Draft:Shanlon Wu

Shanlon “Shan” Wu (born May 13, 1959) is a Chinese-American criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor based in Washington, D.C. He is best known for being a member of Rick Gates’ legal team during the Mueller special counsel investigation and a CNN Legal Analyst.

Early life and education
Shanlon Wu is the son of two Chinese immigrants who came to the United States as graduate students and decided to stay as political refugees after the Chinese Communist Revolution. Wu obtained a B.A. in English Literature from Vassar College and then obtained an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. He simultaneously continued his career as an amateur boxer, training under two-time world heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson.

After completing his M.F.A. program, Wu obtained his J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center. While studying at Georgetown, Wu completed a federal clerkship with a trial court judge and a second clerkship with a Federal Court of Appeals judge.

Career
After graduating from Georgetown, Wu accepted a position as a federal prosecutor. During his 11 years with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wu pioneered the use of expert testimony in domestic violence prosecutions and was recognized by the Justice Department for his work.

Wu secured the first life without parole sentence in D.C. for a serial rapist. He also worked on other special projects during his time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including a Clinton-era corruption investigation involving former Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt. Soon after, Wu served as Special Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno.

In 2009, Wu was considered among 4 other candidates for U.S. Attorney for D.C.

After leaving the government, Wu founded his own firm, DC Student Defense, to help students throughout the D.C. area with both disciplinary and criminal accusations.

One of his most high-profile cases was the case of Mimi Groves, a white high school student who withdrew from her college of choice after a classmate released a three-second video clip that captured Groves saying a racial slur.

When Rick Gates and Paul Manafort were indicted in the 2017 Mueller-Russian Probe, Wu briefly joined Gates’ team of defense attorneys. In February of 2018, Wu and Gates’ other attorneys left the case due to “irreconcilable differences.”

Shortly after leaving Gates’ legal team, Wu began making appearances on CNN to offer his opinion on the Mueller probe as a legal analyst and former attorney for Rick Gates. Since then, he has appeared regularly as a Legal Analyst on CNN, offering commentary on topics including charging anti-Asian attacks as hate crimes, the Trump impeachments, and the Mueller-Russian probe. He is also a regular guest commentator on a variety of other media outlets, covering similar topics as well as the Supreme Court and student’s rights issues.

Personal Life
Wu lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife and two daughters.

He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Sarah Lawrence.