PHO TOGRAPHY BY LARRY MARCUS
It took some doing—she is a busy woman, after all—but we were
able to get on Debra Wong Yang’s books in 2006. Yang, then the
U.S. attorney for California’s Central District, was appointed in 2002
by President George W. Bush, making her the first Asian-American
woman to serve as a U.S. attorney. Since then, she’s transitioned
back into private practice at Los Angeles’ Gibson Dunn. “My focus
primarily is crisis management and white collar,” she says. She also
sits every Tuesday as a civilian commissioner for the Los Angeles
Police Department. “I joined about a year and a half ago and
monitor for unlawful use of force cases, examine things like racial
profiling—hot-button issues in the civil rights arena and policing
arena.” In early 2011, she helped spearhead Gibson Dunn’s new
technology and data privacy practice group. “I love this area because
no case is the same,” she says. The practice group will handle issues
like investigations, litigation and counseling concerning alleged
computer fraud, privacy abuse, trade secrets theft, commercial
e-mail violations, and data security and network breaches, among
other matters. “I think that this is really a reflection of the growing
area of the law and business. Everyone does everything online,” she
says. Yang is enjoying her practice. And at home? She laughs. “Well,
I am still exhausted from my three children,” she says. “I hope it’s not
a lifelong exhaustion.”
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