Morrison Foerster is pleased to announce our 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow nominee is New York Transactions partner Tushna Gamadia and our Pathfinder nominees are Whitney Lee, Washington D.C. Litigation associate, and Yuan Xia, Palo Alto Transactions associate.
Founded in 2009, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) is an organization of more than 400 members, who serve as either general counsel of major corporations or managing partners of the nation’s leading law firms. Morrison Foerster has been a proud member for more than a decade and is committed to leading by example, taking action, and preparing future generations of talented attorneys for the highest positions of leadership.
Each year, Morrison Foerster nominates one outstanding partner and two high-performing associates to be considered for the LCLD Fellows and Pathfinder Programs. These programs provide invaluable networking opportunities and curated professional development experiences designed to help develop practical strategies and critical skills around leadership and business development.
Tushna Gamadia, our nominee for partner Fellow, has been with MoFo since 2013. She is a partner in the New York office and a member of the Real Estate Group in the Transactions Department. Tushna has over two decades of experience representing clients in complex commercial real estate transactions, with a particular emphasis on joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions of properties, and real estate finance. Tushna regularly represents domestic and overseas investors and developers in joint venture projects and in the acquisition, financing, management, development, and sale of these projects. Tushna is also actively engaged in pro bono matters, including corporate and real estate matters, and advising community members in connection with family law and immigration matters. She is the 2020 recipient of Morrison Foerster’s Kathi Pugh Award for Pro Bono Service. In 2022 and 2023, The Legal 500 US named Tushna a Rising Star for Real Estate Finance. Tushna earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she was a symposium editor of the Cornell Law Review, and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Middlebury College. Tushna is a participant in MoFo’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Mentoring Program. She is also a member of the firm’s Middle Eastern North African (MENA) and Veterans Affinity Networks.
Whitney Lee, one of our Pathfinder nominees, has been with MoFo since 2019. She is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office and a member of the firm’s Privacy + Data Security and Global Risk + Crisis Management Groups. Whitney’s practice focuses on advising clients on significant cybersecurity incidents and other sensitive matters relating to U.S. domestic and international cybercrime, national security, risk, and crisis management, including matters that involve multijurisdictional investigations, congressional oversight, and significant media attention. Whitney also has considerable experience advising clients on the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Lobbying Disclosure Act. In 2021, Whitney was featured in Bloomberg Law’s “They’ve Got Next” series as a Rising Star in the area of Privacy and Cybersecurity. In 2022 and 2023, Whitney was named to the National Black Lawyers' "Top 40 Under 40" list and received the ABA’s “On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers" Award. Whitney is the founder of CYREIN, a pro bono consulting service addressing the rise of cyberstalking and cyber harassment. During law school, Whitney worked at the New York State Office of the Attorney General in the Public Integrity Bureau, and before law school, she worked at the Center for American Progress. Whitney holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School; an LL.M. in international criminal law with a focus on cybercrime from the University of Amsterdam, where she was an Amsterdam Merit Scholar, and a B.A. in government from Harvard University. Whitney co-chairs the Washington, D.C. Black Affinity Group and is a member of the D.C. Associate Committee.
Yuan Xia, our other Pathfinder nominee, has been with MoFo since 2020. She is an associate in the Palo Alto office and a member of the firm’s Executive Compensation Group. Yuan’s practice focuses on the transactional aspects of executive compensation matters in the context of domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, public offerings, and restructurings. She regularly counsels companies on the design and implementation of equity, incentive and non-qualified deferred compensation, change in control, retention and severance, and executive employment agreements. She also has extensive experience advising public companies on executive compensation disclosures. Yuan was recognized by The Legal 500 US as a Rising Star in Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation, and Retirement Plans for 2023. Prior to joining the firm, she was an associate at another international law firm headquartered in New York. Yuan holds a J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, an LL.M. from UCLA School of Law, and an LL.B. from China University of Political Science and Law. Yuan is an active member of the firmwide AAPI Affinity Network as well as the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley, and Chinese American Lawyers of the Bay Area.