “our service has to worth our price”. To be frankly, when a person walks into a restaurant, and he can only afford a noodle soup, then that is all he will get. There is social division of labor, if a person is sick, he will have to go to a doctor, and if he needs legal consult, he will have to go to a lawyer. A lawyer must offer a benefit which is worth more than the actual cost of the service, only then he can truly get paid. In certain situations such as a client gets help from lawyers too late, they will have to pay much higher fee (Kalb, 1993). It‟s the reality in Vietnam. Nowadays, social moral decadence decreases, so the lawyers are in that general condition as well, as the lawyer 2 – the legal consultant of Saigon tourist mentioned. The famous lawyers charge very high fee. So actually only clients with the good finacial condition hire lawyers (Kalb, 1993), and the poor can - 41 - have the Legal Aid center, small law firm or the new lawyers suppport. Especially in the Legal Aid center, the lawyers are not enthusiam to put the clients‟ benefit above all. But the client comes to the lawyer, the lawyer must tell adequate information that client need to know, so that the client can trust and sympathize with the lawyer, which maintain the relationship. The lawyer 10 in VPbank said that the doctor save the life of a patient, the lawyer save life and honor of a person. For example in the criminal case lawyer can save a person from the dead as well as his honor, when he is in the prison for the wrongfully unjustted sentence. Clients: The Commercial client in Thien Bang construction company thought “It depends on the lawyers. Some are, some are not.”. Many lawyers nowadays are less interested in the clients. But all industries have the same actual situation, not only the legal industries. And of course, there remains a lot of lawyers work for the clients‟ benefit. The issue that is the clients know it and they understand this situation. All the clients who were interviewed can easily know who the ethical lawyers are through the communication, the competence and the working process of the lawyers (Pepper, 1986). The clients can feel and see who is really working for the clients‟ benefit (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). So the clients only continue hiring an ethically good lawyer that they trust. The lawyers should put the clients‟ interests as the priority and have strategic vision, in complicated cases lawyers still help even if economic efficiency is not much and it takes time right. The lawyers must look beyond the brand, its image will be promoted by the clients, what goes around comes around “if they don‟t have work ethics, they will lose everything.” the Private client 3 in Department of Transportation stated. - 42 - But a dedicatedly conscientious lawyer does not hurt anyone despite all for achieving the clients‟ benefit. Although the clients appreciate the lawyer who works for them, the lawyer should follow the ethical values, so the lawyers have the choice of whether or not to accept a person as a client (Pepper, 1986) . “I think a lawyer must keep the ethics first, then the best things to maintain the faith between clients and lawyers.”, as the commercial client 4 – Thien Bang construction company reckoned. 3.1.8. Theme 8 - Empathy Lawyers: When the client find the lawyer, they often tell their story with the emotion: cry, angry, talk gibberish and so on. Some lawyers will let the client talk but some will stop them and focus on the main points. Gerdy (20008) determined the lawyers should learn what clients expect, need, and want from their lawyers and what they feel while in the midst of a legal conflict is to hear from the clients themselves. The sympathy is very important but it‟s up to the lawyers‟ experience. The sympathy not only come from the professional skills (Gerdy, 2008) of the lawyer but also from the ethics (Henderson, 1987). “Becase the clients need to understand the law, understand clearly the problems, after that they will trust lawyers, which is from the professional skills. Lawyers must explain continuously and patiently to help them overcome, which is from the ethics.”, Lawyer 7 in the Legal Aid Center answered. Communications effectiveness refers to the formal as well as informal sharing of meaningful and timely information between a client and the lawyers in an empathetic manner (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). However, the lawyers participated in the interviews recommended that sympathy does not solve the problem. Lawyers understand the clients‟ situation but they cannot - 43 - use that to win the case. At this moment, it is best to use impartial and strategic thinking. Clients: The clients appreciate the lawyer who sympathizes with their circumstance. It helps the clients to open their heart so that they can tell the clients‟ stories (Gerdy, 2008). Therefore, the lawyer must respect ethical issues, dive into professional competence and the clients‟ innermost feelings, understand clients mind, and be professional. The private client 3 works in Traffic Management Division number 1 told about how her lawyer worked “In working process, if any conflicts arise, law compliance is prerequisite to advise the client that „I really sympathize with you and want to help you, but in this circumstance, i advise that you should obey the law because the law does not allow or stipulate‟.”, the way that the lawyer behaved not only shows professionally his ethics but also his sympathy (Sharma & Patterson, 1999). Besides, the lawyer also behaves with courtesy and showed interest in the consultancy helps clients. The lawyer is always dedicated to the job, timely response letters, telegrams, faxes, and ensure that clients can always find a lawyer if needed (Hatfeld, 1993; Bland, 1997). 