Cyndie Chang
Managing Partner
Duane Morris Los Angeles
Cyndie Chang is a Committee of 100 member, the Duane Morris Los Angeles Managing Partner and member of its Partners Board. Chang represents national and international businesses and litigates complex business and class action disputes. She advises and partners with clients to enforce their rights, resolve business challenges, mitigate exposure, and litigate their commercial disputes involving contracts, securities, licensing, products liability, product safety and recall, unfair competition, business torts and fraud, trademarks, trade secrets, insurance coverage, and real estate. Chang has obtained favorable results serving as first chair in jury and bench trials and arbitrations, and leading joint defense groups in complex cases. Her services have spanned various industries, including manufacturing, retail, fashion, consumer goods, financial services and banks, healthcare, insurance, cannabis, education, energy, utilities, telecommunications, auto and transportation.
She served as President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), representing more than 60,000 Asian American attorneys and 80 local, state and national bar associations. She led NAPABA during its advocacy efforts and amicus briefs to SCOTUS on immigration issues and initiated programs for minority women in the profession and lawyers’ self-care/mental health. She was also President of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, which awarded her its inaugural Trailblazer award based on achievements in her legal career, championing of issues affecting immigrants and other marginalized communities, and overall dedication to the APA community. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Loyola Law School, LA and received its Board of Governors Grand Reunion alumni award, and serves as a board member of the National Association of Women Lawyers. She was a Commissioner on the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession and a board member of the Asian Pacific Community Fund, which helps fund Los Angeles API non-profits.
Chang has been recognized with the “Super Lawyers” distinction for many years, including Top 50 Women of Southern California and the Daily Journal’s Top 100 California Women Lawyers. Her honors include: NAPABA’s 2010 Best Lawyers Under 40; Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) inaugural EDGE Greater Equality Award; inaugural fellow to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD); Asian Americans Advancing Justice LA Pro Bono Award; a LA Times “DEIA Visionary”; one of Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Most Influential Minority Lawyers,” “Champion of Women Finalist,” “Community Impact Award Finalist,” “Most Influential Women Lawyers,” and “Leader in Law”; The Recorder’s “Lawyer on the Fast Track;” Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s (MCCA) “Rising Star”, and one of 15 women profiled in Best Lawyers Magazine in 2016 as leading the charge for achievements in the practice and policy on both local and national levels. She is an elected member of the Chancery Club (Los Angeles’ association of distinguished lawyers who have held position of honor and responsibility in legal, judicial, academic, governmental and civic organizations) and serves on the Joint Committee of Law Firm Partners and Corporate Counsel for the National Judicial College (NJC). Ms. Chang is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers, and a Fellow to the American Bar Foundation. Ms. Chang previously served as judicial extern to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Chang has led high profile pro bono impact litigation for national non-profits, on issues concerning reproductive justice, racial profiling, and immigrant business rights. Specifically, on behalf of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, she advocated and challenged the constitutionality of a proposed ordinance that could have restricted the use of Asian characters on business signs in the City of Monterey Park, California. She was featured in, “An Asian American Family’s Story of intergenerational Courage,” by AARP and “Opening the Door: Personal Stories of Groundbreaking Los Angeles Lawyers and Judges” for LA Law Library’s Pro Bono Week, sponsored by Cal Humanities. Ms. Chang has also been featured in the Los Angeles Business Journal, Above the Law, Ms. JD, The American Lawyer, the ABA Journal, Best Lawyers, Diversity Journal, the LA times, Diversity Executive, the Daily Journal and other legal publications. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at numerous national and local professional, bar association, and community events.
Peggy Kuo
Magistrate Judge
United States District Court
Eastern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo was appointed on October 9, 2015. She received a B.A. summa cum laude in history from Yale University in 1985 and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1988.
Judge Kuo clerked for the Honorable Judith W. Rogers with the D.C. Court of Appeals. From 1989 until 1993, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia. From 1994 to 1998, she was a trial attorney and then Acting Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Division Criminal Section at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she investigated and prosecuted hate crimes and allegations of police misconduct throughout the United States. From 1998 to 2002, Judge Kuo prosecuted war crimes and crimes against humanity at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. Her historic trial regarding mass rape in Bosnia became the subject of the documentary film, “I Came To Testify,” part of the series Women, War & Peace.
Upon her return to New York, Judge Kuo became litigation counsel at Wilmer Hale, LLP. In 2005, she was appointed Chief Hearing Officer at the New York Stock Exchange, where she presided over hearings involving violations of federal securities laws. From 2011 until her appointment to the bench, she was Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel of the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, the largest municipal tribunal in the country.
Judge Kuo was born in Taiwan and moved to the United States at the age of three. She was awarded a German Chancellor Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1993 to study the German criminal justice system. She is a former President of the Federal Bar Council American Inn of Court, an active member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, and former Vice-Chair of Manhattan Legal Services.
Debra Wong Yang
Partner
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
Debra Wong Yang is a Committee of 100 member and a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Los Angeles office. Reflective of her broad practice and comprehensive abilities, Yang is Chair of the Crisis Management Practice Group, former Chair of the White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group, which includes the FCPA Practice Group, and former Chair of the Information Technology and Data Privacy Practice Group. She is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. She previously served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, where she was appointed by President George W. Bush, who made her the first Asian-American woman to serve as a United States Attorney. Yang was also selected to serve on President George W. Bush’s Corporate Fraud Task Force and to chair the Attorney General’s Advisory Committees on Intellectual Property and Civil Rights.
