Nelson Dong, a senior partner in the Seattle office of Dorsey & Whitney and head of its National Security Practice Group, has been named to the Nation’s Best list for 2019 by Lawyers of Color (LOC). The LOC Nation’s Best list recognizes outstanding lawyers of color who are law firm partners and senior-level corporate counsel. The LOC selection committee comprised of fellows, advisers and editorial staff, selected 100 attorneys in each of six national regions across the United States with noteworthy legal accomplishments and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. Dong was honored at the Eastern Region reception on Wednesday, June 12, in New York City.
“Dorsey is proud of Nelson and we congratulate him on this recognition of his many legal achievements and his long commitment to diversity and inclusion in the profession,” said Bill Stoeri, Managing Partner of Dorsey & Whitney. “With leaders such as Nelson, Dorsey understands the strength that comes from a diverse and inclusive workplace. It contributes to the success of our people and our clients and enriches our experience as individuals.”
Dong, who has been with Dorsey & Whitney since 1992, is an internationally respected practitioner in the field of U.S. export controls, economic sanctions and national security reviews of foreign investment or acquisitions in the United States. He is an Associate Member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) and has represented many leading research universities and been a frequent speaker at NACUA annual conferences. He was appointed twice by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve as a member of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration (PECSEA) as a policy advisor on U.S. export controls. He has also served as an adjunct professor of international law at the Seattle University of Law School, and he has taught and written often about international technology law, export controls and economic sanctions, and national security reviews of foreign direct investment in the United States. He is a director of the National Committee on US-China Relations and an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Before joining Dorsey, Dong was a White House Fellow and served as Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General and Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Yale Law School.
Dong has had a long commitment to communities, law students and lawyers of color. He has served on many community nonprofit boards, helped co-found the first local Asian American bar association in the nation and supported several local chapters of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). Dong was recognized by NAPABA in 2008, as one of its Trailblazers and has been a director of the Asian Bar Association of Washington Student Scholarship Foundation, which funds multiple law student scholarships for Asian Pacific Islander (API) law students at the three accredited Washington law schools. He has also mentored young API and other lawyers of color for over 40 years in varied law firm, corporate, nonprofit and government positions. He is an active member and a former director and general counsel of the Committee of 100. In addition, Dong has taken part in many law firm diversity efforts and worked on diversity and inclusion initiatives through multiple bar association programs.
LOC is a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that promotes legal profession diversity and advances democracy and equality in marginalized communities. LOC began in 2008, with its On Being a Black Lawyer publication and later On Being a Lawyer of Color. Today, LOC has expanded to producing events, conferences, and additional publications such as Power Issue, Legal Diversity Issue, Black Student’s Guide to Law Schools, Law School Diversity Issue, and Minority Pre-Law Handbook. LOC also works with media organizations to publish reports and studies such as Why Black Lawyers Matter. To further amplify the voices of minorities in the legal profession, LOC supports prospective law students and new lawyers and conducts legal opinion writing workshops and assists with op-ed placement. LOC has also launched a minority judicial clerkship project, and in the fall of 2019, LOC will hold a series of working conferences that will bring together leaders from the technology, social justice, and legal communities to design a new legal model to scale up small nonprofit law firms with a social justice focus.