Cyndie M. Chang, President

Cyndie M. Chang is a commercial litigator and partner at Duane Morris handling matters involving complex business disputes, trademark, trade secrets, insurance coverage, and real estate. She also manages environmental and other large insurance loss claims. Cyndie has represented many types of businesses and has obtained favorable results in trial and arbitration. She is also the Regional Governor for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s (“NAPABA”) California Central District, which consists of ten bar organizations in Southern California. She has been named as NAPABA’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” and a “Rising Star” by Los Angeles Magazine’s Super Lawyers publication. Her leadership positions include those with the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice (“TIPS”) Business Litigation and Diversity in the Profession Committees, the Asian Pacific Community Fund (a nonprofit generating funding for local non-profit agencies), and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles. 

She is also is her firm’s office Pro Bono Coordinator, an ABA-TIPS Leadership Academy graduate, and a Fellow to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Cyndie graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins University and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. She also enjoys performing with the Asian American improv acting group Cold Tofu.


Stacey H. Wang, President-Elect  
Stacey, a litigation associate in the Los Angeles office of Holland & Knight, has represented domestic and foreign businesses involved in intellectual property and contract disputes, product liability and consumer class actions. She also has experience representing individuals, nonprofit entities, and financial institutions in fiduciary, trusts and estates litigation, in government investigations, and on First Amendment issues. In 2011, she was recognized as a “Rising Star” in Southern California’s Super Lawyers Magazine.

Ms. Wang is committed to pro bono work and issues affecting the Asian-American community. She chairs the
firm’s Asian Pacific Islander Diversity Affinity Group and oversees firm attorneys participating in the firm’s effort to provide pro bono representation to unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings referred from Kids in Need of Defense. She also routinely handles pro bono cases and speaks nationally about issues related to the plight of children trafficked from China and destined for indentured servitude in the United States. She was selected in 2011 to serve as a Chesterfield Smith Fellow, a fellowship given to one litigation associate firm-wide, and spent one year dedicated to pro bono matters across the country.

During law school, Ms. Wang served as an extern to The Honorable Margaret M. Morrow of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, as well as to the California Attorney General’s Office in the Civil Licensing Section.


Kenneth Chiu, Immediate Past President

Kenneth Chiu is presently a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney assigned to the Central Felony Trials Unit. As a Deputy District Attorney , he prosecutes a wide range of cases including homicides, robberies, gang crimes and other serious and violent felonies. An active leader in the Southern California legal community, Mr. Chiu also serves as the Chair of the Criminal Justice section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

In addition to his leadership roles in the legal community, he is a Board Member of Plaza de la Raza (Head Start Program) and previously the Taiwanese American Professional. Raised in Southern California, Mr. Chiu is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and Loyola Law School.


Faith Santoso, Executive Vice President
Faith Santoso is a legal aid attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (“APALC”), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, which provides free legal assistance to the needy and low income community of Southern California, especially to those of the Asian and Pacific Islander origin. She practices family law and domestic violence-related immigration. Prior to joining APALC in 2001, she practiced probate law in the private sector. She received her J.D. from Loyola Law School. She will be serving as the Vice President of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association.


Felix T. Woo, Vice President

Felix Woo is a partner in SNR Denton’s Litigation practice. Felix has extensive experience litigating cases in federal and state court in matters involving commercial contracts, real estate transactions, business torts, employment disputes, entertainment, intellectual property, trade secret misappropriation, products liability, unfair competition, whistleblower (qui tam) claims and class actions. 

He has represented a broad range of individual and corporate clients in the aerospace, music and television, medical, finance, telecommunications, beverage, hospitality, and manufacturing industries. He has had significant involvement with large-scale discovery efforts and electronic discovery issues, including the use of cutting-edge e-discovery tools.

In his career, Felix has devoted significant time to pro bono matters and since 2008, served as the Los Angeles office’s pro bono matters partner.

Diana M. Kwok, Treasurer

Diana Kwok is an Assistant United States Attorney.  Before she joined the United States Attorney's Office, she was an associate in the Corporate Investigations and White Collar Defense practice group at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. Prior to joining Manatt, Diana served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Percy Anderson and the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew of the United States District Court, Central District of California.


Shirley Sher, Secretary

Shirley Sher is an immigration attorney licensed to practice law in California and New York. Fluent in French and Mandarin Chinese, she earned two law degrees in the English Common Law and French Civil Law from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she was an editor of the Quebec Journal of International Law. In Paris, France, Ms. Sher worked at a French litigation firm and clerked at the International Court of Arbitration, International Chamber of Commerce. In Los Angeles, she worked as a litigator in the fields of maritime, aviation, surface transportation, and U.S. Customs law before devoting her career full-time to immigration and nationality law. Ms. Sher currently practices out of Marina Del Rey, CA and commits much of her time to pro bono representation of low-income individuals and undocumented children. Ms. Sher works with the ACLU in safeguarding the civil rights of immigrant workers and volunteers her time with Public Counsel at the Federal Pro Se Clinic as well as with Kids In Need of Defense (KIND). Ms. Sher is the Treasurer of the McGill Alumni Association and a lifetime member of the UCLA Alumni Association.   


