Board

2010-2011

Ada L. Loo, President

Ada is an associate in the Washington, DC office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, where her practice focuses on international trade regulation and agreements.  A native of Georgia, Ada attended Emory University and later worked for a member of the U.S. Congress, both in Georgia and in  Washington, DC.  In the summer of 1999, while attending American  University’s Washington College of Law, Ada received an AEF summer fellowship. In conjunction with her service on the AEF board, Ada is also serving as the pro bono General Counsel for the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Nguyen T. Vu, Vice-President                                                   

Nguyen is an Associate in the Washington, DC office of Bingham McCutchen LLP, where his practice includes representing wireless and wireline carriers before the Federal Communications Commission and state utilities commissions in a wide variety of regulatory and rulemaking proceedings. Nguyen also advises communications carriers, banks, venture capitalists, private equity and other investment companies on the regulatory aspects of mergers, acquisitions and other corporate transactions as well as financing and debt arrangements.  Nguyen also serves on the board of the Vietnamese American Bar Association of the Greater Washington D.C. Area, and is a Co-Chair of the Membership and Marketing Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association.

Jeffrey Sun, Treasurer

Jeffrey is an associate at the Washington, DC office of Littler Mendelson. He concentrates his practice on representing employers in both labor and employment matters, including equal employment opportunity counseling and employment litigation under various federal and state employment statutes, including Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA.  Jeff was raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and received his B.A. in political science from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from George Washington University. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Janice Ambrose in the District Court of Maryland.

Carol Wong, Secretary

Carol is a trial attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, where she was the an editor for the University of Illinois Law Review, participated in the Civil Litigation Clinic, and was the Secretary for the College of Law’s Asian-American Law Students Association. After law school, Carol served as a law clerk for the Honorable Bernice B. Donald, United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

Benjamin Bahk, Director

Ben is an attorney in the Water Enforcement Division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.  Ben is a graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon where he earned the Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law.  Prior to attending law school, Ben worked as an environmental scientist in Florida and South Korea.  Ben also has a Master’s Degree in wetlands from the University of Florida and he attended Duke University for his undergraduate degree.

Phil Olaya, Director

Phil is an attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Federal Election Commission, the agency responsible for the administration, interpretation, and enforcement of the nation’s campaign finance laws. Prior to the FEC, Phil worked as an appellate attorney with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and on voting rights with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City. Phil earned his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law - Newark and his BA from Tulane University.

Palak Sheth, Director

Palak is the program director for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the largest national APA bar association representing over 40,000 APA attorneys, law students and judges.  With NAPABA, Palak advocates on behalf of the APA community on issues affecting APA’s nationwide and is responsible for promotion of relationships with affiliates and other community-based organizations.  Palak was raised in the suburbs of Michigan and went to the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, receiving a double major in Economics and Asian Studies.  She then went to Case Western Reserve School of Law where she was active on their South Asian Law Student Association as well as the non-profit clinic.  Palak was briefly a fellow at the Asian Pacific Legal Resource Center in Washington, DC before joining her current position in NAPABA.

Kelu Sullivan, Director

Kelu is an associate in the Washington, DC office of Baker Hostetler.  While serving on the firm’s Intellectual Property team, Kelu represents clients in domestic and international trademark and copyright prosecution matters, inter partes proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, domain name disputes, intellectual property litigation and unfair competition matters. In addition, Kelu conducts trademark clearance searches and drafts availability opinions. Kelu attended law school at the University of Virginia was an articles editor of the Journal of Law and Politics. She also attended George Mason University for her undergraduate studies.

Lauren Sun, Director

Lauren is currently serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard J. Leon on the District Court for the District of Columbia. Previously, she worked as a trial attorney at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Lauren is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where she participated in the Stanford Criminal Defense Clinic, was a Public Interest Fellow, and served on the managing boards of the Stanford Law Review and Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation.  Lauren hails from Bryn Mawr, PA, and received her BA in economics from Princeton University.

David Hsu, APABA-DC President (ex officio) 

David is an Assistant Director in the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Prior to joining the federal government, David was an associate with the law firms of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California, and Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson in New York City, where his practice focused on corporate and securities transactions.  David received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was Chair of the Pacific Islander Asian and Native American Law Student Association (PANA) and a Symposium Editor on the Yale Law Journal.  David received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in Economics.

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Advisory Board

The AEF Advisory Board is a committee comprised of individuals with experience in working with AEF, and who serve the important purpose of providing continuity of vision for the organization.

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