Contact: Mark Fefer, Marketing Communications, 206.757.8583 or markfefer@dwt.com
SEPT. 3, 2019 – Jennifer Chung, a litigator in the Seattle office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, has been selected as a recipient of the 2018-2019 Public Service & Leadership Award by the Washington State Bar Association's Young Lawyers Committee.
Chung will be recognized next week at a Washington Young Lawyers Committee social event at the W Hotel in Seattle.
"Jennifer's dedication to public service has been exemplary and we couldn't be more proud of her," said Pete Johnson, Davis Wright Tremaine's Seattle partner-in-charge. "From providing frontline support to vulnerable, immigrant children to spearheading an important civil rights brief on behalf of our largest clients, Jennifer has consistently demonstrated her commitment to professional excellence and to ensuring access to justice."
Last year, Chung devoted over 400 hours to pro bono work, supporting numerous important firmwide efforts. These include Davis Wright Tremaine's ongoing partnership with Amazon in support of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization dedicated to ensuring no child appears in immigration court without high-quality representation. Through Chung's efforts, knowledge, and legal expertise, the federal government granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status to her young immigration client this past spring. Chung, who is herself the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, shared her expertise with other DWT attorneys in the KIND partnership and participated in a presentation to interested Amazon lawyers and staff.
Chung has worked extensively on other immigration issues with the ACLU of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, including a current lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection on behalf of a Washington man who was illegally detained by Border Patrol at a Spokane, Wash., bus station.
In 2019, Chung was lead author on an amicus brief filed by Davis Wright Tremaine and Perkins Coie on behalf of 18 Washington businesses and business associations in an important Washington Supreme Court marriage equality case, Ingersoll v. Arlene's Flowers. Chung has also applied her legal and analytical skills to a DWT and ACLU voting rights partnership, which is currently investigating state and county compliance with the National Voter Registration Act across the country.
Chung has served as a volunteer with the Domestic Violence Impact Project, a monthly legal clinic in King County, Wash., and with the Alaska Business Development Center, which helps low-income, rural Alaskans prepare their tax returns.
Chung is committed as well to supporting greater diversity in her profession. She volunteers as an interviewer and mentor to law students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the legal industry and who seek to participate in the American Bar Association's Judicial Intern Opportunity Program. She also volunteers as a moot court judge at both University of Washington School of Law and Seattle University School of Law, providing feedback to law students about their oral advocacy and legal skills. She meets regularly with law students seeking judicial clerkships and career advice.
Chung received a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with more than 550 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.