Van Tran
Attorney Van Tran currently serves as the Vice President and Director of the Orange County Water District (OCWD), which manages and supply ground water services to 2.6 million residents in North and Central Orange County. He represents District 4 on the OCWD, which includes over 250,000 residents.
From 2004 to 2010, Van served three full terms as a member of the California State Assembly. He represented the 68th Assembly District in Orange County, California, including all or parts of the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Newport Beach, Stanton, Santa Ana, Westminster and Midway City, comprising of approximately half a million residents.
As a California State Assemblymane, Van was Vice-Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. He also served on the Utilities and Commerce, Banking and Finance, Environmental & Toxic Materials, and Governmental Organization Committees. Additionally, Van was appointed by the Assembly Speaker to the chairmanship of the Select Committee on International Trade. As Chairman, Van assisted the Legislature in developing a comprehensive trade and investment policy for California. He has led and hosted numerous delegations of government and business leaders to and from California to promote better trade and cultural ties. Within the Republican Assembly Caucus, Van was part of leadership, having assumed the responsibility of Assistant Republican Leader.
From 2000 to 2004, Van was a councilman and vice-mayor of the City of Garden Grove, California, having garnered the highest number of votes in the history of the city’s council election. Van had also served as a Garden Grove planning commissioner from 1999-2000. He is a charter member of the prestigious American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), and a Delegate to the 2002 Young Leaders Conference, hosted by the American-Swiss Foundation.
Leading up to his historic election as the first Vietnamese-American to serve in any state legislature in the United States, Van was the focus of wide-spread national and international media coverage, including CNN, Fox News, KABC, C-SPAN, the BBC, VOA, RFI, the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Politico, and the Wall Street Journal, among many other media outlets. As a lawmaker from California, he was at one time the highest ranking Vietnamese-American elected official in the nation.
Early in his university days during the mid-to-late 1980’s, Van was already professionally involved with the legislative branch, having worked for a US Congressman and subsequently, a California state senator, as field representative and, special assistant, respectively. In over 35 years of community and elective service, Van has received numerous awards for his civic leadership and contributions.
Given his decades of community activism and elective experience, Van is regularly sought-after as a political advisor to local, state and federal elected officials and candidates on issues affecting their constituencies. In the 2012 Presidential Election, he was brought on as a professional political consultant for a number of state legislative and presidential candidates, including get-out-the-vote efforts for Republican Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney, in Ohio and Nevada.
From January 2011 until March 2018, Van had served as the general counsel for the California-based RAAS Group of Companies, comprising of several companies involving in pharmaceutical product manufacturing and distribution, wineries, special events and media production. He has retained his own private law practice with an office in Santa Ana, California, specializing in government relations, immigration-related investments, real estate, and corporate law. Previously, Van was "of counsel" to Newmeyer & Dillion, an 80-attorney law firm based in Newport Beach, Walnut Creek, and Las Vegas, and with one of the largest legal conglomerate in the nation, Snell & Wilmer, with over 500 attorneys throughout the U.S., to assist with the firm's diverse practice in client development strategy, international trade, business outreach, and investment visa matters.
Van completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and went on to earn both a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) and a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Van is licensed to practice law in California and the U.S. District Court, Central District since 1994. He is married to Cyndi Tran of Sacramento and has three children -- Alex (18 yrs.), Sophie (15 yrs.), and Emma (8 yrs.).
