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Vu Phan, LL.M. ’20, has published a scholarly article in the renown Hanoi Law Review, published by Hanoi Law University (HLU). His topic is on the concept of piercing the corporate veil, which is not part of the jurisprudence in Vietnam. It is his first article published since he completed his Master of Laws degree at IU McKinney.

Phan is from Hanoi, and he graduated as the valedictorian of his law class at HLU. He’s currently working as an intern at a firm in Hanoi. He plans to work for the Ministry of Justice in Vietnam, while continuing to conduct legal research and write scholarly works, particularly on legal concepts foreign to Vietnam jurisprudence.

The impetus for the article, titled “Exceptions in Limited Liability of Corporate Entities Owners – Experience from the United States of American for Vietnam Practice,” came to Phan when IU McKinney faculty and staff visited Hanoi Law University in Summer 2019. Dean Karen Bravo discussed the concept during that visit. “I was drawn to its novelty,” Phan said. He learned the finer points of it during his second semester at IU McKinney in Professor Frank Sullivan’s Closely Held Business Organizations class. “The class was eye-opening. Eighteen years of passive experience with our civil law system, followed by four years in law school actively learning the ropes of Vietnamese law made me far too comfortable with statutory law and its concrete principles,” Phan said. “That is precisely why I was amazed by the degree of flexibility provided by case law and the plethora of legal doctrines being generated as a result.”

The work, Phan said, has two primary objectives: to introduce the concept to those unaware of its existence in Vietnam, and to examine the law on enterprises in Vietnam with regards to business owners’ liabilities in order to speculate whether personal liability can be imposed upon them in circumstances that might get them in trouble were they in the U.S. “I figured out that allowing business owners to be exposed to personal liability in Vietnam does solve a number of dire problems, though its introduction will also come with various legal issues that need untangling.”

“Overall, I had fun researching and writing the paper,” Phan said. “I am very satisfied that my first significant academic achievement as an LL.M. is one that I accomplished by utilizing the knowledge that I gained at IU McKinney.”