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Mr. Chao is a litigation partner of Morrison & Foerster, resident in the firm’s San Francisco office. He co-chairs the firm’s international litigation and arbitration practice, and focuses on commercial litigation, international arbitration, and complex criminal matters.

Mr. Chao worked as a federal prosecutor for 3-1/2 years, prior to joining Morrison & Foerster. He has handled numerous jury and court trials in both commercial and criminal matters, and has taken or defended hundreds of depositions. He has argued ten times before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, including once to an en banc panel; once before the U.S. Supreme Court; and three times before the California State Court of Appeal. He has second-chaired three additional Ninth Circuit arguments and one other U.S. Supreme Court argument.

Mr. Chao has led litigation teams in significant international and domestic commercial arbitration proceedings under the rules of the American Arbitration Association (both domestic and international arbitrations), the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”), the London Court of International Arbitration, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”), and Judicial Arbitration Mediation Services (“JAMS”), and has advised a team appearing before the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”). He is listed on the panels of approved international commercial arbitrators maintained by CIETAC and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, and has served as an ICC arbitrator.

Mr. Chao has received the following professional recognition:

• Euromoney: listed in Guide to the World’s Leading Litigation Lawyers 2008
• Euromoney: listed in Guide to the World’s Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration 2008
• San Francisco Magazine (Fall 2007): named as a “Northern California Super Lawyer.”
• Chambers USA 2008: designated as a “recommended lawyer” on Chambers’ national list of international arbitration specialists.
• Asia Law: included on the “Asia Law Leading Lawyers 2007” list for dispute resolution in Asia.
• Lawdragon: selected as a finalist for the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America” list.
• IBA Who’s Who Legal: California (2007): named as one of the eleven leading arbitration specialists in California.
• California Law Business: in an earlier survey, named as one of “California’s Top 25 Lawyers Under Age 45.”
• Member, American Law Institute.
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation.

Because of his breadth of experience, Mr. Chao counsels a number of companies on an ongoing basis, and coordinates these companies’ outside legal services. He serves as lead counsel in multiple contexts, before U.S. trial judges, U.S. juries (civil and criminal), appellate courts, and international arbitration tribunals.

Mr. Chao routinely handles high-stakes matters. Examples include:

• defending a Fortune 200 U.S. utility/power developer in an international arbitration brought in New Delhi by an Indian business partner seeking $1.2 billion in damages after the U.S. developer withdrew from a large Indian power project;
• representing as co-counsel the California Commissioner of Insurance in a high-profile lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against Credit Lyonnais and other entities for fraud and violations of the California Insurance Code in connection with the purchase of the assets of Executive Life Insurance Company, with recoveries of over $875 million;
• defending a political risk insurer in two international arbitrations in London against policy claims of expropriation arising from regulatory actions taken by the governments of Argentina and Colombia, as well as a policy claim of political violence in Colombia, that allegedly led to the commercial failure of large infrastructure projects;
• representing Gilead Sciences, Inc., a leading biosciences company, in its litigation against a large Swiss pharmaceutical for failure to use “best efforts” to commercialize Gilead’s blockbuster drug, Tamiflu, around the world, as required by the parties’ development and licensing agreement;
• defending a Korean conglomerate and the descendants of its founder in a high-profile lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court brought by a man claiming to be the illegitimate son of the elderly founder and a young hostess; the plaintiff alleged he had been kidnapped and sent to America for adoption, to deprive him of his identity and inheritance; and
• suing the U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of State to prevent them from returning to China the star witness in a heroin smuggling conspiracy, after he revealed that his confessions (which implicated the kingpins on trial) had been coerced by the Shanghai police. Following a four-week trial, the U.S. District Judge ruled that the government – in its handling of our prisoner-witness client – was guilty of gross misconduct that “shocked the court’s conscience,” and granted the requested relief. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. Wang v. Reno, 837 F. Supp. 1506 (N.D. Cal. 1993), aff’d, Wang v. Reno, 81 F.3d 808 (9th Cir. 1996).

Mr. Chao’s criminal defense practice has ranged from conducting internal corporate investigations to defending corporations and corporate officers in connection with a wide range of alleged violations. He successfully represented an individual prosecuted for cultivating 5,600 mature marijuana plants on a farm in Mendocino County, California, described by the authorities at the time of the arrests as the largest marijuana operation in Northern California history.

Mr. Chao is active in the legal community. His current positions include: Board of Directors, Lex Mundi; Committee Coordinator and Executive Committee, Inter Pacific Bar Association; and Steering Committee, ICC’s Arbitration Committee for the Northwest U.S. His former positions include: Member, Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, American Bar Association; Chair, U.S. Magistrate Judge Screening Committee, Northern District of California; Chair, Litigation Section of the California State Bar; Lawyer Delegate to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference; Board of Directors, San Francisco Bar Association; President, Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area; and Co-Chair, International Litigation Committee, Litigation Section of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Chao is also active in the business community. He currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Association of Northern California. He previously served as president of the Singapore American Business Association and on the Boards of Directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the World Affairs Council of Northern California.

Mr. Chao speaks frequently on a variety of topics, including U.S. litigation (e.g., pleadings, civil procedure, pretrial motions, discovery, and trials), cross-border litigation, international arbitration, internal corporate investigations, business crimes, minimizing the risks for foreign companies doing business in the U.S., and diversity and glass ceiling issues in the legal profession. He has also participated in mock trial demonstrations organized by the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association and the State Bar of California.

Mr. Chao received his B.A. degree in Economics (with distinction and with departmental honors) from Stanford University and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. Immediately following graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Orrick, United States District Court, Northern District of California.