Officers
Jonathan Yee
President
Jon Yee is an associate at Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP where he regularly represents domestic and London-based insurance carriers with respect to financial institution bonds, as well as commercial crime and broker-dealer professional liability policies. In addition, Mr. Yee has extensive litigation experience with respect to matters involving complex commercial and professional liability disputes. Mr. Yee attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received a degree in urban and regional planning, and the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he graduated cum laude. While at Notre Dame, Mr. Yee served as the Treasurer of the Environmental Law Society and Assistant Rector of Stanford Hall. Prior to serving as CABA's Vice President of Operations, Mr. Yee served as its Treasurer. He also received CABA’s 2020 Rising Star Award.
Yan Zong
Vice President Operations
Yan Zong is an associate at Merz & Associates P.C., a boutique IP firm. Her practice focuses on trademark litigation and transactional intellectual property matters. Prior to Merz & Associates, she 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.
Eric Zhi
Vice President Finance & Development
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.
Kim Leung
Vice President Communications
Kim Leung is the Managing Attorney for the Chinese American Service League’s legal services program, a legal aid program that focuses on serving AAPI communities in Cook County, Illinois. Prior to working in legal aid, Kim served as Assistant Attorney General at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Before entering the public sector, Kim was an associate at Chicago law firms specializing in insurance coverage and personal injury. Kim is passionate about access to justice. She serves on the professionals board for CARPLS legal aid. Kim is the 2021 recipient of CABA’s Distinguished Service in Law Award.
Xiang Siow
Treasurer
Xiang Siow is currently an associate at Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, P.C. in the New Markets Tax Credit group. His practice focuses on representing investors, lenders, and borrowers in community development transactions. Mr. Siow has also been an active participant in pro bono matters, both in Chicago and at his prior law firm in New York City. Mr. Siow received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a board member of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and Commissioner of the law school’s intramural basketball league.
Olivia Li
Secretary
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.
Board of Directors
Ruth Chan
Ruth Chan serves as Corporate Counsel at Persado Inc. Prior to joining Persado, Ms. Chan worked as an associate attorney in the Corporate & Securities group at Mayer Brown LLP, where she focused her practice on mergers & acquisitions and capital markets. Ms. Chan also served as counsel to a number of small businesses and as an attorney volunteer at the Chinatown Pro Bono Legal Clinic. Ms. Chan received her Bachelor of Science from Saint Xavier University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, where she served as the President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. Ms. Chan enjoys serving as an active mentor to diverse law students.
Alan Chen
Alan Chen is an associate at Winston & Strawn LLP and focuses his practice on private equity and mergers & acquisitions. He has also worked at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Office of the General Counsel for the Governor of Illinois, and as a Senior Analyst in Global Finance for Burger King Corporation. Mr. Chen is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Chicago, where he competed as a member of the Men’s Varsity Swim Team.
Ning Ding
Ning Ding is an associate attorney at Z. Wang & Associates, P.C., a general practice law firm mainly focusing on the legal services for the Chinese community. His practice focuses on family-based and employment-based immigration, including family-based petitions, waivers, adjustments of status, Naturalization applications, and H-1B. Mr. Ding is licensed to practice in Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Summer Du
Summer Du is an associate attorney at Law Offices of Jeffery Leving where she counsels clients on various aspects of dissolution of marriage and paternity proceedings including child custody, support, visitation, property division, financial planning, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, domestic violence and post-divorce issues. As a new mother and recent immigrant, she empathizes with her clients’ struggles and goals, which she has fought for in and out of the courtroom. Summer has been a regular volunteer at Chinatown Pro Bono Clinic since 2014. She is also the communication co-chair of the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago.
Di Fu
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
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.
