Hermine Wong is President of the Asia Law Society. A native San Franciscan, she grew up navigating the streets of San Francisco Chinatown with her grandmother, learning how to get business done in Cantonese and Toisanese. After graduating from UC Berkeley with degrees in French and Political Science, she worked for several years in the Bay Area before taking the plunge to work in China. Turned out that San Francisco, CA was vastly different from Shanghai, China, and she was beguiled to stay for three years: her first two spent working for a semiconductor company and the last spent working for a US law firm. While in China, she also joined an ultimate frisbee team and traveled to Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Australia to compete in tournaments. Now that she's in law school, she misses all the traveling she used to do, but the intellectual discourse and friendships from ALS have more than made up for it.
Sarah St. Vincent is ALS Co Vice President. Sarah earned a B.A. in Asian Studies and English Literature from Swarthmore College in 2004 and an A.M. in East Asian Studies from Harvard in 2007. She wrote her master's thesis on the politics and economics of transgender rights in Vietnam, and now focuses on human rights in post-conflict societies. She has previously worked, studied, and conducted research in Vietnam and Cambodia.
KathyZhu is ALS Co Vice President. Kathy earned her B.A. in English at the University of Notre Dame and spent a year studying at Oxford University. While at Notre Dame, Kathy received funding to travel to China to conduct research on the development of its primary educational system. Prior to starting law school, Kathy worked for the legal department of Honeywell International. Kathy was born in Shanghai and hopes to return there to work in the area of Corporate Law in the near future. Her favorite experience in Asia involved teaching a bus full of Chinese tourists how to play "Mafia."
Siobhan Lam is ALS Secretary. Siobhan is from Hong Kong and enjoys travelling all over Asia (and the world!). She is a 1L and just graduated from Brown University with a double-concentration in History and International Relations. During undergrad, Siobhan spent two summers in Beijing, first at the Beijing Language and Culture University working on her Chinese and then interning at a law firm. Siobhan looks forward to exploring her interests in China and the law and hopes also to have a grand ol? time while doing so!
Pier DeRoo is Treasurer of the Asia Law Society. Pier is from Grosse Pointe, Michigan and he received his B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University. Prior to law school, he taught English on a Princeton-in-Asia fellowship at a Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai, Thailand, and subsequently worked for Jones Day in the Intellectual Property group in Washington, DC. Pier enjoyed mountain-biking all over northern Thailand after spending four years in undergrad on the crew team. He looks forward to further exploring his interests in Asia while pursuing legal interests in Intellectual Property and Corporate Law.
William Leahy is the Lecture Chair. Will has spent the better part of the last 10 years doing China-related things, after studying in Beijing his junior year of high school. While at Princeton Will studied Chinese and spent his summers working first for a subsidiary of the Economist magazine writing about Chinese intellectual property protection (or the lack thereof), and then for a think tank in Washington researching Asian-security matters. After college Will worked for an American law firm in Shanghai on a Princeton in Asia fellowship, on Capitol Hill handling China-related human rights matters, and as a lobbyist assisting U.S. companies with business interests in China.
Steven Hanton is the Pulicity Chair. Steven is born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is a 1L recently graduated from Tufts University with a triple concentration in International Relations, Philosophy and Asian Studies in May of 2009. The first time he studied in Japan was on a student exchange as a sophomore in high school; in college, he continued his Japanese studies and also began studying Mandarin. He then went on to study for a year in both China and Japan; At Zhejiang University in Hangzhou China, he studied economics and at Kanazawa University in Kanazawa, Japan, he focused on the effects of Nishida Kitaro on modern Japanese philosophy. In the future, Steven would like to return to China as a practicing lawyer. Steven is excited about improving his understanding of issues in the pacific Rim and the rest of Asia and working with the rest of the ALS board. To a great year!
Sam Plott is the Activities Chair. Sam earned his B.A. in Asian Languages and Literature and Religious Studies from the University of Iowa in 2006. Prior to law school, Sam taught ESL with EF English First in Xi'an, China, and later managed a small management consulting company there. Sam enjoys traveling to off the beaten path places, and loves learning new languages. After finishing his J.D., Sam hopes to spend time in Europe and Asia working in the field of international human rights law.
Katie Conlin is ALS Co 3L Representative. Katie earned her B.A. in Peace Studies at the College of St. Benedict in MN, with a minor in Asian Studies. After undergrad, Katie worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer for a year, then went on to coordinate international service programs (including programs in China and India) for a non-profit organization, and also did policy and communications work for the MN Catholic Conference. Katie hopes to continue to pursue her passion for international and public interest issues.
Ji-Yoen Suh is the ALS CO 3L Representative. Bio pending.
Qian (Iris) Wang is ALS 2L representative. Iris is from Beijing. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry and B.A. in Economics from Peking University. She continued her study in biochemistry at the University of Michigan and earned a Ph.D. degree prior to law school. She also studied in the National University of Singapore for one semester as one of the first four exchange students from Peking University. Iris’s legal interests include Intellectual Property and Information Technology. Iris loves traditional Chinese culture. She also loves writing. You are welcome to visit her website www.elusive-words.com to know more about her.
Yoon Chaeis ALS 1L Representative. Yoon earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009. He took a break during college for three years to work in different fields including engineering, non-profit, and intellectual property law. He is from South Korea and was brought up in Singapore and India. During this time period, he enjoyed travelling in Europe and Asia, and he names Goa as his favorite and most memorable getaway. His long-term goal is to return to East Asia as an American attorney, which is why he is deeply interested in developments and issues that affect the Asian legal community.
Angbeen Mirzais the L.L.M representative for the Asia Law Society. She grew up in Pakistan, in a city called Lahore. She completed her B.A., L.L.B at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, where she also spent a significant amount of her time playing netball and soccer. After graduating in 2008, she moved to Karachi with her family, where she began working at a civil litigation firm to complete her pupilage with a senior advocate and receive her license to practice in the Courts at Sindh, Pakistan. Her interests include regulation, legal aid, and governance & social policy.
John Graham is President Emeritus of the Asia Law Society (2008-2009). His first career was as a classical trombonist, counting among his experiences almost three years as principal trombonist of the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony. Prior to starting law school, John earned a degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies during which he spent an academic year in Taipei studying at National Taiwan University, and worked at non-profit, non-partisan policy think-tank National Bureau of Asian Research as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow. John's legal interests include Corporate Law and Intellectual Property, and he has done extensive research on technology standards in China.
ALS Executive Board 
