3/8/04—Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that BC Law Alum Debra Yang (’85) will speak at the Law School on Friday, March 12, from 11 am-12 pm in Stuart House room 411. Yang, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, will discuss “Corporate Fraud—Trends, Changes, and Policy.”

“We’re delighted to have Debra Yang back here to address the community,” said BC Law Dean John H. Garvey. “She has had a tremendously successful career as a prosecutor and as a role model, and has had experience with many of the corporate scandals that have changed the business climate over the past few years. It will be a great benefit to our students to hear her speak about her experiences.”

Yang’s talk will touch on the larger corporate scandals of the past few years, including Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco— and discuss the fraudulent practices by corporations, managers, and Boards of Directors. Yang will discuss how the United States Attorney as prosecutor deals with these scandals, as well as the types of changes and regulations we might be seeing in the future.

Yang will be introduced by BC Law Professor Renee Jones. The discussion is free and open to the public.

The Honorable Debra W. Yang is the United States Attorney for the Central District of California. She was appointed in May 2002 by President George W. Bush, who made her the first Asian-American woman to serve as a United States Attorney.

Ms. Yang leads the largest United States Attorney’s Office outside of Washington, D.C. The office serves well over 17 million people who live in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. There are approximately 260 Assistant United States Attorneys who litigate criminal, civil and tax matters in United States District Court. Since becoming United States Attorney, Ms. Yang has been selected to serve on President Bush’s Corporate Fraud Task Force and chair the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rights. She was appointed by the Attorney General to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Ninth Circuit Jury Reform Committee.

Prior to being appointed United States Attorney, Ms. Yang was a California state judge. She was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1997 and became a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court bench in 2000. As a judge, Ms. Yang acted as the Supervising Judge for the Hollywood Courthouse. She sat on the Criminal Law Advisory Committee and the Subcommittee on the Quality of Judicial Service for the Court’s Judicial Council.

Ms. Yang served as an Assistant United States Attorney for approximately seven years prior to her judicial career. As a federal prosecutor, she handled violent crimes, white-collar crimes, international money laundering, arson and computer crimes. As an AUSA, Ms. Yang successfully prosecuted a number of high profile cases, including a Glendale arson investigator convicted of setting fires throughout the state of California, the first federal carjacking case in California, the kidnapping of a local real estate agent and a computer hacker who received what was then the longest sentence ever for computer intrusion.

Ms. Yang has been an adjunct professor teaching trial advocacy at the USC School of Law, an instructor at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and an instructor at California’s Judicial College.

Ms. Yang previously served as President of the the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, where she played an instrumental role in the creation of this new landmark for Southern California. Ms. Yang was a founding member and officer of the first Asian American Bar in Chicago, and she has been an officer and board member of the Southern California Chinese Lawyer Association. In 2002, the Los Angeles City Council honored her for her long-standing commitment to victim’s rights. The Asian Pacific Bar Association has selected her as the 2002 recipient of their Public Service Award. The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association selected her as the 2003 recipient of the Trailblazers award. In 2004, she was appointed to the President’s Council for Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges and was recognized by the Inglewood Court as a champion of civil rights.

Ms. Yang received her Juris Doctorate in 1985 from Boston College Law School.