3.1.9. Theme 9 - Independence Lawyers: According to the informants, some authorities take an aversion to the lawyers, they said that the lawyers make the cases more complicated and prolongate the time of enforcement. So they do not welcome lawyers. Besides, the legal system is uncompleted and unclear, so there are many ways to understand the law from the lawyers, the courts, the prosecutor and even the agencies, but there is no unified way. For instance, in the investigative agency‟s opinion, they rarely want the lawyer to - 44 - participate in the case, because they think the lawyer will put words into the accused‟s mouth, which makes the interrogation more difficult. So that is why they often obstruct the defence certification. And the courts have the charge views, they do the “ready case” (or “pocket case”), means the courts record the views of 2 parties, so the proceedings result at the court must follow their views. Or, when a lawyer meets a client in prison, because of the urgent time, the lawyer wants to exchange information with the client longer, but police keeps prolonging procedures. Or in the court, the lawyer needs to read the case files but the secretary says she is busy or the judge has not transfer yet even though they are holding the case files and the trial period is coming. Thus, there are “stok” lawyers and “running-case” lawyers who buy “the winning-case results” from the agencies. There are some fearness among lawyers. If a lawyer is aggressive then, he will not have a good relationship with the agencies (Sternlight & Robbennolt, 2008). In this case, if the lawyer does right, he will have to follow the regulations to protect the interests of the client and the lawyer. However, the way to reflect should not be grumpy, strict and the agencies will have good pictures of the lawyer. The lawyer can comment to help agencies work better. Good performance will be accepted. The lawyers try to implement the spirit of the law, if the agencies want to make difficult, the lawyers should prove that the cause of their difficulties is against the law, the lawyers only protest but not propose. The behaviors are extremely important (Schatman, 2009). “Even the agencies make it difficult, lawyers must have their own voice to protect client. Lawyers should not work for money, they do not lobby or „run case‟ .”, as the Lawyer 4 in Saigon Asean declared. Some informants stated that the authorities understand the role of lawyer, they applaud and respect for the legal advice. They understand that lawyers do the job and duty. Quality, responsibility and attitude of the agencies are a sensitive subject. - 45 - However, quality, responsibility and attitude of agencies are getting better day by day. For example, in term of proceedings, in the Ho Chi Minh city court, the working attitude of those who work there is getting better, easier within the legal framework. The quality is improved day by day. But if there are the administrative difficulties, the lawyers must send a complaint to the Bar Association to support his complaint with the agency about acts of harassment and uncooperation. Many law firms nowadays have their own policies with this issues. Because they are doing business with large companies and corporations, they try to prevent themselves from bribery or acts considered as bribery. This is depending on the companies‟ or the corporations‟ policy. They adhere strictly to their code of professional conduct and their clients will appreciate their professional ethics. The lawyer 3 in YKVN said “That‟s our commiment.” The lawyer is also independent with the opposing lawyer who is his friend. The relationship between the two lawyers in society, they are good friends but against in court will be wittingly affected in litigation (Sternlight & Robbennolt, 2008). But in this case, the lawyer 1 in Thi & Associate law firm said “I will have another lawyer defend”, which guarantees his relationship and the clients‟ benefit. Toward the relations with the other law firms and companies, the lawyers are not worried. Therefore, they are not afraid of losing their relations with the prosecutor, the court or the other law firms and companies. Clients: The commercial client 3 – Vietphuong company demonstated “The lawyer comply the law that government launched. But the lawyer‟s independent.”. The independence of the lawyer makes the client assured that they can seperate their relationship and the client‟s benefit. “Because the lawyer must contact to those - 46 - agencies frequently, so the lawyer cannot be independent.”, the private client 1 working in the Department of Transportation suspected. The independence can affect their result case. However, few clients who are the participants saw the lawyer‟s independence through the working process and communication, the lawyers showed that they are not afraid of coping with the agencies, the law firms to protect the client‟s benefit and the justice although the lawyer can lose that relationship. Independence of a lawyer does not mean that it is separate himself as an absolute position. The lawyers pay the attention and respect of the proceedings and the agencies will also get respect back. The lawyers must demonstrate to the agencies see not only the protection of the interests of the client but also the protection of the social order as well as the justice of the law are the lawyer‟s roles. There will ensure independence in practice and still retain the respect of the agencies. 