Officers

Welson Chu

Welson Chu is an associate at the Nolan Law Group assisting clients with aviation, product liability, medical malpractice, and other litigation matters. Prior to Nolan Law Group, he worked at a top law firm in the Philippines handling corporate transactions and special projects.  Mr. Chu earned his LLB degree from the University of the Philippines, College of Law and later earned his LLM degree from Northwestern University School of Law, with a certificate in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Chu is licensed to practice law in the states of New York and Illinois, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the Philippines.

Alan Chen

Alan Chen is an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and focuses his practice on private equity and mergers & acquisitions.  He has also worked at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and in the Office of the General Counsel of the Governor of Illinois.  Mr. Chen is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he competed as a member of the Men’s Varsity Swim Team.  He received his JD from the University of Illinois College of Law.

Eric Zhi

Eric Zhi is an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has represented clients in a broad range of domestic and international transactions including M&A, SPAC transactions, commercial real estate transactions, and a variety of corporate matters. Eric is the co-founder and co-chair for Lawyers Helping Our Community, a special legal clinic under Chicago Volunteer Legal Services that addresses the unique legal challenges faced by small business owners and individuals in Asian American communities. Eric received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst and certified Financial Risk Manager. Eric is also an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University where he teaches business law.

Olivia Li

Olivia Li is a Corporate Counsel at Labcorp. In this role, she provides a broad range of legal advice for preclinical research services and global laboratory operations on commercial contract negotiation, dispute resolution, regulatory compliance, and privacy matters. Olivia regularly volunteers at the Chinatown Pro Bono Legal Clinic, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services and Center for Disability and Elder Law. Olivia received her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with certificates in Health Law and Compliance, where she served as the president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. 

Di Fu is an Associate at Loeb & Loeb. She maintains a broad-based international private client practice, focusing primarily on U.S. tax planning for international clients ranging from established global families with substantial wealth, successful entrepreneurs, private family offices, and leading international trust companies.

Frank Gao is a registered patent attorney Ladas & Parry LLP. Mr. Gao has counseled corporate clients and individual inventors since 2008, in a wide variety of patent matters, securing patents in chemical, mechanical, material science, medical technologies, and litigating patents and trademark matters all around the U.S. Before entering law school, Mr. Gao worked at Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) editorial division, where he analyzed and built database entries for patents in the fields of pharmaceuticals, polymer, and material science. Mr. Gao also worked at Princeton Biomolecules where he synthesized customized peptides via solid-state synthesis.

Yan Zong

Yan Zong is an associate at Merz & Associates P.C., a boutique IP firm. She focuses her practice on trademark, copyright, and unfair competition. She develops strategy for protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights and resolves disputes globally for clients. Prior to Merz & Associates, Ms. Zong worked at a law firm representing domestic and international clients in a wide range of matters.  Ms. Zong is licensed to practice in Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She volunteers at the Chinatown Pro Bono Clinic. She also has participated in the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association lobby day in Washington D.C.

Kim Leung

Kim Leung is a staff attorney for the National Democracy Initiative at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. Kim works with community organizations and nonprofits on voting rights and civic engagement. She has experience investigating, litigating, and advocating against violations of voting rights and election laws. She earned her J.D from the University of Wisconsin, where she interned at the Wisconsin Innocence Project. She received her B.A from the University of Michigan. Kim grew up in a multilingual and limited-English-speaking household and is passionate about the intersections of language and disability access, and racial justice. She serves on the board of directors for the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), the professionals board for CARPLS legal aid, and is an honorary board member of the Asian American Bar Association (AABA) of Greater Chicago.

Vincent Kan is Senior Attorney (Tax) at the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Chief Counsel, Large Business & International Division. He represents the IRS in United States Tax Court proceedings and provides legal advice to IRS revenue agents. Previously, Mr. Kan served as a Hearing Officer at the Illinois Department of Revenue's Board of Appeals and as an Assistant Attorney General at the Illinois Attorney General’s Revenue Litigation Bureau where he practiced state and local taxation. Mr. Kan has also been a speaker at both the American Bar Association Section of Taxation and Chicago Bar Association Federal Tax subcommittees. He earned his LLM in Taxation and JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law, and his BS in Information Systems from University of Maryland, College Park. He is admitted to the bars of Illinois (2008), New Jersey (2008), and New York (2009).

