Possible Ethical Violations but Lawful

Recently, public opinion has been quite critical of the second marriage event of the female supermodel and her new husband, who is a lawyer—the person representing her in the asset dispute divorce case between the female supermodel and her ex-husband.

To assess an issue comprehensively, it is necessary to view it from multiple perspectives; one aspect might seem incorrect, but it is not necessarily a violation from another perspective.

From a social life standpoint, some people criticize the actions of the female supermodel, deeming them as lacking social ethics, unreasonable, and asking, "How can she behave like that?”

On the other hand, from a legal perspective, this action does not violate the law at all. In the context of civil litigation, there is no provision prohibiting a lawyer from defending a party in litigation to protect the legal rights and interests of their acquaintances.

To be specific, according to the Civil Procedure Code 2004, it stipulates:

“ Article 63. Persons protecting the legal rights and interests of the involved parties

1. Persons protecting the legal rights and interests of the involved parties are those who are requested by the involved parties and accepted by the Court to participate in the proceedings to protect their legal rights and interests.

2. The following persons shall be accepted by the Court as persons protecting the legal rights and interests of the involved parties:

a) Lawyers participating in the proceedings in accordance with the law on lawyers;

b) Vietnamese citizens with full civil act capacity, who have not been convicted or have been convicted but have had their criminal records removed, who are not subject to administrative measures being applied, who are not officials of the Court, Prosecution Office, or Police.

…”

Moreover, the Law on Lawyers 2006 also contains no provisions stipulating that defending acquaintances is against regulations or unethical.

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