Yankun Guo
Yankun Guo is a Partner in the Chicago office of Ice Miller LLP. She has extensive experience working with emerging growth companies, investment funds, and family offices. Yankun advises these clients on topics that include entity formation, day-to-day business matters, boards of directors’ governance, product counseling, due-diligence, debt and equity financing transactions, fund formation, corporate venture capital and joint ventures. She acts as a trusted business adviser for emerging and growth-stage companies to fortune 500 companies. In addition, Yankun is a recognized expert on blockchain and digital assets. Previously, Yankun spent several years company-side in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group’s Transactions, Commercial Relations Group and Corporate Compliance team. She also served as regulatory counsel for one of the fastest growing fintech firms in Chicago and was responsible for all the firm’s state and federal regulatory matters. Currently, Yankun is the Vice Chair of the Financial and Emerging Technologies Committee at the Chicago Bar Association.
Helen Ji
Helen Ji is an intellectual property attorney at Schiff Hardin LLP whose primary focus is life sciences patent litigation. She has extensive patent experience concerning a wide range of complex technologies, and is additionally experienced in trademark and transactional intellectual property matters. Ms. Ji’s background is in biomedical engineering, and includes laboratory experience at the National Institutes of Health. She received her B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Maryland and J.D. from the University of Michigan. She currently serves on the Chinese Mutual Aid Association’s Associate Board and the Chicago Women in IP’s Board of Directors.
Vincent Kan
Vincent Kan is a Hearing Officer with the Illinois Department of Revenue's Board of Appeals. He hears petitions for relief from Department penalties and interest as well as offers-in-compromise on final state tax assessments. Previously, Mr. Kan served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Revenue Litigation Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General where he practiced state and local taxation as well as creditor's rights law. 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
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).
Hsin-Hsin (Ivy) Lee
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
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
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
Peter Liu is an associate in Baker McKenzie's Global Tax Practice Group in Chicago. He advises clients on a variety of tax controversy matters. He previously 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.
Huy Nguyen
Huy Nguyen is a senior associate at Factor where he negotiates commercial contracts for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies, focusing on technology transactions and data privacy and protection. Huy is also a board member of the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago and is an active volunteer at the monthly Chinatown Pro Bono Legal Clinic, providing free legal consultation to clients on various matters, including landlord-tenant, employment, family, and personal injury disputes. He received his BBAs in Marketing and International Business from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Tony Shu
Tony Shu concentrates his practice in the areas of real estate, immigration and naturalization, corporate and business transactions serving immigrants from Asian countries since 1980. He volunteers in the Chinese community as a host on a radio program on legal issues and elected four terms as the Chairman of the Board and four terms as the President of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, an institution representing Chicago’s Chinese community to promote its economic, social, cultural and political interests. He currently serves as a Director of the Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Mr. Shu was recognized by the Cook County State’s Attorney for his service to the Asian communities with the Asian Pacific American Community Service Award; the Chinese American Bar Association for his contribution to the legal profession as a distinguished Chinese American attorney with the Lifetime Achievement Award; and the Chicago Bar Association for promoting access to the legal community with the prestigious Vanguard Award.
Elaine Sit
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
Andrew Sylora is an associate in Vedder Price’s Chicago office and a member of the firm’s Health Care & Professional Associations practice group. He advises clients in the life sciences and healthcare industries on a variety of transactional, regulatory and compliance matters. Andrew serves on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys and on the Health Law Committee for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. He received his J.D. and M.B.A. from Loyola University Chicago, where he served as the president of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, and received his B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Jianing Xie
Jianing Xie is a Staff Attorney at the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern, where she represents wrongfully convicted women and non-binary people. She is passionate about supporting families impacted by the criminal legal system, and creating a racially just society for communities of color. She regularly volunteers with the Chinatown Pro Bono Clinic, and is a member of i2i Chicago. Ms. Xie is a graduate of Harvard Law School, '19 and Duke University, '13. As a law student, she served as the Executive Director of Harvard Defenders and a student attorney in the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau’s family practice.
