VABAW’s Board of Advisors (2026)
Alice Truong
Alice Truong cofounded VABAW and served as its second president, in 2006. She is currently on the board of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC and the Nellie Martin Carman Scholarship Trust. She has also served on the boards of the Asian Bar Association of WA (ABAW) (including as past president), the ABAW Student Scholarship Foundation (including as past president), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Seattle SCORES.
Alice is Corporate Counsel for Costco and heads the Legal Real Estate Management team that oversees Costco’s existing real estate portfolio in the United States and Canada. Prior to joining Costco, she was Senior Counsel at Nordstrom, Division Counsel at D.R. Horton’s Seattle Division, a partner at Summit Law Group, a partner at Cairncross & Hempelmann, and an associate at Davis Wright Tremaine.
Alice was born and raised in Seattle. She attended Seattle University and the University of Washington School of Law. When she can take time away from being a mother, she enjoys mentoring attorneys and law students, cultivating her shoe and handbag collection, improving her billiards skills, and tackling escape rooms.
Binh Nguyen
Binh Nguyen is a proud member of the Vietnamese American legal community and an advocate for the next generation of diverse legal talent.
As an immigrant, Binh understands the unique challenges facing Vietnamese Americans and first-generation professionals entering the legal profession — and she has made it her priority to be a mentor, connector, and champion to those interested in the legal profession. Through VABAW, she shows up for law students and emerging attorneys with candid guidance and an open door for anyone ready to talk about navigating the legal profession.
Professionally, Binh is Director & Associate General Counsel at Nordstrom, Inc., where she leads legal and compliance team focused on compliance, financial services, payments, loyalty/reward programs, and marketing/advertising. She brings over 19 years of legal experience spanning banking, retail, consumer protection, and commercial law — including more than a decade at BECU managing litigation and business teams.
Her community leadership extends beyond VABAW. Binh served as Vice President of Kandelia (formerly the Vietnamese Friendship Association), supporting educational equity for immigrant and refugee communities in the Puget Sound region. She also served as the President of the Washington Initiative for Diversity (WID), where she has worked to make the legal profession more inclusive and representative at the employer level.
Binh is deeply honored to be part of VABAW's mission and committed to paying forward every opportunity she has been given.
Michelle Pham
Michelle Pham is a Partner at Buchalter LLP, where she focuses on developing and protecting her clients’ intellectual property in the U.S. and abroad by advising on copyright, trademark, trade dress, and trade secret protection, acquisitions, licensing, and due diligence. She also litigates copyright and trademark/trade dress infringement, dilution, unfair competition, business interference, real estate and construction, and partnership disputes across the country. She also serves as outside general counsel for social media influencers, content creators, and companies that use social media platforms.
She previously volunteered with VABAW as a student liaison during law school at Seattle University School of Law and served on VABAW’s Board for several years before becoming Board President in 2014. You can find more information about her here.
Melanie Nguyen
Melanie Nguyen is a Partner at Stritmatter Law where she focuses on complex personal injury and civil rights cases, including governmental liability, defective products, and insurance bad faith. She has a particular passion for holding governments accountable and has tried cases to seven figure verdicts. After law school, she clerked at the Washington Supreme Court. She has been involved in VABAW for over 10 years and was Board President in 2017.