Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Xuan Hong Thi Tran lived the legacy of wars through the experience of their own family, which inspired them to pursue a career in law and community service. After college, Hong provided legal help to immigrants through a number of organizations including the Federal Immigration Appeals Project, Immigrant Justice Corps, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs clinics. During law school, Hong helped challenge immigrant detention with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative in Jena, Louisiana and with CARA in Dilley, Texas, as well as working with immigrants in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Hong continues to provide pro bono representation in various areas such as immigration, reproductive justice, climate equity, and qualified immunity in their current position as an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. These, along with LGBTQIA+ advocacy and support for military families, are causes close to their heart.
Hong graduated from Yale University with distinction in religious studies and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At Yale Law School, Hong served as a Yale Law Journal editor, the student director of the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project, co-president of Outlaws, and co-chair of the Political Action Committee of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. Hong speaks Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, and French, and is conversational in Tibetan, Indonesian, and Arabic.