Advisory Board
Ann Chen
Ann Chen is Assistant General Counsel at TransUnion, managing legal matters in litigation, employment, diversity & inclusion, intellectual property, real estate, and tax. She has significant in-house experience advising global businesses, including in the financial services, healthcare, and consumer goods industries. She is a leader in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including previously leading the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion program for the in-house legal department of a Fortune 100 company and as a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow. Ann received her BA from Yale University and her JD from the University of Michigan Law School. She clerked for U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan in the Southern District of Florida (now on the 11th Circuit). The National Law Journal previously named Ann a "Top 40 Under 40 - Chicago's Rising Stars."
Michael Chu
Michael Chu is a partner with McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. Michael focuses his practice on all aspects of intellectual property law. As an experienced litigator for over 28 years, Mr. Chu handles complex IP cases before the federal courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC). Mr. Chu also supervises the prosecution of patent and trademark applications and leads inter partes review teams before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Mr. Chu also has extensive experience working with domestic and international clients on cross-border transactions, IP portfolio growth, licensing, government regulation, outsourcing and import/export issues in Asia and Europe.
June Htun
June Htun is the principal attorney of the Law Offices of June J. Htun. She has been practicing Immigration Law since 2009. She is tri-lingual in English, Spanish and Burmese. She focuses her practice on removal/deportation defense, humanitarian and family-based immigration, asylum and federal litigation. June regularly practices before the U.S. Immigration Courts, BIA, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. She has successfully represented immigrants who have had prior orders of removals and has brought back immigrants who were physically removed out of the U.S.
Sharon Hwang
Sharon A. Hwang is a shareholder at McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd., where she focuses her practice on patent litigation and intellectual property counseling. Ms. Hwang has been recognized as an Illinois Super Lawyer and an IP Star since 2015, and was recently named one of World Intellectual Property Review’s Influential Women in IP 2020 and one of Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Women in Law 2020. Ms. Hwang is currently the President of the Board of Directors for the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic, Vice-Chair of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, and President-Elect of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Board for the University of Illinois.
Nathan Leong
Nathan Leong is VP, Legal at Memora Health, a health technology company backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Transformation Capital. Nathan is a member of the executive team and drives overall legal strategy and execution across product, engineering, care delivery, corporate, commercial, and operations. Prior to Memora, Nathan led the legal affairs team for Microsoft U.S. Industries & AI, where he won the Microsoft Circle of Excellence award in 2021 for his work as a key advisor to the U.S. business on COVID-19. Nathan has served on numerous boards and committees including the LCLD Alumni Executive Council, Law Foundation Board of AABA-Chicago, and several NAPABA national committees.
Dennis Mondero
Dennis Mondero served as Executive Director of Chinese Mutual Aid Association (CMAA) since August 2013, after serving for approximately ten years on CMAA’s Board of Directors. After some time practicing commercial real estate law, Mr. Mondero joined the City of Chicago as Chief Counsel for the Department of Buildings, then subsequently held positions as Deputy Buildings Commissioner, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), and Senior Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer for the CTA. Mr. Mondero is a past President of the Asian American Bar Association and the Asian American Action Fund of Greater Chicago. Among his current activities, he serves on Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s Advisory Collective, and various other community advisory boards, including the University of Illinois at Chicago and Truman College.
Lei Shen
Lei Shen is a partner in the Cyber/Data/Privacy group at Cooley LLP. Lei advises clients on a wide range of global data privacy issues and works collaboratively to develop practical privacy and data protection strategies for their products and services. She helps companies navigate and comply with state, federal and international privacy regulations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and upcoming state consumer data protection laws. She also advises on issues concerning emerging technologies, such as telematics, connected products and services (including connected and autonomous vehicles), and big data.
Darryl Tom
Darryl Tom is of counsel to Shaw Legal Services, Ltd., and concentrates his practice on commercial litigation and public finance. He received a B.A. in economics from Cornell University, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. Mr. Tom is a past president of the Chinese American Bar Association of Chicago and the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, and past board member of Erie Family Health Center, the Lynn Sage Foundation, and the Chinese American Service League. He was a Leadership Greater Chicago fellow in 1999-2000, and received the Business Leaders of Color Award from Chicago United in 2009.