Amy D. Deng, Board Member

Amy D. Deng is a government contracts associate in the Los Angeles office of McKenna Long and Aldridge LLP. Her practice focuses on federal, state and local government contract bid protests, claims and disputes, Federal Acquisition Regulation cost recovery and accounting, False Claims Act, and internal investigations. Amy is part of the firm’s China Initiative Group and counsels Chinese and U.S. companies on matters relating to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and various federal compliance issues. Amy graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and was the Senior Notes Editor of the Hastings Law Journal. She received her B.S., summa cum laude, from the University of Southern California.



Eric D. Chan, Board Member

Eric Chan is an associate in the litigation department of Hooper, Lundy & Bookman, PC.  Mr. Chan represented a pharmaceutical company in mass tort litigation; a consumer products company in multiple false advertising class action cases; and digital technology companies in patent litigation.  

Prior to joining the firm, Eric served as a law clerk to The Honorable Mariana R. Pfaelzer in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Eric received his undergraduate degree in Cybernetics with a concentration in Bioinformatics from University of California, Los Angeles, in 2003 and received his law degree from Stanford Law School in 2007. 

Mr. Chan has hands-on experience litigating large-scale electronic discovery issues as a result of his representation of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in AMD v. Intel. He also regularly advises clients on document retention strategies relating to enterprise-wide information technology systems and cloud computing. Mr. Chan is a co-author of Bloomberg BNA’s practice guide, Spoliation of Electronically Stored Information, and is also a key contributor to Bloomberg BNA’sPreserving Electronically Stored Information:A Practical Approach.


Timothy Hu, Board Member

Timothy Hu began as a Long Beach City Prosecutor first assigned to the Domestic Violence Unit. After nine years in Long Beach Mr. Hu became Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County Mr. Hu was initially had various assignments as a Deputy District Attorney including, Trials, Preliminary Hearings and Prop. 36/Drug Court, as well as Juvenile in Compton. Mr. Hu is currently assigned to the Torrance Branch Court. Mr. Hu is currently on the faculty at the National Advocacy Center and teaches Trial Advocacy courses for NDAA (National District Attorneys Assn.). Mr. Hu is also been an instructor and administrator for the SCCLA (Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association) Trial Skills Workshop.  Mr. Hu participated as a Moot Court Judge for both Southwestern and Cal. State Long Beach. 

He is an instructor for the Takasuki Pro Bono Bar Review teaching to candidates who can’t afford commercial bar review courses. Mr. Hu also participates as an instructor for the Long Beach Bar Foundation Shortstop program where he counsel first time juvenile offenders and their parents on the consequences of criminal behavior.

Mr. Hu is also a member of the Benjamin Aranda III American Inn of Court since he was a law student and became a board member in 2002 as well as on the Board of Governors for SCCLA, holding this position since 2005. In both these organizations Mr. Hu works to improve ethics, civility, and compassion within the legal profession.


Michelle Cheng Kim, Board Member

Michelle Cheng Kim is an attorney with the LA County Alternate Public Defender’s office, where she supervises the misdemeanor unit and practices indigent criminal defense. Michelle has previous legal experience with the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance, the Federal Public Defender, and the LA County Public Defender’s Office. Michelle also externed with the late Honorable Robert M. Takasugi, U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Prior to law school, Michelle worked doing HIV/AIDS research at UCLA and also worked at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center on voting rights and hate crimes issues. In addition to serving on the SCCLA board, Michelle also serves on the Executive Committee of the LACBA Criminal Justice Section, and is VP of Public Relations for the LA County Asian American Employees Association. Michelle received her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.


Curtis A. Kin, Board Member

Curtis A. Kin is Chief of the Criminal Appeals Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where he has been an Assistant United States Attorney since 2000 and supervisor since 2005. During his tenure at the Office, he has also served as the Chief of the General Crimes Section, Chief of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section, and Chief of the Criminal Complaints Section. In 2009, Curtis prosecuted the largest human sex trafficking case ever successfully tried to verdict in the nation, for which he received the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.

Curtis has been an Adjunct Professor teaching Trial Practice Skills at Pepperdine University School of Law since 2003, and has taught Criminal Procedure at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Last year, Curtis was named by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association as one of the “Best Lawyers Under 40.” Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Curtis worked as a litigation associate in the New York office of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and was a law clerk for then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Jed S. Rakoff on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Curtis is an honors graduate from Stanford Law School and received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from USC.


Nathaniel Law, Board Member

As Associate General Counsel, Nate manages and advises on the transactional, litigation, employment and regulatory matters for Total Call International, Inc., and its affiliates. Nate received his B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles and his J.D. from Boston University School of Law. Nate is also active in the community, having been a member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association since 2008, the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association since 2009, and Project by Project, a 501(c)(3) organization serving the Asian Pacific American community in Los Angeles, in 2008 and 2009.