3.1.10. Theme 10 – Social relationship Lawyers: After interviewing, the new element was found out plays an important role in the relationship between lawyers and clients. Although the clients asked for the independence of lawyers but lawyers‟ social relationship is still necessary. The lawyer-client relationship is built on trust which will connect this success to another success, a newly graduated lawyer does not prove what he had done, the customer will not actively seek to him. They will find the lawyers who won many cases have the experience. It is the social influence of lawyers. Expanding relationships with the agencies, the goverment and the society, this will facilitate the expansion of the clients, secondly to facilitate settlement of administrative cases more quickly when there are acquaintance relationships. - 47 - Many people, especially in the litigation, they will want to know the lawyer's relationship with the authorities to fulfill their requirements. Depending on the individual's thoughts, the famous lawyers do not rely on the relationship of the authorities and the lawyers to achieve the results and they will let the clients know that, is what the lawyer 3 in YKVN and the lawyer 5 in Rouse did. It also depends on how the lawyer represents the firm stuff with clients “Clients really care, especially in the land compensation policies and land clearance, so on”, the lawyer 7 in the Legal Aid Center stated. Clients: “When they come to us, they always ask about whether we have judge A or judge B and we give them the truth. It is not uncommon to have personal relationships with some of the clients but we always emphasize our professional priority”, the Lawyer 3 in YKVN admitted. Only Vietnamese clients have that mindset. To the lawyer 9 in QL law firm, the social bonds are beneficial in terms of paperwork procedure. That is, knowing a judge and calling him when being convenient to arrange an appointment for the client submit his or her case profiles faster than queuing like everyone else. The clients really take seriously. They also figure out before that how the relationship is, how the competence of lawyer is. The lawyer 10 in VP bank showed that the relationship of the lawyers and the authorities predominates in attracting to amount of the clients and succeeding in the court, which take 70-80%. But the foreign clients do not like lawyers who are too close to the authorities, because the lawyer's information will get vulnerable from the authorities, as the commercial client – Boston Pharmaceutical Inco. USA determined. - 48 - Social relationship is just the condition which has the big proportion. Besides, there are another conditions such as reputation, competence, prestige of a lawyer. Many participants said that it is just the reason that clients come to a lawyer, not a condition to sign contract. However, few clients answered that lawyer‟s social relationship is prerequisite that they consider to hire the lawyer, as a matter of course, the better social relationships the lawyer has, the more assured clients feel “I think the lawyer must have good social relationships. Because if the lawyer have good relationships, many procedures can be mastered easily and the lawyer can explain for the clients clearly.”, a Private client – a retired teacher told. Social relationship and the independence can contradict each other unless the lawyer is firm, flexible and skillful. In the previous studies, the clients only require the independence of the lawyers (Elbers et al., 2012), which means the lawyers are not afraid of losing relationship which can hurt their career in order to protect the clients‟ interest. However, the lawyers must be flexible to take advantage of their social relationship so that the procedure and result happen smoothly, also, social relationship can help to marketing their lawyers‟ image quickly. However, only Vietnamese clients have this mindset. That is the reason many previous foreign research did not mention. Vietnam is an Asian country which treasures the social relationship. Thus, social relationship is possibly a new element. - 49 - Table 2 The comparison among the finding and the related research Characteristics Theme 1 Fee – the fee is Represent comments Related research “The fee in Ho Chi The fee category in categorized in many Minh city is higher Ho Chi Minh city is types which are suitable than in Binh Dinh or different from the for each case and each Hue…” other research client target. The fee in because of the culture, Ho Chi Minh city is the legal system and higher than other cities. the client target. However, many law firms have the policies to encourage the small companies and the poor people so that they can use the best legal services. Theme 2 Marketing – the most “To brand for firms, The marketing in Ho important marketing lawyers need to build Chi Minh city is mean is the reputation a brand for different from the and prestige of a lawyer. themselves first”. related research. The The law firms do not use law firms do not use many marketing internet marketing channels to expand their much because its risk fame. Most of them use is too high and the social relationships unreliable. - 50 - and the acquaintances, which is more reliable with the clients than any channels. Theme 3 Communication – the I called the lawyer The communication is research mentions the first to mention about exactly the method to communication methods the customer‟s achieve the desired nowadays. Besides, it problem and what i legal result. In fact, shows that the face-to- want the lawyer to by communication, face meeting is the best solve. Then the the clients can way for both lawyers and lawyer contacted the evaluate the lawyers clients understand each accounting and the lawyers can other. Clients can department of my