Young's family traces back through 50 generations of his Korean heritage, but his father's family also had resided in in Shenyang in northern China. The family immigrated to Canada from Seoul, Korea in 1968. He grew up in Oshawa and Whitby, east of Toronto. Young graduated high school in 1981 from Anderson CVI in Whitby as valedictorian and received a school letter and the Mayor's Medal for citizenship. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in political science, economics and computer science, before entering Osgoode Hall Law School.
During law school, besides managing part-time work as a licensed taxi driver, he dedicated most of his extra-curricular time and summers with the Community Legal Aid Services Programme (CLASP) as duty counsel, caseworker, division leader and member of the board of management. Young appeared at immigration hearings, landlord/tenant hearings, WSIB hearings, provincial offences court, provincial court - criminal, and small claims court. Young's first notable success in litigation was winning a small claims court trial as a 3rd year law student, representing a young Asian family with children whose apartment was flooded by effluent when sewage backed up, and the landlord's insurer refused to compensate the tenants adequately.
After graduating from law school in 1987, Young articled with a small established litigation firm on Bay Street in Toronto. He was called to the Bar with the Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1989. Young practised in civil litigation and had appeared at all levels of court in Ontario and the federal court of Canada. In later years, although he preferred civil litigation, clients often asked Young to represent them in criminal cases, family disputes and business transactions. Over the years, his practice and interests became broader.
Eventually, Young managed a firm that became a general practice including being counsel to many organizations, businesses and individuals. His clients have included banks, amateur sports organizations, physicians, businesses and individuals of every kind. Now the LEE LAW firm handles all types of litigation, business, employment, real estate, family, personal injury and immigration matters, with a dedicated focus on achieving practical results, for clients from many different socioeconomic backgrounds.
In the past, he has contributed to the communities close to him including serving as counsel and vice-president for the Korean Canadian Cultural Association. Young was also receiving referrals from the Consul-General of the Republic of Korea in Toronto. Young has also in the past acted as litigation counsel for other lawyers or accepted referrals of their clients, including clients from Asian and Europe. Currently, Young also serves on the board of the Durham Community Legal Clinic in Oshawa.
Young enjoys managing problem-solving for his clients and has a wide variety of experiences from the courtroom to the boardroom that give him an array of skills and knowledge to apply to every challenge. Young enjoys the diversity of his clients from a wide spectrum. Although Young maintains Korean and Chinese staff as a needed service in the community, Asian clients do not represent more than a small fraction of his clientele, Among his recent clients, besides Asians, they have included Jewish, Croatian, Italian, Irish, Russian, Iranian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Greek, Scottish, LGBTQ, etc.
Young is most proud of being a father and has a wunderkind son who is blessed with synesthesia, is multi-talented, was MVP of his high school provincial championship baseball team, graduated from a prestigious university in the United States and is now living and working in the US.
