FAMILY LAW synopsis

Like a Chinese-American version of "The Sopranos", FAMILY LAW is about a dynasty - the Lau family - in southern California's San Gabriel Valley. The "SGV" is home to the best Chinese restaurants in America and more Chinese people than any other part of "Gold Mountain" (the Chinese word for America).  Patriarch Kingston Lau has built his empire through hard work and an utter disregard for the law. His over-achieving daugher, Lucy Lau, is a family law attorney, striving to stay on the straight-and-narrow.  But when her family's lives are threatened - because of the very business they have built - she must risk her ethics to delve deep into the dynasty to save them. But at what cost to her?

"Lucy Lau" played by Lucy Liu

Lucy Lau is a family law attorney, having graduated top of her class from USC. Her main clients are colleagues and friends of her father, Mr. Kingston Lau, patriarch of the rich Lau clan in the San Gabriel Valley of southern California.  



Lucy took her bar oath seriously but when she begins to discover that her family's lives are threatened by the very business empire that the Lau clan has built ... by hard work, sacrifice, and very little regard for the law ... she slides deeper into the dark side of the "SGV": Chinese mafias, immigrant gangsters, human trafficking, political corruption, and unbridled ambition.

"Bang-bang Chin", a Chinese thug in the employ of the Laus, played by Jason Scott Lee

"Bang-bang" Chin got to California on a ship, stowed away in the hold by Hong Kong smugglers whom he now owes $100,000 to. Indentured to a dim sum restaurant owned by the Lau family, Chin quickly realized that he faced a life of hard labor and bottom-rung status.


Then, through happenstance (a bloody coincidence involving a money-laundering drop gone bad), Chin got a chance to make A LOT of money. He only had to do one thing: beat a man within an inch of his life.


He did it.  He got paid.  He now drives a Mercedes and doesn't work in a restaurant anyone.  He is owned by the Laus.

"May Hsu", girlfriend of Bang-Bang, played by Constance Wu

Mei-mei "May" Hsu is Chin's girlfriend. He got her after he got his Mercedes. An immigrant herself, albeit via Eva Airlines and Taiwan and not a ship from Hong Kong, May feels that she understands Chin and the choices he's making in his life.

But secretly she loathes his "dirt-biscuit" background, his brutish ways, even though she knows that's what brings him his means. She dreamt of a life of elegance, charm, and luxury ... this is not the life that Chin is providing.

But his violence, never directed at her, yet, always looms should she make an irreversible decision some day....

"Brad Pi", Lucy Lau's boss, played by Daniel Henney

Brad Pi is the founding partner of family law practice Pi Lau and Seinfeld.  Pi hired Lucy Lau because she is smart, hard-working and earth-shatteringly hot.  He has no qualms about mixing business with pleasure, and, even for an attorney, displays an alarming disregard for ethics.


Truth be told, Lucy finds her boss attractive.  But her own family dynasty has demonstrated to her that when work and family mix, the result is corrosive.

"Benson Lau", Lucy Lau's younger brother, played by Harry Shum Jr.

Benson Lau is Lucy Lau's younger brother. He is dropping out of Pepperdine University because, as he put it at a recent explosive family dinner at a Chinese restaurant, "what the fuck do I need college for?"


Benson sees how hard his sister, Mei-mei Lau, has worked, and for what?  Student loans it'll take her years to pay back and 70-hour work weeks.  "Fuck that shit" is Benson's conclusion.  He will enter the family empire instead, doing whatever it takes to make money, more money, and even more money.

"Wendie Liu", Robbie Lau's assistant, played by Zhang Ziyi

Wendie Liu is an ambitious, stop-at-nothing young woman from Shanghai China. She is employed by Robbie Lau, Lucy Lau's older brother.  In what capacity, exactly, no one is really sure. She seems as much personal companion as professional assistant.



One thing about Wendie is clear:  She is determined to mine the riches of "Gold Mountain", as the Chinese call America.

"Robbie Lau", Lucy Lau's older brother, played by Russell Wong

Robbie Lau is "in the restaurant business" and has a seemingly inexhaustible well of cash, cars, and girlfriends. An MBA from Stanford, Robbie walked away from his hedge fund job to enter the family business, working alongside the Lau patriarch, Mr. Kingston Lau, Lucy's father.


Robbie doesn't really have any close friends - unless you count his attorneys, who seem to be closer to Robbie than anyone else, including sister Lucy.

"Mei-mei Lau", Lucy Lau's younger sister, played by Lynn Chen

Mei-mei Lau is a physician's resident at UCLA Medical School, about to graduate with $400,000 of student loan debt. She has always played by the "model minority" rules, straight A's, no drugs, no drinking, played the violin in between gymnastics lessons and Mandarin language tutoring.


Being filial and straight-laced points her to a future ... of hard work, little disposable income, and no time for finding a husband.  Why did she do this?  Her brothers and sisters seem to be finding the easy way instead....

"Kingston Lau", patriarch of the Lau family clan, played by Tzi Ma

Kingston Lau is the patriarch of the Lau family clan.  Through hard work, personal connections ("guan xi" in Mandarin), the occasional deployment of force, and a ready hand with a bribe ("campaign contribution"), Old Lau has created a financial empire for him and his extended family.  He was born poor, a peasant in rural China, and moved to Shanghai when he was in his early teens.  Luckily, a distant uncle who was a coal magnate in the region took kindly to him and offered him employ as an enforcer of the energy company's many deals.  Lau learned negotiation through his hands.

Today, Old Lau lives in a $20 million mansion on an estate-sized lot in San Marino California, a short Mercedes drive away from the best Chinese food in the Western hemisphere.  His family members visit often, as do his ex-wives, though they often prefer staying at The Langham Hotel nearby for discretion.  Sometimes he is seen meeting unknown women, much younger than he is, at the Santa Anita race track...

While Lau seems to enjoy the fruits of his accomplishments, inside, he is by turns fearful, anxious, and angry.  He is frightened that the collateral damage caused by his many business dealings will come back to hurt his family, especially his dear daughter Lucy, his secret favorite among his children.  He is anxious that some day the Chinese government will find a way to steal his wealth out from under him or that the American government will find out that not everything he is part of is on the up-and-up.  And he is angry that, despite his wealth and trappings and good English, he is treated as an outsider by other Americans.  There was that time in Beverly Hills when a French restaurant told him it didn't have a table for him and his family, so he came back the next week and bought the entire restaurant. And promptly fired the hostess.