understand what understand what they can corporation in order problems the clients get from the to be provided the are coping with. communication: debt amount or any explanation, information information. The security, and so on. lawyer told about the fee so that i could consider to sign the legal contract. We often communicate through the phone, email and fax...” Theme 4 Trust – Trust is showed “…the most The lawyers are - 51 - through the charge ways, important is his deeply aware of the the expertise, the ethics attitude for the clients role of trust so that and the social to trust this lawyer. they maintain and relationships. Attitudes, gestures, develop it by many voice, way of ways. thinking, the reasoning will affect the clients‟ thinking is that they should trust in this lawyer or not.” Theme 5 Expertise – the lawyers “Through the The clients really can show the expertise information appreciate the lawyers from the beginning and exchange, lawyer said who have expertise to the clients also have their whether doing it will own way to evaluate get benefit, my choice benefits. their expertise. Many should be respect the clients are interested in lawyer. But i also the universities the criticize then listen to lawyers graduated and what the lawyer the actual knowledge of analyzes to see the the lawyers. real expertise and the protect the clients‟ skills of the lawyer.” Theme 6 Decisiveness – the lawyers are not allowed “I must make It is very different decision. It only from the previous - 52 - to decide anything unless happened when i research which the clients authorise. authorized the lawyer mentioned that the Whatever the lawyers to participating in the decisiveness of the decide must base on the confrence, the lawyer lawyers is clients‟ benificial could make decision appreciated. The guaranty. in the limitation. Not lawyers in Ho Chi only lawyers in Ho Minh city have Chi Minh city but decisiveness also in Binh Dinh, passively. Hue, i also gave the limitation of decision making, the fee, or the court fee that the corporation need to take back” Theme 7 Ethics – it is specified in “It depends on the Because of being an the law and showed in lawyers. Some are, Asian country, the culture, which some not.”. Vietnam appreciates prevents the lawyers the ethics which from the ethical issues. shows in the activities But some lawyers who of the real life. still break the rules will Furthermore, lawyer be punished. is one of the most contested areas of professional ethics. - 53 - Theme 8 Empathy – Empathy “…„I really The clients appreciate comes from not only the sympathize with you the lawyers who ethics but also the and want to help you, sympathize with them professional skill. The but in this so that they can open lawyers think that circumstance, i advise their heart to tell all empathy does not solve that you should obey the story, even the the problems. They the law because the secret of the case. recommend that the law does not allow or What if they are lawyers should combine stipulate‟…” wrong, the lawyer with the impartial and keep empathy then strategical thinking. explain their wrongs. The clients absolutely understand and sympathize with the lawyers as well. Theme 9 Independence – There “That‟s our The lawyers and the are fearness among the commiment.” clients recommended lawyers. But some cope “Even the agencies that the lawyers with, some turn to the make it difficult, should be flexible to „stok‟ lawyers, „running- lawyers must have behave with the case‟ lawyers. The large their own voice to agencies and law firms take seriously protect client. authorities. The and try avoiding this Lawyers should not clients also phenominon. work for money, they sympathize with the do not lobby or „run lawyers but they must - 54 - case‟ .” protect the clients‟ benefits anyway. Theme 10 Social relationship – “I think the lawyer Because of the culture, must have good social the custom and the legal relationships. system of Vietnam, the Because if the lawyer social relationship is the have good new one that affects relationships, many much the relationships procedures can be such as: extend the mastered easily and credibility, the prestige the lawyer can of the lawyers, have explain for the clients more new clients, clearly.” support the work, maintain the relationship and also develop it. Source: Data. - 55 - Source: Data Figure 2 The interest of the private clients with Professionalism factor The Figure 2 shows the interest of the private clients with Professionalism because Professionalism factor has many characteristics which interact together. The attention of the private clients with each characteristic is different from the other private clients because of their regconization, their interest or their lawyer‟s performance although the interview questionaires are nearly the same. The private client 4 did not mention about the Empathy, Expertise and Trust, meanwhile, the private client 1 did not tell about Empathy and Ethics and the private client 2 did not say about Decisiveness. - 56 - Source: Data Figure 3 The interest of the commercial clients with Professionalism factor The Figure 3 shows that there are some characteristics which the commercial clients did not mention about because their lawyers‟ image is performance unclearly or the commercial clients did not pay attention to those characteristics. 