Sonya Tien is the Principal of Tien Law Firm. Sonya has experience in a broad range of high-stakes matters, including securities litigation, serious injury litigation, pharmaceutical litigation, intellectual property litigation, and commercial contract disputes.

Sonya has appeared in more than 20 state and federal courts for representative matters. Her recent representative matters include representing a publisher for an intellectual property matter, a government contractor for trade secret litigation, a start-up with intellectual property, commercial acquisition, financing and real estate development project, and representing a group of plaintiffs for injury litigation, among several other representative matters.

Sonya has been recognized by Super Lawyers since 2020 as a “Rising Star” and was featured on the cover of North Carolina Super Lawyers for Solo Success. Sonya received her B.S.B.A. with honors from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, along with 17 undergraduate scholarships, and her J.D., with recognition as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, from Columbia Law School. Prior to founding the law firm, Sonya worked at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York where her practice focused on commercial litigation, class actions, and white collar defense and investigations.

  • Columbia Law School (J.D.), Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School (B.S.B.A.), 17 Scholarships, Dean’s List
  • New York
  • California
  • North Carolina
  • U.S. Court of International Trade
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
  • Rising Stars, Super Lawyers, 2020-Present
  • Goldman Sachs
  • JPMorgan Chase
  • Credit Suisse
  • Barclays Capital
  • CBRE
  • Tishman Speyer
  • Catalent Pharma Solutions
  • Plaintiffs’ counsel for catastrophic injuries in a commercial truck litigation in the U.S. District Court (E.D.N.C.) where she obtained multiple pre-trial settlements.
  • Plaintiff’s counsel for a wrongful death case where she obtained a pre-litigation settlement from State Farm.
  • Plaintiff’s trial lawyer in permanent injury litigation against State Farm to obtain a pre-trial settlement.
  • Represented Viva, LLC, Grenelle Holdings, LLC, and R2 Ventures, LLC for commercial acquisitions.
  • Serving on the M&A litigation team for JPMorgan Chase in a landmark $4.7B hostile takeover case in the Delaware Chancery Court.
  • Serving on the litigation team for a pharmaceutical company’s M&A dispute.
  • Serving on the defense litigation team for Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital for a securities class action litigation in U.S. District Court (S.D.N.Y.).
  • Serving on the defense litigation team for Credit Suisse regarding mortgage-backed securities litigation.
  • Serving on the white-collar defense team for a leading investment bank for an investigation by the DOJ.
  • Serving on the defense trial team for CBRE and Tishman Speyer for  commercial real estate litigations in the Supreme Court of New York.
  • Represented Plaintiffs on the litigation team that obtained a summary judgment landmark victory in a pharmaceutical suit against the FDA and DHHS in U.S. District Court (E.D.N.Y.).
  • Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, 2010, 2011-2013
  • United States District Court, Northern District of New York, Chambers of The Honorable Magistrate George H. Lowe, 2009
  • Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, 2007
  • SEC Cooperation Update: 2012 Year-End Review,
    Wall Street Lawyer, 2013
  • Recent Developments in the SEC Cooperation Initiative,
    Practising Law Institute, Annual Securities Institute, 2012
  • White Collar Criminal Defense and Securities Enforcement Memo,
    Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, 2011-2013
  • Disclosure Requirements Regarding a Wells Notice, Fried,
    Frank, Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, 2012
  • How to Draft an Employment Agreement,
    Fried, Frank, Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, 2013
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
  • Sports Lawyers Association
  • Tenth Judicial District
  • North Carolina Bar Association, 2021-2022
  • North Carolina Advocates for Justice, 2013-2016
  • New York State Bar Association, 2012-2013
  • New York County Lawyers Association, 2012-2013
  • American Bar Association, 2012-2013
  • Accounting for Mergers and Acquisitions: Advanced Topics,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Accounting for Mergers and Acquisitions: Foundations,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • AI for Non-Data Scientists,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • American Government: Constitutional Foundations, HarvardX
  • Blockchain Business Models, Duke University
  • Comparative Health Systems, University of Pennsylvania
  • Copyright Law, University of Pennsylvania
  • Copyright in Multimedia, Duke University, Emory, and
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Copyright Law in the Music Business, Berklee College of Music
  • Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: An Introduction to Digital Currencies, University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • Cyber Attack Countermeasures,
    New York University, Tandon School of Engineering
  • Employment Contracts, University of Pennsylvania
  • Energy and Environment, Dartmouth College
  • Entrepreneurship 4: Financing and Profitability,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • ESG Impact: Investor Perspective,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • ESG Risks and Opportunities,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • ESG and Climate Change,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • ESG and Social Activism,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • Federal Taxation I: Individuals, Employees, and Sole Proprietors, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Finance of Mergers and Acquisitions: Designing an M&A Deal,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Finance of Mergers and Acquisitions: Valuation and Pricing,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Financial Markets, Yale University
  • Financial Statements, SEC Filings and Ratio Analysis,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • FinTech: Foundations, Payments, and Regulations,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • FinTech Law & Policy Duke University
  • Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • HollywoodX: History, Industry, Art, University of Pennsylvania
  • International Law in Action: the Arbitration of International Disputes, Universiteit Leiden
  • Introduction to Corporate Finance,
    University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
  • Introduction to Cyber Attacks,
    New York University, Tandon School of Engineering
  • Introduction to Intellectual Property,
    University of Pennsylvania
  • Investment Banking: M&A and Initial Public Offerings,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Music Business Foundations, Berklee College of Music
  • Privacy Law and Data, University of Pennsylvania
  • Privacy Law and HIPAA, University of Pennsylvania
  • Private Equity and Venture Capital, Università Bocconi
  • Renewable Energy & Green Building Entrepreneurship,
    Duke University
  • Sports Marketing, Northwestern University
  • Taxation of Business Entities I: Corporations,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Taxation of Business Entities II: Pass-Through Entities,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Trademark Law, University of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. Health Law Fundamentals, University of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. Political Institutions: Congress, Presidency, Courts, and Bureaucracy, HarvardX
  • U.S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies, HarvardX
  • U.S. Taxation of International Transactions,
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • What is Compliance? University of Pennsylvania
  • What is Corruption: Anti-Corruption and Compliance,
    University of Pennsylvania
  • What is Data Science?, IBM
  • What is Social?, Northwestern University