Katten announced today that the firm welcomed Qian Julie Wang, a litigator and New York Times bestselling author, as a featured guest in its Perspectives Speaker Series during Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month.
“We’re fortunate to hear Qian Julie Wang share her immigrant experience. I have certainly empathized and personally connected with parts of her journey as it resonates deeply with many who have had to overcome adversity at some point in their lives,” said Associate Alexander Kim, co-chair of the firm’s AAPI affinity group, which plays a vital role in cultivating a culture of belonging and inclusion at the firm.
With the theme of the 2025 AANHPI Heritage Month as “A Legacy of Leadership and Resilience,” Kim moderated the virtual event with Wang. The discussion covered her memoir Beautiful Country, which details her experience as an undocumented child living in poverty in the United States. She talked about the challenges she encountered in her childhood, her path to become a US citizen and her legal career. She is now the managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advocating for education and disability rights.
As a young child, she recalled reading library books about Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which inspired her to become an attorney. “If you think about it, lawyers and judges represent the antithesis of everything that the undocumented community struggles with: lack of access to resources, lack of understanding of the law, lack of pathways to even finding their voice in the courtroom. I wanted to be that voice, for people like me, who were struggling,” Wang said.
Wang also discussed the lingering feeling of being an outsider, including in the legal industry and publishing world. Yet, she finds power in that experience and now embraces it. “If you can see the system or the industry from the outside, then you have the power and the insight and the wisdom to fix and change things, and to break things if they need to be broken. Because you are not of the system and you are not of the industry, you are an independent person with agency and willpower and insight — insight that is much needed. Every new lawyer, every new author I meet who feels that they are so green, and they can’t possibly have anything to contribute, I say we need you,” Wang said.
Katten’s Perspectives Speaker Series is a program open to all attorneys and business professionals, designed to spotlight voices that inspire dialogue, broaden perspectives and strengthen the firm’s commitment to inclusion.
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