4 commercial clients‟ interviews lack of 1 or 2 characteristics. Nevertheless, the commercial client 5 shows adequately the characteristics of Professionalism. Indeed, the attitude of this client with the lawyer is very good and completely confident of the lawyer. - 57 - Source: Data Figure 4 The interest of the lawyers with Professionalism factor The Figure 4 shows that the lawyers do not know how to improve the characteristics (Empathy, Decisiveness, Trust) which are important to Professionalism of a lawyer or they lack of those characteristics. According to the interview, many lawyers do not have chance to performance Decisiveness or do not know how to express Empathy with the clients. They even lack of the ability to raise Trust of the clients. Each lawyer has their own strength and the lawyers only emphasize their strength and forget how to improve their weakness. - 58 - 3.2.Main factors affecting the relationship between the clients and the lawyers After analyse, those themes can be categorized into three main factors which affect the relationship between lawyer and client: Business, Professionalism, Social. According to Kritzer (1984), the catogory will be based on the nature of each factor. Besides, this research also analyse the salience of the factors based on the lawyers and clients‟ opinion in Ho Chi Minh city, as well as the interaction of those factors. - 59 - Fee BUSINESS COMMERCIAL CLIENTS SOCIAL VIETNAMESE CLIENTS (seriously illegal issues) PROFESSIONALIS M PRIVATE CLIENTS Marketing Social relationships Independence Ethics Expertise Decisiveness Communication Sympathy Trust Source: Data Figure 5 The real prerequisite of the clients 3.2.1. Business Business includes Fee and Marketing which are the characteristics. A lawyer's good image in the society is not a normal business that can put the profit so heavy. But being business, it should have profit, because it is purchasing problems, when - 60 - people have not solved the problem, they use a lawyer to find the solution so the job is the most difficult things must be solved. It is complicated because the human have the biological life and the legal life, so do companies. Hence, when the clients who come to the law firms have given their lives for the lawyers so the lawyers cannot say that all the lawyers see is the profit. Therefore putting clients‟ benefits highest will result that clients can help to increase the lawyers‟ credibility. Thus if doing for profit, the lawyer images quickly fade away. However, the commercial clients‟s opinion are different from the lawyers‟ opinion “The profit is priority. It is business. People must consider what maintain their business, how to get the profit, how much they can earn, how to behave for firm‟s development. It must be the profit.”, as the commercial client 3 emphasized, which means the salience of Business is the first rank in the commercial clients‟ opinion. It can be explained that the commercial clients are the companies which work for the profit. Many companies do not contact directly to the lawyers frequently so that they can understand the lawyers‟s role and the lawyers‟ work. They often communicate through email, phone call, fax, post office, but rarely meet face-to-face. In addition, the commercial clients mainly use the consultant service which has the charge-byhour very high. Those reasons can lead their opinion to the business factor. Furthermore, the lawyers differ from the professional skills, the knowledge, and the time they can devote to a case, and the individuals with more resources are able to purchase both a superior lawyer and more of his time (Pearce et al., 1983) The private clients have more opportunities to meet face-to-face, so that they can understand clearly how the lawyers are. “Fee is absolutely reasonable. I wondered why it is a very friendly fee and how the lawyer can maintain their business with this kind of charge”, the Private 4 – the retired teacher mentioned. Besides, the face-to- - 61 - face meeting can help both sympathize with each other. The lawyer understand the client‟s circumstance to reduce the cost or charge free especially with the clients are the elderly, the minors, the poor, the people who contributed to the revolution, the people who belongs to the social policy. 3.2.2. Professionalism Kritzer (1984) mentioned that Professionalism is to control interaction, define nature of problem, define nature of the task to be done and will be done as well as trust, in addition to the related studies, Professionalism involves Communication, Expertise, Ethics, Decisiveness, Empathy, Trust. The research based on the related studies and the nature of Professionalism to catogorize. Communication and Expertise are the lawyer‟s skills must have, cooperate together to make the good working process and solve any difficulties. The lawyer should sympathize with the clients like understanding the clients‟ circumstance, using the skills to make them peace of mind and assured, showing the lawyer‟s whole-heartedness. From those things, the lawyer can build the relationship and maintain it owing to the decisiveness and the ethics. Owing to the Communication, the lawyers understand what the psychological problem the clients have that was mentioned before. Then, the lawyers can employ the suitable skills and the professional knowledge to help the clients. Thanks to the Communication, the clients can estimate the value of the lawyers as well. The clients give their critical thinking so that the lawyer can show their Expertise and Ethics by analysing the problem coherently and deeply. The clients esteemed that they can recognize the Professionalism at the first time through many ways like communication, expertise, ethics, and so on. Many clients ranked Professionalism as the first salience. Howerver, the private clients think Professionalism is the prerequisite to hire the lawyer, including the rich people. The - 62 - poor people, of course, need a lawyer who is skillful, knowledgeable and dedicated, does not think profit is the serious problem to maintain the business. The clients‟ issues are sensitive, hence, the lawyer is not only knowledgeable but also sympathetic. The rich people who can pay high legal fee, really need a lawyer can work efficently. The poor people only hire a lawyer to solve their bad consequences, but the rich people do want to reduce the risk from the beginning. It leads to the demand of Professionalism. The commercial clients considered that a lawyer only work efficiently when getting paid reasonably. It means Professionalism is performanced after Business. As the commercial client 3 stated “The profit is priority. It is business. People must consider what maintains their business, how to get the profit, how much they can earn, how to behave for firm‟s development. It must be the profit.”