A grayscale headshot of Qian Julie Wang, a Chinese American woman, with long wavy hair, large wooden earrings, and a light sweater dress with a shoulder cutout.
A photo of Qian Julie Wang, a Chinese American woman, sitting on a stool against a yellow backdrop, in forest green wide-legged pants, a light yellow tank top, wavy hair, pink oval earrings, and pink stilettos.

Photography credit: Brendan Wixted

 

Condensed

Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, which was a Today Show Read With Jenna pick and named a best book of 2021 by the New York Times, President Obama, NPR, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and more. A graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College, Qian Julie is managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advancing educational civil rights for marginalized populations. Her writing has been published in major publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more, and she has appeared on the TODAY Show, NBC, PBS, and NPR, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Legal

Qian Julie Wang is a litigator and the author of instant New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Country: A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood, a literary memoir that retraces her undocumented childhood years in New York City. Beautiful Country was a Today Show Read with Jenna pick, lauded as an “essential book for our times,” and named a best book of 2021 by the New York Times, President Obama, NPR, Newsweek, and more.  

A graduate of Yale Law School and a former judicial clerk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Qian Julie is a seasoned civil litigator with over a decade of experience representing Fortune 500 corporations, governmental entities, and individuals. Praised by clients as "exceptionally talented" and "exemplary," Qian Julie has particular expertise in appeals, having led nearly 50 such civil rights, constitutional, education, employment, and contract disputes before the state and federal courts, including in filings of amici curiae before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2020, Qian Julie turned down partnership at a large national law firm to head her boutique firm, Gottlieb & Wang LLP, which is dedicated to advancing the education and civil rights of marginalized communities. 

Qian Julie is known for her unique gift of storytelling, which, coupled with her strategic approach to litigation, has led to record-setting results and landmark precedent, from pre-litigation negotiations through appeal. Qian Julie uses her acumen, compassion, and tenacity to transcend the business, legal, political, and literary worlds and to bring light to the humanity that connects us all. 

Narrative long-form

Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, which was named a best book of 2021 by the New York Times, President Obama, NPR, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and more. Qian Julie was born in Shijiazhuang, China. At age 7, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, with her parents. For five years thereafter, the three lived in the shadows of undocumented life in New York City. Beautiful Country is a poignant literary memoir that follows the family through those years, as they held onto hope and joy while confronting poverty, manual labor, and the perpetual threat of deportation.

A graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College—where she juggled classes and extracurriculars with four part-time jobs—Qian Julie is now a litigator. She wrote Beautiful Country on her iPhone, during her subway commute to and from work at a national law firm, where she was elected to partnership within two years of joining the firm. She is now managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advocating for education and civil rights. Qian Julie believes in eroding systemic barriers by giving the underprivileged the type of legal representation typically reserved for the wealthy, and in effecting social change by shifting the lens of the stories we tell, in our courtrooms and across our nation.

Qian Julie’s writing has appeared in major publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more, and she has appeared on outlets such as TODAY Show, NBC, PBS, and NPR. A sought-after speaker, she regularly addresses issues such as immigration, education, discrimination, and the power of literacy, in the media and at conferences, universities, corporations, community centers, and houses of worship. With a knack for bringing audiences to laughter and tears, Qian Julie uses her rare gift for storytelling to transcend the business, legal, political, and literary worlds and to bring light to the humanity that connects us all. 

Qian Julie lives in Brooklyn with her family.