Attorneys Leakhena Au and Panhia Vang Named 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinders

Fredrikson attorneys Leakhena Au and Panhia Vang have been named Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinders for 2024. The seven-month Pathfinder program provides participants from LCLD Member organizations with the opportunity to learn from top leaders in the legal profession as well as career development experts and is designed to connect and train high-potential, early-career attorneys from diverse backgrounds with foundational leadership skills and relationship-building resources.

Au is an associate in Fredrikson’s Energy & Natural Resources, Energy Regulation & Permitting and Environmental Law groups. She uses her wide range of experience in all aspects of state and federal civil law to assist clients with environmental and regulatory compliance. She has a background in civil litigation and government administration. Au has regulatory and natural resource planning experience with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, particularly involving National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and Clean Water Act reviews. Au also has experience with compliance counseling and due diligence reviews.

Vang is a senior associate in Fredrikson’s Litigation Group who specializes in guiding clients through all stages of litigation. She has represented clients in high-stakes litigation related to shareholder disputes, contract disputes, patent and copyright infringement disputes, and property disputes. Vang has experience with responding to government investigations related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and opioids. She also has an active pro bono practice where she has helped individuals with obtaining refugee resettlement, asylum and U.S. citizenship.

The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity is an organization of more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners—the leadership of the profession—who have pledged themselves, through LCLD’s Leaders at the Front initiative and other means, to creating a truly diverse U.S. legal profession. LCLD’s action programs are designed to attract, inspire, and nurture the talent in society and within LCLD’s organizations, thereby helping a new and more diverse generation of attorneys ascend to positions of leadership. By producing tangible results in LCLD’s institutions, LCLD works to promote inclusiveness in their organizations, circles of influence, and society, with the ultimate goal of building a more equitable and diverse legal profession.

Fredrikson & Byron is a leading Midwest law firm working collaboratively to help businesses achieve their goals regionally, nationally and globally. With a reputation as the firm “where law and business meet,” our attorneys bring business acumen and entrepreneurial thinking to work with clients and operate as business advisors and strategic partners as well as legal counselors. The firm’s 375+ attorneys are based in Minneapolis, with offices in Ames, Bismarck, Des Moines, Fargo, Madison, Mankato, St. Paul, Saltillo, Mexico, and Shanghai, China. Learn more at fredlaw.com, LinkedIn or @FredriksonLaw.