. Therefore, justice - outcomes in the legal system – is related to the quality of the legal service that a client affords, justice at the margin can be often bought (Pearce, 1983). Nevertheless, Professionalism is the foundation to build up Business because the most important marketing mean is the prestige which comes from Professionalism. Professionalism is the reason that the clients find a lawyer that the clients need, a big factor to maintain the clients‟ trust as well as the relationship. Without Professionalism, there is no Business. 3.2.3. Social Independence and Social relationship are the characterictics has a social nature. As the research mentioned before, Social relationship is the new element that was discovered through interviews. This means in Ho Chi Minh city, the social relationship is appreciated because Vietnam is an Asean country. Different culture causes different behavior (Bryant & Peters, 2001). - 63 - Indeed, a few clients prerequisite the social relationship of lawyer to satisfy their expectation. These clients often have illegal issues with the agencies that they can work out by the normal legal procedure. However, Social is only performance clearly after Business. It shows that there are many “stok” lawyers and “running-case” lawyers in reality. The clients are ready to pay the high fee as long as their cases can be solved smoothly and have the good result. And the fee is not their big problem. It leads to decay the legal quality in Ho Chi Minh city, and increase the lobbying andcorruption. No longer is the lawyer‟s image good in the clients‟ eyes. However, many clients believe that Social is an important factor support the lawyer‟s work. They only treasure the Professionalism rather than the Social factor. Social factor helps the lawyers introduce their image to the clients, solve the procedure faster, make the work more advantageous. Social factor is not the priority that the clients need from the lawyers. When the clients were asked whether they would keep hiring the lawyer if the lawyer had bad social relationship or not, most of them answered they did not care about social relationship as long as he was a good lawyer can satisfy their demand. Social factor can be helpful to build the relationship between clients and lawyer but unimportant to develop and maintain the relationship. - 64 - 4. Discussion PROFESSIONA LISM PROFESSIONALISM SOCIAL BUSINESS Source: Data Figure 6: The model of decision making. The nature of the lawyer-client relationship is “one of the most contested areas of professional ethics” (Whelan, 2012). Indeed, when collecting datas, it is easy to recognize that there are many points of view about what criterion the lawyer will base on to build up their images. The majority chooses Professionalism which gives prominence to the lawyer‟s value. However, few participants think it should be Social factor which is important in the law industry as well as the society. The remainder - 65 - believes that law firms work for the profit because Business need the profit to exist, hence, the lawyer will do everything despite all. The research found out what the clients really want from the lawyer and what the lawyer aims to. The clients expect for their good case result will be allowed legally, their interest is protected. The lawyer aims to satisfy their clients legally, hopefully, the clients appreciate the lawyer‟s value, treasure the lawyer‟s image. Those expectations lead to Professionalism which can help the lawyer exist. Many lawyers were eliminated from the law industry because they worked for the money or their social relationship “A lawyer can live with his career, he must care about the client‟s interest, unless, he will lose his reputation and lose his clients. If he only cares about the profit, he will be eliminated from the the law industry soon and not be a lawyer anymore.”, the lawyer 10 in VPbank said. A lawyer must balance 3 factors to stand firm with his reputation. Actually, social factor which is one part affect the relationship between clients and lawyer, can support the lawyer to protect the client‟s benefit. It is created to satisfy the client‟s expectation. The lawyer can get rid of any social relationship which hurts his clients. Also, the lawyer 6 emphasized that the social relationship is truly important because it supports Professionalism and Business and the social relationship is necessary for widening the market but the lawyer cannot have the social relationship all over the country. Thus, Professionalism is considered to be the best choice. Professionalism still exists without the social relationship. The clients‟ benefit is priority, of course, and it should be legal. Business also affect the relationship of client and lawyer, but the lawyer can charge free for his poor clients. The lawyer is not for the profit like a doctor, as long as he can save a person, money does not affect