K&L Gates Adds Antitrust, Employee Benefits Partners to Washington, D.C., Office

Washington, D.C. - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP welcomes Victor Chang as a partner in the benefits, ESOPs, and executive compensation practice area, and Yi Ying as a partner in the antitrust, competition, and trade regulation practice area. Both join K&L Gates’ Washington, D.C., office, with Chang arriving from Jones Day and Ying from White & Case LLP.

J. Barclay Collins, managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, stated: “We are delighted that Victor and Yi have joined the firm. Victor is a great addition to our busy and robust benefits practice, and brings substantial experience in working with major corporations and large non-profit organizations on benefit plans, DOL and IRS compliance and complex corporate transactions. Yi’s experience representing non-U.S. businesses and their U.S. affiliates on U.S. regulation of commercial activities and operations, with a focus on antitrust, fits perfectly with the firm’s highly regarded international antitrust, competition, and trade practice. The diverse duo are terrific additions to our global platform and to our Washington, D.C., office.”

An ERISA and tax lawyer, Chang has more than 15 years of experience counseling employers on complex employee benefits matters and representing tax-exempt organizations on regulatory, transactional, and governance issues.

Chang advises both for-profit and nonprofit/governmental employers on a wide range of benefits and compensation matters, including welfare and retirement plan design, implementing voluntary compliance program corrections, resolving IRS and Department of Labor audits, counseling plan committees on fiduciary matters, managing payroll and employment tax issues, and handling a variety of benefits issues that arise in corporate acquisitions, dispositions, and restructurings.

Chang’s tax-exempt organizations practice focuses in particular on private charitable foundations. He has provided tax and legal advice to a number of the country's largest private family foundations as well as the corporate foundations of several Fortune 500 companies.

“We are excited to welcome Victor to our employee benefits and executive compensation practice group,” said Seattle partner Karrie Johnson Diaz, a coordinator of K&L Gates’ benefits, ESOPs, and executive compensation practice group. “His experience advising employers on benefit and compensation matters will allow us to better serve our clients across the firm’s platform.”

Ying focuses on antitrust investigations and litigation, merger clearance, and other commercial litigation matters. He represents non-U.S. clients and their U.S. affiliates in investigations by various antitrust agencies, including before the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and state agencies.

Ying is also involved in cases in both federal and state courts. He has successfully advocated or defended clients in complex criminal and civil antitrust and general commercial litigation. Ying is dual qualified in China and the United States.

Fluent in English, Japanese, and Chinese (Mandarin and Shanghainese), Ying also has extensive experience guiding clients in merger filings before enforcers in major jurisdictions such as Europe, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Additionally, he has deep knowledge of export control and data privacy compliance, based on comprehensive compliance programs designed and implemented by Ying for certain multinational corporations.

“We are very pleased to welcome Yi to the firm,” said Michael Scanlon, co-leader of the firm’s global policy and regulatory practice area. “Yi’s experience in antitrust investigations and litigation, merger clearance and other commercial litigation matters will add depth to our leading international antitrust, competition, and trade practice.”

Chang and Ying are among the nearly 100 partners and of counsel K&L Gates has welcomed across its global platform since the beginning of 2020, with the firm’s Washington, D.C., office also having added labor and employment partner Craig Leen and power energy partner Ruta Skučas earlier this year.

K&L Gates’ employee benefits, ESOPs, and executive compensation lawyers provide employers of all sizes and industries, and a wide variety of other stakeholders in the employee benefits industry, tools to compete for talented labor, through high-quality and sophisticated compensation and employee benefit arrangements and programs, while providing advice with respect to the management of the regulatory burden and cost of those compensation arrangements and benefits. The group provides the full range of legal services relating to compensation and employee benefit plans, programs, and arrangements, including tax, ERISA, securities, regulatory and legislative, litigation, and fiduciary issues in connection with the design and implementation, ongoing administration, and termination of plans, as well as the investment of plan assets.

The antitrust, competition, and trade regulation practice at K&L Gates is composed of nearly 80 lawyers throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The group is positioned in strategic markets around the globe to help clients minimize antitrust risks and ensure compliance, defend or pursue litigation, get deals through regulatory authorities, provide guidance in pricing, distribution, and brand protection challenges, and leverage antitrust and competition laws.