Diana Xiaona Ding
Attorney Licensed in California
Founder & Principal Attorney
Diana Xiaona Ding is the Founder of the Law Offices of Xiaona Ding, d/b/a Sino-US Bridge Legal. Attorney Ding focuses on business disputes where litigation risk, operational realities, and cross-border commercial dynamics intersect.
Big Law Foundation & Business-First Litigation Perspective
Attorney Ding’s litigation foundation was built at an Am Law 100 national law firm, where she represented Fortune 500 clients in complex litigation matters. She later represented business owners, employers, landlords, and closely held companies in a boutique practice, where she developed a business-first perspective grounded not only in legal analysis but also in operational realities, commercial leverage, and strategic decision-making.
Sino-US Institutional & Cross-Border Perspective
Before entering private practice, Attorney Ding spent a decade working within China’s national Ministry of Education system on international exchange and cooperation matters. That experience provided direct exposure to Chinese institutional structures, cross-border communication dynamics, and high-level decision-making processes involving international and governmental engagement. She applies this perspective to disputes and business matters involving Chinese companies operating in or interacting with the United States market.
Business Operations, Stakeholder Conflicts & Risk Management
Attorney Ding advises clients on disputes arising from business operations, business relationships, and competing stakeholder interests, including those involving partners, vendors, customers, employers, landlords, and operational counterparties. Her approach focuses on dispute strategy, leverage, procedural positioning, and long-term business impact rather than litigation in isolation.
Sino-US Cross-Border Commercial Disputes
Attorney Ding focuses on disputes and business matters arising from commercial activities between China and the United States. Her work includes cross-border transactions, supply chain and operational disputes, commercial conflicts involving U.S. business operations, regulatory exposure, and litigation risk affecting Chinese companies operating in or interacting with the U.S. market.
Litigation Strategy, Procedure & Law Teaching
Attorney Ding also serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, where she teaches Civil Procedure and Legal Research and Writing. Her academic work reinforces her focus on litigation structure, procedural strategy, legal analysis, and the leverage points that often determine litigation outcomes.
Education
Attorney Ding earned her Juris Doctor magna cum laude and her Master of Science in Leadership, Management, and Technology summa cum laude as valedictorian from the University of West Los Angeles. She also earned a Master of Arts from the University of International Business and Economics in China, where her thesis ranked first, and a B.A. in English, graduating first in her class. Her academic and professional background reflects interdisciplinary training across law, business, leadership, language, and cross-border institutional systems.
Robert W. Brown
Attorney Licensed in California
Executive-Level Business & Financial Strategy
Robert W. Brown serves as Of Counsel to the firm and brings more than four decades of legal, business, financial, and executive leadership experience. Mr. Brown works closely with the firm in matters where legal disputes intersect with business operations, financial structure, governance, asset protection, and long-term commercial strategy.
Institutional Financial Systems & Banking Operations
Mr. Brown began his career as a transactional banking attorney working in the general counsel offices of several major U.S. financial institutions. He later served in senior legal and executive roles, including General Counsel of Sears Savings Bank and Vice President and Counsel at Countrywide Funding Corporation, then one of the nation’s leading mortgage finance institutions. His banking and finance practice involved institutional lending, commercial finance, banking operations, troubled assets, and large-scale financial exposure management.
Distressed Assets & Business Recovery Operations
Mr. Brown has extensive experience involving distressed business assets, loan workouts, restructurings, and operational recovery matters. As a corollary to his institutional finance practice, he specialized in workouts involving financially distressed business and real estate assets, including major retail, office, industrial, and commercial properties. His background combines legal strategy with practical operational and asset-recovery experience.
Commercial Real Estate & Asset Management
Mr. Brown has handled complex commercial real estate and development matters involving shopping centers, office buildings, apartment complexes, construction projects, environmental matters, commercial leasing, receiverships, and large-scale business properties. He has also served as a court-approved receiver handling significant rents-and-profits receiverships throughout Southern California and has been a licensed real estate broker for more than 40 years.
Strategic Transactions & Institutional Asset Transfers
Over the course of his career, Mr. Brown has structured, negotiated, managed, or participated in transactions with aggregate values of billions of dollars. He served as lead legal counsel on the sale of Sears Savings Bank's assets to Citicorp Savings and Loan for more than $2 billion. He also played significant roles in the transfer of Security Pacific National Bank's real estate assets to Bank of America and in the disposition of Union Oil's real estate assets and refineries to British Petroleum.
Commercial Disputes & Arbitration
Mr. Brown has served as a commercial arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association since 1990, handling complex business, banking, real estate, and employment disputes involving substantial commercial exposure. His arbitration and dispute-resolution background is informed by decades of experience working within financial institutions, distressed-asset environments, and operationally complex business systems.
Institutional & Executive Leadership
In addition to his legal and business practice, Mr. Brown has served as President of the University of West Los Angeles for more than two decades, overseeing the growth and operation of one of California’s longstanding legal and business education institutions. This executive leadership experience further informs his approach to governance, organizational management, operational pressure, and long-term institutional strategy.
Education
Mr. Brown received his Juris Doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and his B.S. in Business Administration/Finance from California State University, Los Angeles.
Robert M. Barrett
Attorney Licensed in California
Strategic Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Robert M. Barrett serves as Of Counsel to the firm and brings more than 40 years of experience in litigation, arbitration, mediation, and professional responsibility matters. He works closely with the firm on litigation risk assessment, procedural strategy, dispute structure, and legal ethics.
Complex Commercial Litigation and Big Law Experience
Attorney Barrett practiced at several internationally recognized law firms, including Latham & Watkins, Morgan Lewis, Skadden, Shea & Gould, and Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine. His large-firm practice included commercial litigation, arbitration, and mediation of business disputes, as well as commercial exposure.
Legal Ethics
Attorney Barrett’s background includes malpractice, conflicts of interest, prevention, and professional responsibility matters. He has served as a panelist on numerous California Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) programs focused on litigation ethics.
Law Teaching
In addition to litigation, Attorney Barrett has taught at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, the University of La Verne College of Law, and Concord Law School for over thirty years.
Professional and International Leadership
Attorney Barrett is a former Chair of the California State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, a member of its Provisional Licensure Working Group, and is a Fulbright Specialist through the U.S. Department of State. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Minzu University of China in Beijing.
Education
Attorney Barrett holds both a Juris Doctor and a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he served on the Georgetown Law Journal. He also earned his B.A. from Georgetown University summa cum laude.