Jason Liang, Board Member

Jason Liang is an associate at the law firm of Murphy Rosen Meylan & Davitt, LLP.  He represents corporate and individual clients in complex civil matters involving breach of contract, unfair business practices, trade secret misappropriation, copyright and trademark infringement, healthcare, and real estate transactions. He also represents corporate and individual clients in criminal matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Economic Espionage Act, antitrust price-fixing investigations, conspiracy, mail fraud, and witness tampering.

Prior to joining Murphy Rosen, Jason was an associate at the Los Angeles office of Jones Day and was a member of the Jones Day trial team that represented the former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona in connection with the former Sheriff ’s highly publicized federal criminal prosecution. In addition, he works closely with the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (“LACLJ”) to represent, on a pro bono basis, victims of domestic violence who seek representation to obtain permanent restraining orders against their abusers. In 2012, LACLJ awarded him with the Excellence in Community Service Award for his pro bono work.

Jason graduated cum laude from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of California, Irvine.

Stephanie W. Tang, Board Member

Ms. Tang serves as a legal adviser at the Social Security Administration's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review concerning the application of pertinent laws, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and legal precedents which result in legally sufficient decisions on claims requesting eligibility to social security benefits filed under Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act.  Prior to joining SSA, Ms. Tang was a real estate and title litigation attorney representing real property owners, lien holders, mortgage lenders and title insurers in all aspects of litigation and appeals on real property related issues such as title encumbrances and defects, fraudulent conveyance, easements, and mechanic's liens. During law school, Ms. Tang participated in legal clinics by Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles in Chinatown twice a month by providing free legal assistance to the Chinese community.  She also externed for the Honorable Presiding Justice Mildred Lillie at the California Court of Appeal, Second District.  After law school, Ms. Tang was the research attorney for the Honorable Kenji Machida and Deanne S. Myers of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.  Ms. Tang graduated  from the University of California, Irvine, with dual B.A. degrees in Criminology and Psychology. She received her law degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.  Ms. Tang is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.



Wendy T. Wu, Board Member

Wendy T. Wu is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where she is a prosecutor in the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section. Ms. Wu previously served in the Office’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, where she focused on prosecuting large-scale drug trafficking and gang-related offenses. Prior to joining the USAO, she was a litigation associate in the Corporate Defense and Investigations Practice Group of Proskauer Rose in New York and Los Angeles. While at Proskauer, Ms. Wu’s practice focused on white collar and compliance matters, with an emphasis in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She graduated with honors from American University, Washington College of Law, and received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sandy T. Wu, Board Member

Sandy T. Wu is a founding partner of Chiao & Wu, LLP. Prior to joining Chiao & Wu, Ms. Wu served as in house counsel for a small distributor company and worked as an associate in law firms of Selman Breitman LLP and Bergman &Dacey, Inc. Ms. Wu is an experienced litigator, representing clients ranging from individuals to small businesses to fortune 500 companies. Ms. Wu also has experience in representing public entities, including the County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unified School District, Manhattan Beach Unified School District and Montebello Unified School District.  

Ms. Wu has litigated construction delay cases as well as wrongful termination, labor and wage issues for public entities. Finally, Ms. Wu has experience in representing insurance companies, litigating extra-contractual and bad faith casesand issuing coverage opinions. Ms. Wu graduated from the University of California, Irvine, where she obtained two B.A. degrees in Political Science and Sociology. Ms. Wu earned her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law, graduating summa cum laude.

While in law school, Ms. Wu served as the Editor in Chief of Southwestern Law Review and externed for both state and federal judges, the Honorable Charles McCoy, Jr. in the Superior Court of Los Angeles and the Honorable Stephen V. Wilson in the United States Central District Court of California.


Ji-Lan Zang, Board Member



Ji-Lan Zang works at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. She is an attorney in the Family Law Unit, and she helps victims of domestic violence in restraining order and child custody cases. Prior to working at LAFLA, Ji-Lan worked as a corporate transactional attorney in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Yale Law School.

Elizabeth Yang, Board Member

Elizabeth Yang is a founding partner at Yang & Wang, P.C, where she practices intellectual property law, specializing in patents, copyrights and trademarks. She has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley and received her joint J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of La Verne.

Prior to practicing law, Elizabeth worked at Raytheon Company as a radar designer and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on the Mars Exploration Rover. Prior to starting Yang & Wang, P.C, she practiced law at Howrey LLP and Adli Law Group P.C., both intellectual property law firms where her practice encompassed a variety of technologies, including electronics, hardware, software, variable data printers, wireless technologies, telecommunications, fingerprinting sensors, data packet processing, network security systems,
microprocessors, and automated telephonic systems. 

Elizabeth is also a founding member of the Orange County chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP). She is the mother of two and in 2011, in addition to her law practice, she opened up “Magical Playground” - the premier children’s indoor playground in Pasadena.


 
 
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