Rachel Huan Kao is an attorney licensed to practice in Illinois, with a solo practice dedicated to immigration law. She serves AILA Chicago Chapter on various committees. She also serves Chinese American Bar Association - Chicago on the Board of Directors. She is a past board member and Treasurer of the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, past Treasurer of Chinese American Bar Association – Chicago, and past board member of Asian American Bar Association – Chicago. Ms, Kao is actively involved in the ISBA Minority Bar Association CLE program, enforcement of the Unauthorized Practice of Law, and has often spoken on immigration issues to the community.  Ms. Kao is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (JD), the University of Illinois School of Public Health (MPH), and Washington University in St. Louis College of Arts and Sciences (AB).

Ivy Lee is an Assistant General Counsel at CompTIA, Inc. Prior to CompTIA, she worked as an attorney at Hlustik, Huizenga, Williams & Vander Woude Ltd., where she served as outside general counsel for middle market companies. Her practice includes commercial contracts, corporate governance, M&A, real estate, and counseling U.S. businesses on cross-border transactions. She is a regular volunteer at the Chinatown Pro Bono Clinic, where she provides free legal consultation related to landlord tenant, wills & trusts, divorce, and immigration. Ms. Lee is a graduate of Chicago Loyola School of Law and the University of Michigan.

Mona Li began practicing immigration law in 2018 and is an attorney at Vedder Price. Her practice focuses on business immigration. She has experience working with nonimmigrant visas, including H-1B, L-1, and O-1 as well as immigrant processes such as PERM and EB-1 petitions. Prior to joining Vedder Price, Ms. Li worked for a boutique immigration law firm as well as in the Global Immigration & Mobility practice of an international law firm. Ms. Li received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law. She speaks Mandarin and Spanish.

Elaine Liu is a Litigation & Dispute Resolution associate in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office. Her practice has encompassed all stages of litigation in federal and state courts as well as arbitration proceedings. She has significant experience in a broad range of substantive areas, including primarily the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), labor and employment, consumer class actions, False Claims Act, financial services, and telecommunications. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Ms. Liu worked as a judicial intern to the Honorable Laura Taylor Swain, Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and as a legal extern for the Bronx Defenders. Ms. Liu received her JD from Columbia Law School and her AB cum laude with High Honors in Economics from Harvard University.

Peter Liu is an attorney at Jones Day where he specializes in the tax aspects of real estate capital markets, REITs, Section 892 investors, and fund formation. He previously worked at Baker McKenzie's Global Tax Practice Group in Chicago, advising clients on a variety of tax controversy matters. He also interned in the Northern District of Illinois with Judge Chang. At Michigan Law, he worked as a student-attorney at the Low Income Taxpayers Clinic and served as an editor on the Michigan Journal of International Law.

A solo practitioner focused on guardianship matters and a Guardian ad litem in Cook County, Elaine Sit attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (B.A., M.A.) and graduated from I.I.T. Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D.). She has written for the ASIAN LAW JOURNAL (U-California Boalt), 20th CENTURY CHICAGO: 100 YEARS, 100 VOICES (SUN-TIMES) and FEDERAL LAWYER MAGAZINE; she was featured in the July 2019 issue of CHICAGO LAWYER MAGAZINE for her work at the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (CVLS) clinic in Chinatown. Elaine received CABA’s Justice Laura Liu Lifetime Achievement award in 2020.  She also serves on the Board of CVLS.

Andrew Sylora

Joseph Moy

Joseph Moy is an Administrative Law Judge with the Illinois Labor Relations Board.  Previously, he was an Administrative Law Judge with the Illinois Department of Human Services.  Joseph received his J.D. from Cooley Law School and his B.A. from Purdue University.