his making decision. - 66 - The lawyer always considers Professionalism before making decision, so do the clients. The client hopes his lawyer can work with whole-heartedness, enthusiam, empathy, good qualification. The lawyer not only want too conquer his client‟s trust but also maintain the relationship and expand his prestige. Both the client and the lawyer aim to the good results which only come from the Professionalism. It is the good foundation to create any relationship. The result of coding data by Nvivo also shows that the interest level of not only the clients but also lawyers tends to Professionalism. Although it does not mean they are interested in Professionalism negatively or positively, they obviously pay attention to Professionalism more than Business and Social factors. Otherwise, the informants rank the salience of each factor. - 67 - Source: Data Figure 7 The interest of the commercial clients The figure 7 shows the interest of the commercial clients about 3 factors: Profesionalism, Business, Social. The commercial clients tend to pay attention to the Professionalism more than Business and Social factor which are approximate. The commercial client 3 who has the interest trend of Business and Professionalism factors which are equal. Indeed, the data of the commercial client 3 shows that this informant truly ranked the salience of Business as the top. Meanwhile, the commercial client 2 only concentrates on Business and Social factors similarly. The commercial client 3, 4, and 5 are the Vietnam companies which estimate Social factor higher than Business. The commercial client 1 is a foreign company which tends to disregard of Social factor. - 68 - Source: Data Figure 8 The interest of the private clients The figure 8 shows that all of the private clients appreciate Professionalism factor. However, toward the salience of Business and Social factor, they ranked the Social factor as the priority salience because they are the Vietnam private clients who have the serious legal issues such as: the inheritance dispute, the house dispute, and so on. Only the private client 5 estimates Business and Social factor which are the same because that client only needs the consultative service. - 69 - Source: Data Figure 9 The interest of the lawyers The Figure 9 shows that 9 lawyers ranked the first salience of Professionalism as their loadstar and losing the social relationships are not their fear. Nevertheless, only one lawyer ranked the salience differently from the other lawyers. - 70 - Chapter four - Conclusion There are a number of implications associated with forming lawyer-client relationship. First, lawyers owe a fiduciary duty to their clients. This means they must act with the utmost responsibility and care and not hurt their client's interests. Second, lawyer-client relationship is a privileged relationship. Almost anything a client tells a lawyer in confidence cannot be repeated. There are a few limited exceptions for this rule, such as if the client tells the lawyer of his/her intent to do impending harm and the lawyer reasonably believes the client will carry out these harmful actions. However, outside of the limited exceptions, a client can tell a lawyer anything, even the location of a buried body, and the lawyer is under an obligation to keep that information confidential. This privilege exists unless there is a third party present when the client speaks to the lawyer, or unless the client waives the lawyer-client privilege. Despite of that privilege, the clients do not take advantage so that both clients and lawyers can understand each other and cooperate effectively. From now on, the clients are unafraid of the information security and ease to open their heart to tell the clients‟ story because the clients understand the lawyers‟ role is protect the client‟s benefit. The research purpose is to improve and attach special important to the relationship by understanding of its nature. Lawyer is a professional service that must have its own marketing strategies to attract the new clients without the headlining. Professional-service providers may offer fixed rates for specific work, charge in relation to the number or seniority of people engaged, or charge in relation to the success or profit generated by the project. The relationship between the clients and the lawyers is very important (Rodney J. Uphof, 2004). That is the reason the lawyers must consider to mange well this relationship which is vitality. - 71 - Therefore, owing to the research, the lawyers can apply for their work effectively and increase the attraction as well as overcome the shortcomings. The research emphasizes the role of lawyers as well as provides the necessary information of attitude and behavior for both lawyers and clients so that they can cooperate well and sympathize with each other. Last but not least, the lawyers can understand clearly their situation and the clients‟ attitude towards their career to develop more day by day so that they can build up a good relationship to gain the benefit from it. Additionally, both the lawyers and the clients can appreciate each other and lead to friendly relationship. The research concentrates on the relationship of lawyers and clients in Ho Chi Minh city because Ho Chi Minh city now is at a special position as the top economics of Vietnam - the international trading center of the country and the region, is where the earliest legal profession in the country appeared so that Ho Chi Minh city is also a favorable place for the lawyers activities. From 2007 to 2012, the law organizations of the Bar Association have implemented 11,000 cases of proceedings, over 27,000 cases of legal advisers, and 11,000 legal services. It is developing more and more (United Nations agencies in Vietnam, 2010) The research concentrates on Ho Chi Minh city with the expectation of having a general way to create the friendly relationship of client-lawyer. Nevertheless, the research also have the limitation, any researcher using the model should examine before applying for the other places. - 72 - References [1] Herbert M.Kritzer. (1984). The dimensions of lawyer-client relations: Notes toward a theory and a field study. American bar foundation research journal. [2] Nieke A.Elbers, Kiliaan A.P.C.van Wees, Arno J.Akkermans, Pim Cuijpers, David J.Bruinvels. (2012). Exploring lawyer-client interation: A qualitive study positive lawyer characteristics. Psychological injury and law, 1 [3] Sternlight, J. R. & Robbennolt, J. (2008). 