Legal & VBF Liaison Committee

HCMC Chair

Ms. Orsolya Szotyory-Grove, Senior Associate, Mayer Brown JSM

Orsolya Szotyory-Grove is a senior associate of Mayer Brown’s Vietnam office. Orsolya has over nine years of experience in corporate and commercial matters and all aspects of investment and licensing in Vietnam, including tax and structuring advice. She also has experience advising on compliance with anti-corruption laws, and developing internal corporate compliance programs.

Hanoi Chair

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Senior Associate, Baker McKenzie Vietnam

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, a senior associate at Baker McKenzie Vietnam, specializes in legal and regulatory advice relating to power, energy & infrastructure projects.  Active in the renewables space, he has advised on legal due diligence, M&A transactions, licensing, development and the operation of numerous solar, wind, hydropower and other renewables energy projects across different provinces at different stages, from development, licensing, acquisition to financing, construction, and operation of those projects.  He has been active in several regulatory programs in addressing regulatory and contractual improvements and amendments to Vietnamese laws and regulations on renewable energy (solar and wind), climate change, environmental, clean technologies, energy efficiency, among other power, energy, investment, and infrastructure issues in Vietnam.

HCMC Vice Chair

Fred Burke, Senior Partner, Baker & McKenzie

Fred has been active in AmCham in Vietnam since it was first established in 1994. He served as a member of the Board of Governors from 1995 – 2003 and was Chairman in 1997.  After a hiatus of four years, he was re-elected to the Board in December 2007.  Before coming to Vietnam in 1991, he served as the Secretary and Member of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, China.  Fred Burke is a Senior Partner of Baker McKenzie, based in Vietnam.  He has more than 30 years’ experience practicing in the areas of International Trade, Taxation & Customs, Real Estate, Hotels & Resorts, Renewable Energy, Project Finance and Dispute Resolution. Fred currently serves as a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Administrative Reform in Vietnam.  He served as the Investment & Trade Working Group Chair for the Vietnam Business Forum for over a decade and joined the VBF Member’s Council in 2020.  He has extensive experience working with Vietnam legislators and law drafting committees on the full range of new laws and decrees integrating Vietnam into the global economy.

Board Liaison

Le Thi Thanh, Special Counsel, Baker & McKenzie

Thanh is a Special Counsel based in the Ho Chi Minh City office of Baker & McKenzie Vietnam. She is a core member of the corporate / M&A practice group, and is focused on mergers and acquisitions, and foreign direct investment, into Vietnam. She has extensive experience advising multinational companies from a wide range of industries, private equity houses, on cross-border investments and divestments, joint venture and fund raise, and the establishment of business and operations in Vietnam. Being a transactional lawyer, she is particularly strong in dealing with market entry advice, deal structuring, legal due diligence, and negotiations over transaction documents.

Before joining Baker & McKenzie, Thanh spent four years working at the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City (the “DPI”), being the government authority that is in charge of foreign investment in Ho Chi Minh City. At the DPI, Thanh worked as a consultant/ governmental expert and had consulted, advised on and examined more than 300 investment projects from foreign individuals/organizations in Ho Chi Minh City.

She was also a member of the team at the DPI that contributed opinions to Project 30 launched by the then Prime Minister for the purpose of reducing administrative procedures by 30%. This was part of the regulatory reforms to modernize public service and simplify the regulatory environment for businesses from 2009 to 2010 in Vietnam.