Philip Chwee

Philip Chwee joined the Washington, D.C. office of Human Rights First as a staff attorney in August 2020. As a staff attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Human Rights First, Philip Chwee mentors and supports pro bono attorneys who represent asylum seekers. He also represents asylum seekers living in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. 

Before joining Human Rights First, Philip Chwee was a senior associate at a boutique immigration litigation firm in New York City. He represented detained and non-detained individuals facing removal proceedings across the United States. In addition, he also headed the firm’s appellate work before the Board of Immigration Appeals and federal circuit courts. While in New York, Philip presented on the material support bar and terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds at the New York Asylum & Immigration Law Conference in 2018 and 2019. 

Philip is a native of Queens, New York, and received his JD from Fordham University School of Law. He was a staff editor of Fordham’s International Law Journal, where he published a note on comparative internet censorship laws. Philip is admitted to the New York State Bar and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is fluent in spoken Mandarin.