Lee Pham is a J.D. student at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Lawin New York City. He will graduate in May 2010, and will declare his J.D. concentration in intellectual property law. 

In the summer of 2009, Lee worked as a summer associate at Pham & Associates in Hanoi, one of Vietnam's largest law firms with a well established reputation for intellectual property. This opportunity was made possible by the Center for International Legal Studies and Cardozo's Summer 2009 International Corporate & Intellectual Property Fellowship.

At Cardozo, Lee has participated in two of Cardozo's study abroad seminars; Introduction to Law in India, focused on intellectual property and constitutional democracy, and Comparative Corporate Governance at Oxford University. He has interned with the Intellectual Property Strategy Group at American Express in New York City since his 1L summer, and he will continue with the company in his third year. Outside of school and work, Lee is involved in his community and serves as the Director of Finance for the National Democratic Law Students Council.  

Prior to law school, Lee studied engineering focused on pharmaceuticals and energy.  While at Drexel University, he interned with a major pharmaceutical company, responsible for FDA validation on a new, $35 million facility. Lee also interned with a biotechnology start-up working on optimization for large scale processes. Additionally, he designed a hypothetical biofuel plant for his senior design project at Drexel.

For several years, Lee served the student led National Society of Black Engineers.  At the height of this involvement, representatives of the now 25,000+ member group elected Lee to the position of National Treasurer. He was responsible for a $8 million budget, staffing matters, business negotiations, working with legal counsel, and issues of policy. Lee sought to reinforce the growing organization’s policies and governing documents during his term.

As a brother in Kappa Alpha Psi, Lee is a member of one of the most celebrated traditionally African-American fraternities in the country. This year will mark Lee's first year as a member of the New York Alumni Chapter. As an initiate through the Delta Eta Chapter, Lee’s life in Kappa encouraged his professional development and is a foundation for his ideas on community service and civic leadership.  Among other recognition, Delta Eta was named 2005-2006 International Undergraduate Fraternity Chapter of the Year for all of Kappa Alpha Psi.

Lee’s dedication to serving his community was recognized by Sunoco and The Greater Philadelphia Region Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in 2006. The academic consortium recognized Lee with the first ever Pathfinder Award for Undergraduate Leadership in Engineering. An entrepreneurial spirit, Lee is also a partner in Epsilon United Holdings LLC, a company still in its incubatory phase.  

Lee was raised just outside of Harrisburg, PA. He is eager for his first visit to his father’s homeland of Vietnam, and has had the unique experience of tracing his African-American lineage in courthouse records in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. He presently lives in Brooklyn, New York and he is looking forward to completing his law degree.