rhea yo (JD), Executive Director
Rhea Yo (she/her) is the Executive Director for LCYC. King County and Washington is her fourth jurisdiction directly representing children, youth, and caregivers in child welfare, guardianships, custody matters, education, and civil legal aid.
Rhea joined the LCYC team in 2018. Before joining LCYC, Rhea was a senior attorney at Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY), a project of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. At LACY, Rhea was a dependency attorney who represented hundreds of minors and non-minor dependents in Santa Clara County. She also represented caregivers and young people in special education, guardianship, custody and child support, and restraining order cases, as well as minors in court-appointed guardianship and custody cases. Prior to her time in the Bay Area, Rhea was a supervising attorney and dependency attorney at D.C.’s Children’s Law Center (CLC). At CLC she provided holistic legal representation in dependency cases by addressing the client’s physical, emotional, and intellectual needs as well as their legal rights.
Rhea first practiced child welfare law at the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School where she received her J.D. in 2007. She received her B.A. in Women’s Studies, Political Science, and Organizational Studies from the University of Michigan in 2004. The American Bar Association’s Children’s Rights Litigation Committee named Rhea as the Fearless Children’s Lawyer of the month in January 2021.
Rhea’s commitment to justice and centering the marginalized is rooted in her first generation Korean immigrant experience. She enjoys eating, cooking, music, and exploring all things beautiful with her child, partner, and dog.
(206) 494-0323 x710