2022 Pathways to Law PANELIST BIOGRAPHIES

SESSION #1: PRACTITIONER Panel

Saturday, October 29, 2022 @ 11 am - 12 pm PDT

  • Allan Low, Partner, Perkins Coie
  • Vilaska Nguyen, Public Defender at the SF Public Defender’s Office
  • Amanda Hamilton, Compliance Counsel at Spring Education Group
  • Judge Dorothy Chou Proudfoot, Administrative Law Judge


Allan Low, Partner, Perkins Coie

Allan Low views real estate as an opportunity to develop and preserve sustainable communities for all to work, live and play. Serving as a trusted advisor, Allan helps clients finance, develop, build, rent, buy and sell real estate in an increasingly regulated environment. He has a deep knowledge of the real estate industry as well as the San Francisco community and political landscape.

Allan represents financial institutions and project sponsors on financing real estate transactions and construction projects, including loan originations, loan modifications, loan workouts, troubled debt restructuring, forbearance agreements, receiverships and deed in lieu transactions. He also represents capital partners and project sponsors on structuring real estate ventures, including the formation of real estate limited liability companies and limited partnerships.

Allan guides project sponsors and property owners through the purchase and sale of single assets and portfolio transactions. He is experienced in counseling owners and users of real estate on leasing transactions, including office, retail and industrial leasing, lease amendments and lease restructuring. In addition, Allan has significant experience advising property owners on subdivisions, easements and other land-sharing arrangements. He also advises on zoning amendments, special-use districts, variances, conditional use permits, and obtaining and defending issuance of permits and other land use entitlements.

With an extensive background on community development, Allan has worked for over 30 years with nonprofit affordable housing organizations and lending institutions to develop and finance affordable housing projects as well as to preserve neighborhoods and keep residents in their apartments. Outside of his legal practice, Allan is active with Chinatown and Asian American organizations.


VILASKA NGUYEN, MANAGING ATTORNEY, SF PUBLIC DEFENDER'S OFFICE

Vilaska Nguyen is the Managing Attorney for the Specialty and Collaborative Courts of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, where he has worked for 17 years. Vilaska graduated from University of San Francisco School of Law in 2004 and began working as a trial attorney, successfully litigating over 40 misdemeanor and felony cases to verdict. He started the mock trial workshop at 826 Valencia and is passionate about mentoring the future generation of justice advocates.


Amanda Hamilton, Compliance Counsel at Spring Education Group

Amanda Hamilton is Compliance Counsel at Spring Education Group. Spring Education Group is a multi-brand education network of private school institutions spanning infant care through high school. The network (currently composed of approximately 220 schools across 19 states) brings together some of the best private school programs in the country.   Prior to that, she was a litigation attorney at Reed Smith LLP practicing in the Financial Industry Group.  She received her JD from UC Hastings, and earned her BA in Film & Media Studies from UC Irvine. Her past experience includes working in-house at One Medical, a healthcare tech company, and practicing personal injury litigation.  Amanda also serves as Co-Chair of the Asian American Bar Association’s LGBT Committee and was the Co-Chair of the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) Board from 2020-2021. 



Judge Dorothy Chou Proudfoot, Administrative Law Judge

Hon. Dorothy Chou Proudfoot is an Administrative Law Judge at the San Francisco Rent Board, where she has presided over arbitration hearings in residential rent control cases and mediated landlord-tenant disputes since 2018.

She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She practiced civil litigation at Heller Ehrman LLP before spending sixteen years as a Deputy District Attorney in Marin County, specializing in gang violence and sexual assault offenses. From 2008-2009, she was also cross-designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, prosecuting federal offenses in the Northern District of California.

She is the Immediate Past President of the Earl Warren American Inn of Court and the Chair of the Administrative Law Judges Committee of the California Asian Pacific American Judges Association. She also serves on the Administrative Judiciary, Bylaws, Judicial Independence, and LGBTQ Committees of the National Association of Women Judges.

A sustaining member of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, she serves on its Public Law Committee as well as the Centennial Committee of Queen’s Bench Bar Association. She previously served on the Board of Governors of California Women Lawyers, was a Vice-President of Women Lawyers of Alameda County, served on the Marin County Judicial Fairness Committee, and in 2017, was the first Asian-American President of the Marin County Bar Association.

She has coached, scored, and presided over Mock Trial and Moot Court competitions for twelve years and has served on the Cal Band Alumni Association Council for two decades.

SESSION #2: LAW School admissions

Saturday, October 29, 2022 @ 12 pm - 1 pm PDT

  • Victoria Chan, AABA Law Student Representative, Golden Gate University Law
  • Bryan Zerbe, Director of Admissions for UC Hastings Law
  • Shannon Kahn, Private Sector Attorney Counselor for UC Berkeley Career Development Office
  • Jorge Magana, Associate Director of Financial Aid for UC Berkeley School of Law


Victoria Chan, 2L at Golden Gate University School of Law

Raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Victoria Chan is an advocate for workers’ and immigrants’ rights. She believes that all workers, regardless of their immigration status, English proficiency, or profession, are entitled to fundamental rights at the workplace. Victoria spent the last five and half years as a Senior Community Advocate for Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, where she empowered and represented low-wage and immigrant workers on issues including wage and hour, retaliation, discrimination, unemployment insurance, and workplace health and safety. Using her bilingual language skills, cultural competency, and heart for the community, she plans to intern for community-based legal organizations providing direct legal services and government agencies charged with enforcing labor laws during her law school summers. With her commitment to become a public interest attorney, Victoria looks forward to using her legal education to continue protecting communities like San Francisco’s Chinatown. Victoria is a 2L at Golden Gate University School of Law.


Bryan Zerbe, Director of Admissions for UC Hastings Law

Bryan Zerbe serves as UC Hastings’s Director of Admissions, where he oversees recruitment efforts, application review, and operations related to enrollment in the JD program. He joined the UC Hastings community in 2010 as Associate Director of Admissions and began serving in the Director role in 2015. Mr. Zerbe serves as an ex offcio member on the faculty-chaired Admissions Policy and LEOP Admissions Committees and is an active volunteer with the Pre-Law Advisors National Committee (PLANC) and the LGBT Asylum Project in San Francisco. He recently earned a certificate in enrollment management leadership from the National Association of Graduate Admission Professionals Leadership Academy.

A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Zerbe earned a BA cum laude in history and Spanish from Gettysburg College and an MBA from Boston College.


Shannon Kahn, Private Sector Attorney Counselor for UC Berkeley Career Development Office

Prior to joining the CDO, Shannon served as Associate Director of Career Services at UC Davis School of Law. She received a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2008, where she served as Executive Managing Editor of the Columbia Law Review. After graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then worked as an associate in the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. During her six years at Debevoise, she represented public and private companies and private equity sponsors on a variety of restructuring transactions and advised several not-for-profit organizations on a pro bono basis. Shannon received her B.A. in Politics from Princeton University in 2003.


Jorge Magana Associate Director of Financial Aid for UC Berkeley School of Law

Jorge joined UC Berkeley Law’s Financial Aid Office in 2019. He has worked in financial aid for over 5 years and previously worked in financial aid at Loyola Marymount University, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Peninsula College. Jorge has a particular interest in financial wellness, financial aid policy, and improving college access and success, specifically for first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students.

He received an M.A. in International Education Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University and a B.A. in International Development Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

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