Emily Yao

Emily Yao is a Senior Associate in the San Francisco office of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. She focuses on employment-based immigration for both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa matters, in start-up, corporate, and non-profit organizational contexts. 

Prior to graduating from law school, Emily worked at several immigration law firms based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and interned at the Office of the Chief Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement. In these various capacities, she worked extensively on a broad range of immigration matters, including employment and investment-based immigration, asylum litigation, and family-based immigration. She was an editorial member of Hastings International & Comparative Law Review, engaged in legal research at her law school’s Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, and previously served as an AmeriCorps/JusticeCorps volunteer for the Los Angeles Superior Court.