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Project Advisors

Our Advisors are incredibly accomplished individuals who have guided the Breaking Bamboo Boxes Project with their experiences with proven leadership in the legal community. The Project would not be reality without them.

Richard C. Hsu

Richard Hsu is a retired lawyer and Managing Director at Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the world’s largest legal recruiting firm. A former Partner and Practice Group Leader at an AmLaw 20 firm, Richard specializes in representing attorneys, individual partners, and partner groups in the lateral market while conducting targeted searches for law firm clients. As a former Managing Partner of a law firm, he has cultivated deep relationships with lawyers and clients, serving as a trusted advisor to attorneys navigating their career paths.

Famous for his ABA award-winning podcast, Hsu Untied, Richard has interviewed billionaire entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, best-selling authors, TED speakers, lawyers, professional athletes, Olympic medalists, Emmy Award winners, and other celebrities. Leveraging his Caltech engineering background, Richard created and produced the LMA award-winning blog, HsuTube, collaborating with his daughter to create videos explaining intellectual property and licensing issues in an accessible way.

Before joining MLA, Richard served as a Partner and Global Head of the Intellectual Property Practice at Shearman & Sterling, where he also co-chaired the Privacy & Data Protection Practice and co-led the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Industry Group. He held certifications as a CIPP/US/E, CIPM, and CIPT Certified Privacy Specialist.

Currently, Richard serves as a Board Member at the Kernochan Center for Law, Media & the Art of Columbia Law School, an Advisory Board Member of The Leakey Foundation and the Alliance for Decision Education. A published author, he previously held the role of General Counsel at Cyrano Sciences, a venture-backed company founded by Caltech Nobel Laureate Robert Grubbs to develop an electronic nose.

Richard earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Leana S. Taing

Leana is a deputy county counsel for the Los Angeles County Office of Counsel. In addition, Leana teaches Legal Writing as a Lecturer in Law for USC Gould School of Law. She earned her JD from UCLA School of Law. She specialized in Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law & Policy Program. Leana earned her B.A. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.

Leana is an executive officer of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA) and the WLALA Foundation. She is a past president of the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance (APAWLA) and continues to serve on its board of governors. Leana serves on the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Council for Diversity in the Educational Pipeline as the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) liaison. Leana is a recipient of the 2024 ABA “On the Rise” – Top 40 Young Lawyers Award, a prestigious national honor in recognition of exceptional achievement, innovation, vision, leadership and commitment to both legal and community service. She is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Leana is the first in her family to go to law school and become an attorney. Her family fled the Cambodian genocide and started anew in Stockton, California. Their experiences compelled her to become a public interest attorney and dedicate herself to public service. As a part of her legal journey, Leana assisted the Office of the Co-Prosecutor in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity and genocide.