In 2023, Yang was recognized by Chambers USA with an Outstanding Contribution Award where she was described by Chambers and Partners as “the epitome of an elite white-collar practitioner and go-to thought leader.” Lawdragon has recognized Yang as a “Lawdragon Legend,” one of the Top 500 lawyers in the United States, and a member of its inaugural 500 Leading Litigators in America for 2023. The Los Angeles Business Journal named Yang to its annual list of the Top 100 Lawyers in Los Angeles (May 2023), and has named her as one of the Top 500 most influential people in Los Angeles every year since 2016. In 2015, Yang was recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the 27 “stellar attorneys” on the Most Influential Lawyers: White Collar and Cyber Crime list. From 2017 – 2019 and 2021 – 2022, she was also named to its list of Most Influential Women Lawyers in Los Angeles, featuring 50 of the most accomplished female attorneys working in the region, and in 2018, 2020 and 2022 they named her among the Most Influential Minority Lawyers in Los Angeles. Who’s Who Legal included her in the 2023 Who’s Who Legal Investigations guide as a top practitioner, and from 2019 – 2023, Who’s Who Legal also recognized Yang in the field of Business Crime Defense. She was recognized in 2023 as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA in California for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, an award she has received since 2009. The Daily Journal has named her to its list of California’s Top 100 lawyers over the past several years, including most recently in 2023, highlighting her role in defending companies in investigations and crises that make headlines and are highly confidential in nature. The Daily Journal has also repeatedly named Yang to its annual list of 100 Leading Women Lawyers in California. In 2019, Benchmark Litigation named her a California “Litigation Star.”
In 2022, the American Jewish Committee bestowed Yang with their prestigious Learned Hand Award. The Anti-Defamation League presented Yang with its prestigious Deborah Award, which honors “extraordinary women of achievement.” The award was given in recognition for her “professional and philanthropic dedication to the Los Angeles community.” She was also named by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federalist Society as Lawyer of the Year. She previously served as a founding member and officer of many Asian-American bar organizations in Chicago and Los Angeles. Yang was recognized by The National Law Journal as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America. She has been recognized as a champion of civil rights by both the Los Angeles City Council and the Inglewood Superior Court. The Asian Pacific Bar Association selected her as the 2002 recipient of its Public Service Award and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association selected her as the 2003 recipient of the Trailblazers Award. Previously, she was appointed to the President’s Council for Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges and was given the inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award.
Yang has remained active in the local and legal communities, roles for which she has been frequently honored. In 2009, she was selected by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to serve as a Los Angeles Police Commissioner, part of the civilian oversight committee of the LA Police Department. Yang has been an adjunct professor at the USC School of Law and has instructed at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and at California’s Judicial College. She is a former president and board member of The Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, the secretary and board member of River LA, a board member of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a board member of the LA Philharmonic and a past board member of colleges and other educational institutions.
Yang received her Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School and was a law clerk to the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Alice Young
Founder
Alice Young Advisory LLC
Alice Young is a Committee of 100 member and the Founder of Alice Young Advisory LLC, where she advises clients on Asia business strategies and potential business partners and resources. She retired as Partner and Chair of the Asia Pacific Practice of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP after over 40 years of international law practice there and previously at Coudert Brothers, Graham & James (now Patton Squire Sanders), and Milbank & Tweed. She served for 30 years as an Independent Director and on the Executive and Examining Committees of Mizuho Trust and Banking Co (USA) and its predecessor bank and also as Independent Director and on the Audit, Risk Management and Corporate Governance Committees of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, a NYSE-listed company.
Young was based in Hong Kong in the pioneering early 1970’s, did her first China deal in 1979, and in 1981 was the first woman, minority and youngest partner to found and head a New York branch law office. She has been lead advisor on projects throughout Asia and is conversant in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and French. She is a Trustee Emeritus of the Asia Foundation and Lotus Circle Advisor; Lifetime Trustee of the Aspen Institute; Associate Fellow of Davenport College, Yale University; and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Young has received numerous awards for her civic and business leadership. She was honored by the Boy Scouts of America (NY Councils) “Distinguished Woman of the Year” Award, “New York Doers” Award, the New Jersey “Best Women in Business” Award and the New York Women’s Agenda Star Award. She received the “Justice in Action” Award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the “Most Influential APA New Yorkers” Award from the National Association of Asian American Professionals, the Yale Medal (2020) and the Yale Asian American Alumni Leadership Award, and the ASCEND “Inspirational Leadership” Award. She was listed by Crain’s as one of the “Top 100 Minority Executives” and by Harvard Law Bulletin as one of the top 50 women graduates of Harvard Law School.
She frequently lectures on business, law and foreign policy issues at various organizations, including Harvard, Yale, Aspen Institute, Moody’s, and Asia Society, and has appeared internationally on CNN, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, The Charlie Rose Show, PBS, ABC Nightline, Fuji TV, and China Television Network on these subjects. She has been featured in The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, Newsweek, The National Law Journal, Where They Are Now: The Story of Women of Harvard Law 1974 (Doubleday, 1986) and Working Women for the 21st Century (Williamson Publishing, 1991). Young was in the first class of women graduates of Yale College, where she majored in East Asian Studies and received a Bates Fellowship to study in Japan under Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese Nobel Prize Winner in Literature. She was one of the first Asian American women to graduate from Harvard Law School.
