Biography

Elizabeth Chien-Hale is an attorney practicing in California. She was a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute in 2024-2025, where she conducted research on Taiwan-US-China relationships. 

Elizabeth has degrees in mechanical engineering and computational linguistics from UC Berkeley.  She started her career in Silicon Valley firms such as Wilson Sonsini serving high-tech clients such as Applied Materials, UMC, Palm, and Adobe. Growing up in Taiwan and the United States, Elizabeth is fluent in Chinese.  Through her Chinese language skills, she quickly added litigation to her practice areas, serving Chinese/Taiwanese clients in litigation cases in the US.

She then moved to Baker McKenzie’s Hong Kong Office, pioneering its patent practice with high-profile Hong Kong companies, including Cheung Kong, PCCW, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and many start-ups.

Upon returning from Hong Kong, Elizabeth eventually joined Apple as its China coordinator/IP Counsel.  She also worked for Eaton, handling cross-border disputes in Asia Pacific.  

Besides her legal practice, Elizabeth is a frequent speaker at various events commenting on issues relating to China, Taiwan, comparative constitution, and intellectual property protection.

She also teaches as an adjunct professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law, and the Richardson School of Law of the University of Hawaii.