Andy Wang
Andy Wang is a partner at Wang Austin LLC, a boutique law firm that practices exclusively in the employee benefits and executive compensation area. He advises public and private companies, not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions all over the country on the design, implementation, administration, and compliance issues that arise in connection with all types of employee benefits plans, including retirement plans, executive compensation arrangements, cash and equity-based incentive compensation plans, health and welfare benefit plans, and fringe benefit programs. Mr. Wang has been selected for inclusion in the Illinois Super Lawyers Listing in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He is a board member of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area Law Foundation, and is a past honorary board member of AABA Chicago. Mr. Wang earned his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, and his B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Virginia Yang
Virginia Yang practices environmental, natural resources and conservation law and currently serves as legal counsel at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Her work includes USEPA Superfund matters, FEMA grants & appeals, and administrative rulemaking. Most notably, she served as Administrative Law Judge for the Department of Natural Resources in the 2014 Lake Michigan Water Allocation issue and was appointed as Special Assistant Attorney General for IDNR Office of Mines and Minerals in 2009. Ms. Yang obtained her law degree from the DePaul University College of Law and her M.S. and B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ms. Yang is the first recipient of the 2016 Justice Laura Liu Lifetime Achievement Service Award from the Chinese American Bar Association for her work with CABA, including as President from 1995-2002.
Gary Zhao
Gary Zhao represents clients in high-stake and complex business litigation matters nationwide. A partner in SmithAmundsen LLC’s commercial litigation group, Mr. Zhao has secured victories through both trial and arbitration for his client in cases involving breach of contract, intellectual property, false advertising, unfair competition, business fraud and other disputes. Mr. Zhao has been recognized by NAPABA as one of Best Lawyers Under 40 in 2015. He is the past President of the Chinese American Bar Association and is a recipient of the Presidential Leadership Award from the organization. Mr. Zhao is a past board member of AABA Chicago and received its Member of the Year Award in 2010. He was recognized as one of 40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch by Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Mr. Zhao is currently a member of NAPABA’s Board of Governors.
Student Board
Eunsoo Choi
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Eunsoo Choi is currently a 2L at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she serves as the VP of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. She recently worked as a privacy legal extern at Walgreens where she assisted with both healthcare privacy compliance and consumer privacy protection. Prior to attending law school, she worked for two Fortune Global 500 companies as a corporate paralegal in Los Angeles. During her 1L summer, she was a summer associate at Barnes & Thornburg in Chicago. For her 2L summer, she will join Reed Smith in Chicago as the Managed Care Litigation Fellow and summer associate. Eunsoo likes to explore new food, cocktail, and coffee spots in her free time.
Mengyao He
DePaul University College of Law
Mengyao He is currently a 1L student at DePaul University College of Law, where she is a student member of Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. Prior to DePaul, Ms. He served as a legal specialist at Gaw Capital, a Real Estate investment firm, for two years. During that time, she participated in investment, acquisition, and management of different kinds of real estate projects, including retail plazas, office buildings, and logistics centers. Ms. He received her LL.B from Zhejiang University in China and her LL.M from Georgetown University.
Cherie Zhang
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Cherie Zhang is a 2L at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She currently serves as the Co-President of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association and the Treasurer for the International Law Society. Prior to law school, she graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Economics and Social Policy in 2021. Planning to build a long-term career in the greater Chicago area, Cherie interned at the General Counsel Office of the Illinois Human Rights Commission during her 1L summer. For her 2L summer, she will be joining Sidley in Chicago. Cherie is originally from Suzhou, China, and attended high school in Hong Kong. In her free time, Cherie loves to paint, watch sci-fi shows, or do tarot reading for her friends.
Zejian Zhou
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Law
Zejian Zhou is currently a 2L at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Law. He was born and raised in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China. He graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2021 with a double major in Economics and Government. He interned in the World Bank Group at Washington D.C. when he was at college. At law school, he is the vice president of International Human Rights Law Association (IHRLA). He externed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He likes reading, playing basketball, and dancing.