Dennis W. Chiu

Dennis W. Chiu (born August 11, 1971) is an author, attorney and community, political, and business leader in the Silicon Valley, California (Santa Clara County, California). His most notable accomplishments include: serving as the youngest appointed county planning commissioner on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission [http://www.sccplanning.org/portal/site/planning/] at the age of 29 (where he continues to serve for the past 8 years), political and community activism in Santa Clara County, California, and his seminal publication on Constitutional Law and the Internet that was on the reading list of top law schools and cited in many legal articles and cyberlaw books all around the world. ["See" http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_8/li/; http://grove.ufl.edu/~techlaw/vol4/issue2/cox.html; http://www.xschina.org/show.php?id=8109; Burke, Debra D. "Thinking Outside the Box". 8 Vir. L. Jrnl, Vol. 11 (2003).]

Publications

Chiu, Dennis W. The Politics of Change: Preparing Real Candidates for Change (2008) (released on September 17, 2008).

Chiu, Dennis W. “Obscenity on the Internet,” 36 Santa Clara L. Rev. 185 (1995) (one of the first and seminal articles published on Constitution Law and Internet transmissions).

John Zaller and Dennis Chiu, "Government’s Little Helper,” Decisionmaking in a Glass House (2000) (establishing a statistical relationship between news media bias and elite opinion).

Silicon Valley Land Use on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission

Over his eight plus years on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission, [http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/planning/planningchp?path=%2Fv7%2FPlanning%2C%20Office%20of%20(DEP)%2FAbout%20Us%2FPlanning%20Commission] Chiu has participated in many of the major land use decisions in the Silicon Valley, California, since the turn of the 21st Century. The issues before Chiu included balancing development with preservation in the green foothills, reviewing the Viewshed Protection Plan that preserves the view of the hillsides from major highways and other significant points from the valley floor, [http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:O9Qz2ygLmK4J:www.sccgov.org/SCC/docs/SCC%2520Public%2520Portal/keyboard%2520agenda/BOS%2520Agenda/2006/August%252029,%25202006/TMPKeyboard201629500.pdf+Santa+Clara+County+Viewshed+Ordinance&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us] updates to the Santa Clara County Zoning Ordinances [Santa Clara County Zoning Ordinance at http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/planning/planningchp?path=%2Fv7%2FPlanning%2C%20Office%20of%20(DEP)%2FProperty%20Info%20%26%20Development%2FZoning%20Ordinance] , [http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/planning/planningchp?path=%2Fv7%2FPlanning%2C%20Office%20of%20(DEP)%2FProperty%20Info%20%26%20Development%2FZoning%20Ordinance] and Stanford University's 10-Year Community Plan for academic growth and development. [http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news_features/stanford_development/hennessy.php]

Political Involvement in Federal, State & Local Politics

Dennis Chiu has also served in many political capacities, including Co-Chair of the victorious No on California Proposition 54 Campaign in Santa Clara County in 2003, Campaign Manager for current Mountain View Vice-Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga [http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/city_council/council_roster/default.asp] (Mayor in 2009), Treasurer of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party [http://sccdp.org/] from 2000 - 2003, Northern California, Chair of the State Democratic Party Asian Pacific Islander Caucus [http://www.cadem.org/site/c.jrLZK2PyHmF/b.980755/] , a board member of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee (BAYMEC [http://www.baymec.net] ), and Director of Advocacy for AACI [http://www.aaci.org] (the largest Asian Pacific Islander Healthcare Agency in Santa Clara County, California).

While as Director of Advocacy, Vice President & General Counsel for AACI, Chiu fought and spoke out against Abercrombie & Fitch's t-shirts with Asian Pacific Islander stereotypes [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/04/18/MN109646.DTL] on ABC News, CNN and CNN Headline News. He also advocated against the San Jose Police shooting of a mentally ill Vietnamese immigrant who was holding a knife while cooking in her kitchen. [http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/22/vietnamese.shooting.ap/] Chiu also helped create the San Jose Police Department Training Video on Racial Profiling, where he explained and spoke out against using minor traffic infractions to stop minorities who are driving in primarily non-minority neighborhoods.

While president of the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club (SVAPADC) between 1998-2000, Chiu worked with Secretary Norman Y. Mineta in the Clinton Administration to put on a reception for Democratic Party Presidential Nominee Al Gore at the 1999 California Democratic Party Convention.

Chiu has also fundraised and/or volunteered for U.S. Presidential Candidates - Governor Howard Dean, Senator John Kerry and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Community Recognition and Awards

Dennis has received awards for his community service from BAYMEC in 2007 [http://www.baymec.net/Dinner2007.htm] , from the Santa Clara County Planning Department for serving as Chair from 2002 – 2003, and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for his work on the 2000 "Complete Count" Census Commission.

Business and Law

Dennis Chiu has been entrusted with many top positions in business, including Vice President and General Counsel of AACI [http://www.aaci.org] , Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of Saeta Holdings, LLC [http://www.kerasome.com/company/index.html] , Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of U'Name IT Solutions, Inc. [http://www.unameits.com]

In 2008, Chiu founded Silicon Valley Prodigy Consulting, LLC [http://www.svprodigy.com] where he is the lead consultant and member manager, and Prodigy Law [http://www.prodigylaw.com] , which is the online Law Offices of Dennis W. Chiu.

Prior to practicing law in-house, Chiu was a civil litigator with the law firm Murphy, Pearson, Bradley and Feeney [http://www.mpbf.com] in San Jose, California and a general corporate attorney at Bay Venture Counsel (which was acquired by Reed Smith [http://www.reedsmith.com] ) in Palo Alto, California.

Education

Dennis Chiu received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1993 from the University of California, Los Angeles in History & Political Science, and a Juris Doctor Degree in 1996 from Santa Clara University, School of Law.

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