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Retrived from: http://www.vn.undp.org/content/dam/vietnam/docs/Publications/31317_Vietnam_R2 C_Report_23-05-2012-VN-final.pdf - 77 - [...]... clients drop, and other stay The reasons that the clients leave are the lack of the sympathy, theprofessional skills and the communication as well as the reliability of the lawyers Trust is an important element but when the clients need the lawyers, their demand is that their lawyer can do right like their expectation Besides, the lawyers truly want the clients to maintain their business, some of them... fee and a satisfied client The lawyers rely on the clients and the clients need the lawyers A good relationship can bring many benefits for both of them The author observed during the working process and recognizing the problem in many law firms The lawyers do not know how to use many methods to attract the new clients excepting the famous lawyers and the large law firms, or even the clients do not know... Hence, there is only 10% of the cases that the people hired the lawyers (Saigon Times) Although now the number of lawyer are increasing with the high quality and the legal knowledge of the people is low, the people still wonder whether the cases should be had the lawyers join in -2- 2 Problem statement A good working relationship between the client and the lawyer will result in a better outcome, a smoother... the clients Did the marketing practitioners not appreciate this relationship to have effective strategy or is the professional competence of lawyers not reliable? Did the clients not trust in the lawyers or are they afraid of any factors else? This relationship is very important for both the lawyers and the clients to satisfy the goals that both of them aim to Owing to this research, the lawyers can solve... realize the lawyer s role for their benefits, they can agree the price until it is reasonable for them The large foreign companies often prepare the cost for the legal service so that their business goes smoothly and avoid the risk The private clients who were interviewed also need the lawyers to remedy the damages The clients always think that it wastes of the money when the clients can do the procedures... be a lawyer has to graduate from the law school and the course of Ministry of Justice After practicing law for a while, he or she must qualify the lawyer test of the Bar Association, hence, there is only one lawyer definition It means a lawyer in Vietnam can do from the legal service to the proceedings 3 Lawyer – Client relationship The lawyer- client relationship is a formally recognized legal relationship. .. characteristics of the main factors Each of the themes was diccussed in the interviews of the participants which are the experts, so the data is reliable, especially, the research found out one new theme which is different from many previous studies 3.1 Characteristics of the main factors 3.1.1 Theme 1 - Fee Lawyers: According to the interviews, the fee of legal service in Ho Chi Minh city was set based on the. .. and the roles of lawyers that can guarantee their rights and interests In a criminal case, some defendants refused the lawyers‟ help for thinking that the lawyers would make the case more complicated and increase their penalties, which wastes of money When the client -lawyer relationship is formed, the lawyers are still embarrassed in maintaining the relationship and the clients‟ trust As a result of. .. procedures or solve the issues by themselves But when the damages happen will be particularly serious and hardly remedied, then, the price increases as well as the clients spend long time until the problems are solved However, the price for the private clients is friendly as the private client 4 said because most of the private clients know the lawyers from the acquaintance The lawyers balance the elements... 2004) The foreign clients, in addition to elements of professional issues, they also care about is the remuneration of services Along with the same professional qualifications, the foreign clients will choose the lawyer or law firm with low price The foreign clients often regard the fee as a serious, frankly and fairly problem Therefore, all lawyers should calculate the cost for the foreign clients ... results (the Lawyer in Saigon Asian law firm, the lawyer – the lecturer, the lawyer 10, the lawyer 6); (2) by the percentage of the recovery obtained for the clients (the lawyer 10 in VPbank, the lawyer. .. when the clients need the lawyers, their demand is that their lawyer can right like their expectation Besides, the lawyers truly want the clients to maintain their business, some of them ignore the. .. with the phenomenon of the „stok‟ lawyers or „running-case‟ Furthermore, the clients are no longer trust in the lawyers and the justice The research aims to clarify the factors affecting the relationship