Quynh Nguyen graduated as a double major from U.C. Berkeley in 1980 with Honors in English and Rhetoric. She then attended Berkeley's Boalt Hall and earned a J.D. in the early 1980's.

For a brief time, Quynh volunteered at the Attorney General's office to research and draft the State's appellate briefs in response to criminal appeals. Her other volunteer work or affiliations include being a past member of the Community Services Committee for the San Francisco Asian American Bar Association, a Board member of the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, and a Board member of the Asian Law Caucus. For a time, she also participated in a pro bono legal clinic operated from San Francisco's Chinatown. In the early 1990's, Quynh worked in the Southern Pacific legal department and was primarily assigned to defense-side FELA discovery and motion work. She left the "darkside" in 1997 when she joined the law firm of Hildebrand, McLeod & Nelson, where she works today as an enlightened attorney representing deserving FELA plaintiffs.

Quynh is a member of the State Bar in California and the Federal District Court in California for the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Central Districts. Quynh's areas of practice include Civil Litigation; F.E.L.A.; and Railroad Law.