Irene Yu is an associate in the Firm’s Los Angeles office. She represents clients in internal and external investigations and a broad range of complex disputes, including commercial litigation and cross-border disputes. Irene advises clients through every stage of litigation, from conducting legal research and managing discovery and privilege issues to preparing pleadings and briefs and developing trial strategy.

Prior to joining Manatt, Irene was an associate at a global law firm, where she worked on high-stakes disputes for Fortune 500 companies. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Kenly Kiya Kato of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and was an extern to Justice Goodwin Liu of the Supreme Court of California.

Irene maintains an active pro bono practice advocating for asylees, undocumented migrants, formerly incarcerated individuals and survivors of domestic violence and has represented clients in cases brought under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. *

Prior to law school, Irene worked at a nonprofit organization advocating for human rights dialogue between China and the United States, where she spearheaded a U.S.-China legal seminar on juvenile justice, co-hosted with China’s Supreme People’s Court in Shenzhen, China.

Irene has native fluency in Mandarin and is literate in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

* Denotes matters prior to joining Manatt.