William Lew Tan, a co-founder of Tan & Sakiyama, has been a member of Advancing Justice - LA's board of directors since 1993.
He has more than 35 years of experience in handling immigration and naturalization matters, including but not limited to obtaining work authorization for nonimmigrant workers and professionals in a wide range of occupations, labor certifications, work and family-based immigrant visas, advance paroles, and special immigrant status. He has also litigated immigration related matters. He has advised M&A and corporate counsel on immigration regulatory compliance, including I-9s and re-verification issues. He has also served as an advisor to the Regional Commissioner, Western Region, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, trade associations, multinational business entities, and U.S. based companies. He has taught immigration practice and procedure as a lecturer at the California State University at Los Angeles’s paralegal program, and has been a guest lecturer on immigration topics at Southwestern Law School and University of Southern California Law School.
He has been a business and legal advisor to small to medium size companies, served as legal advisor to several trade organizations, served on the board of directors of domestic and foreign companies, and served on the board of directors of or as legal advisor to numerous non-profit and community-based organizations. He supervised Tan & Sakiyama's work as outside counsel to the Los Angeles City Attorney and the City of Los Angeles’ Community Redevelopment Agency. He has also been an advisor to two former Mayors of Los Angeles, and two former Los Angeles City Attorneys.
Tan has served as trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA), and as President and Chair of the Board of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of LACBA’s Senior Lawyers Committee. He has served as an advisor to the California State Commission on Procurement Practices.
Tan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1971) and the University of California, Hastings Law College (J.D., 1974).
