Stephen Lou

Stephen Lou is a California licensed attorney and a native of California’s San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara, where he majored in Political Science and minored in Global Peace & Security. Stephen earned his J.D. at Santa Clara University School of Law and his LL.M. from Peking University School of Law. He was the recipient of the Emery Law Scholarship for 2000, 2001, and 2002 at Santa Clara and also received an academic scholarship at Peking University. 

Prior to forming Lou Lawyers, Stephen worked for a nationally recognized immigration law firm. Before that he lived and worked in Beijing, China for 7 years and worked at the largest Chinese law firm King & Wood Mallesons (金杜律师事务所) as foreign legal counsel both representing Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE) in their M&A transactions outside China and representing foreign (non-Chinese) clients in their investments into China.

During law school Stephen volunteered with the Katharine and George Alexander Law Center (formerly the East San Jose Community Law Center) exclusively on immigration matters assisting in I-130 family based immigration matters, VAWA and asylum cases, and served at their weekly free immigration walk-in clinic. During law school Stephen also worked as law clerk for an immigration attorney in San Jose, helping in the drafting/preparing of NIW and EB-1 applications.

Stephen grew up in a large extended immigrant family, whose grandfather first came over from China and opened the first of many Chinese restaurants starting in Berkeley California in the 1960’s. Growing up running around in his family restaurant Stephen was exposed at an early age to good food and the challenges that many immigrants face in the US. His passion for food and cooking aside, Stephen remembers starting from a very young age, reading letters, contracts and acting as the family advocate well before his legal career. Stephen knew early in his life that advocating for those immigrants with the most need was his calling. Having also gone through the immigration process with his wife, a native of China, Stephen understands on a very personal level the immigration process from the applicant perspective.

Stephen is a follower of Christ. In his free time he liked exploring Beijing hutongs (alleys) on his tandem bike with his lovely wife. In his new adopted of Houston, he hopes to take up fishing and camping when it’s not too hot.