Summer 2010 - APABA-DC

President’s Letter
It’s hard to believe that the
2009-10 term has come to a
close. It has truly been a
privilege to serve as president
of APABA-DC and to work
with the dedicated and enthusiastic members of the 200910 board of directors.
As APABA-DC approaches
its 30th anniversary in 2011,
we note proudly that the organization is thriving. Our
membership this year surpassed the 500-member
mark, and includes several
judges, political appointees in
the Obama administration,
partners in many of DC’s largest law firms, in-house counsel
in major corporations, and
leaders of national and local
APA public interest organizations.
The Vice Presidents and
Committee Co-Chairs deserve
kudos for the numerous highquality programs presented
this past year. Space prohibits me from commending the
organizers of each of these
excellent programs, but highlights include a members-only
V O L U M E 3 , I S SU E 4
Tacie Yoon
APABA-DC President, 2009-2010
dinner with three appellate
advocacy experts, a panel
discussion on alternative careers for lawyers, a program
on how to become a judge,
featuring U.S. District Court
Judge Emmet Sullivan and
D.C. Superior Court Associate
Judge Florence Pan, and a
program on running for office,
featuring several prominent
APA politicians, including Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao,
Congresswoman Judy Chu,
and Virginia Delegate Mark
Keam.
New this year was the
APABA-DC book club, which
met quarterly and included
participation by the authors of
two of the selected works, a
sushi making class at Kaz Sushi
Bistro, and an end-of-year
wine tasting for APABA-DC
and AEF mentors and mentees.
We continued our tradition
of co-sponsoring and coordinating the annual Robert E.
Wone Judicial Clerkship and
Internship Conference, the
annual Law Students Know Thy
Career Options event, a
speed networking event, and
a mentor-mentee program.
Our community service
events included a “happy hour
with a kick” self-defense
workshop that benefited the
Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project,
our holiday book drive, and
our staffing of the D.C. Bar
Pro Bono Advice and Referral
Clinic and the APALRC help
line.
The Bakunawas paddled to
a gold medal in their division
passing the U.S. Capitol,
the Washington Monument,
and other landmarks
around the mall.
Then, during the formal
part of the program, four
panelists answered questions and provided advice
to help students think about
their career options.
The panelists included
William Ho-Gonzalez,
Deputy Chief, U.S. Department of Justice, Human
President’s Letter
1
Law Students’ Event
1
2009-2010 APABADC Board of Directors
2
APABA-DC
Bakunawas
2
Access to Justice
3
Alternative Careers
Panel
3
Trivia Night!
4
Mediation CLE
5
General Counsels’
Panel
6
GAF Concludes
Successful Year
7
NAPABA Conference:
November 18-21
8
Mentoring/Wine
Tasting Event
9
Continued on page 9.
APABA-DC Hosts Annual Career Options Event For Law Students
On June 15, 2010, Jones
Day hosted APABA-DC’s
annual career options
event, “Law Students Know
Thy Career Options.” The
APABA Educational Fund
and SABA-DC cosponsored the event.
The program began with
general networking and
mingling among law students and practicing attorneys in Jones Day’s beautiful conference facility, with
its sweeping views encom-
SUMMER 2010
2010-2011 APABADC Board of Directors
10
Rights and
Special Prosecutions Section; Myron
Quon, Executive Director,
Asian Pacific
American Legal Resource Panelists speak at the Law Students’ Event hosted at Jones Day. From
left to right: Ritu Singh (Jones Day); William Ho-Gonzalez (U.S. Dept.
Cenof Justice); Ben Roca (Northrup Grumman); and Myron Quon
ter; Benjamin (APALRC). David Hsu (APABA-DC) moderates.
Roca, Senior
President-Elect David Hsu
Counsel, Northrup Grumman; served as the moderator.
and Ritu Singh, Associate,
Jones Day. APABA-DC
Continued on page 5.
APABA-DC 2009-2010 Board of Directors
Tacie Yoon
David Hsu
Rosy Lor
President
President-Elect
Crowell & Moring LLP
United States Securities
& Exchange Commission
Immediate Past
President
Lei Mei
Priya Nair
VP, Communications
VP, Membership
Grace Wu de
Plaza
BNA, Inc.
VP, Programs
Mei & Mark LLP
Internal Revenue Service
Rudhir Patel
VP, Comm. Affairs
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Nixon Peabody LLP
Peter Sung Ohr
Stephanie Yu
Akira Irie
Sujit Raman
Nominations
Secretary
Treasurer
Newsletter Editor
National Labor
Relations Board
Environmental Protection
Agency
Finnegan
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Phong Nguyen
Linda Kordziel
Eunice Chung
Anh-Thu Mai-Windle
Partners’ Forum;
Nominations
Partners’ Forum
Government
Attorneys’ Forum
Government
Attorneys’ Forum
U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office
U.S. Dept. of Justice
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Baker Hostetler LLP
Angela Gaw Duong
Taron Murakami
Practicing
Attorney Resource
Practicing
Attorney Resource
U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Benjamin Roca
Ankur Shah
In House Counsel
Committee
In House Counsel
Committee
Northrup Grumman
Freddie Mac
Mariel Lim
Women’s Forum
Sara Bakker
Office of Congressman
Albio Sires
FINRA
Tessie Abraham
Women’s Forum
Christopher Chan
Office of Congressman
Lee Terry
Finnegan
Women’s Forum
APABA Educational
Fund (AEF), ex officio
Institutional affiliations are provided for identification purposes only.
Congratulations to the APABA-DC Bakunawas!
The APABA-DC Bakunawas competed in the
annual DC Dragon Boat
Festival for the third year
in a row. The
festival was
held on two
days, May
15-16, 2010,
at the Thompson's Boathouse Center,
near the
Georgetown Waterfront
along the Potomac River.
APABA-DC members,
family and friends joined
us that weekend to watch
the races and cheer us on!
The team name,
“Bakunawa,” comes from a
Page 2
legend about a Philippine
dragon or sea serpent. It
was chosen to acknowledge our Asian heritage
ual medals to commemorate the exciting weekend.
The celebratory team dinner held on June 4, 2010
and to signify our strength.
Enthusiasm, team spirit,
and grueling paddling
practices led the Bakunawas to win a Gold Medal
in the 500 meter race in
the "E" finals. Each team
member received individ-
capped off the 2010
dragon boat season.
2010 APABA-DC Bakunawas:
David Hsu (Captain), Nhat
Nguyen (Co-Captain), Jason Lagria (Team Manager
and Co-Site Supervisor),
Bill Ho-Gonzalez (Race
Coach), Cathy Chen (Co-Food
Manager), Marita Etcubañez
(Co-Food Manager), Liz Lee
(Co-Food Manager), John
Truong (CoSite Supervisor), Chee
Yuen Hung
(Drummer),
Sara Bakker,
Nichole Cadiente, Anna
Chu, Paramita
Ghosh, Jeoyuh Lin, Anh MaiWindle, Liza Murcia, Justin
Pan, Natasha Quiroga, Audrey Roh, Laura Shin, Brian Su,
Nghia (Neo) Tran, Amy Yeung, and Janice Yun.
— David Hsu
Volume 3, Issue 4
APABA-DC Successfully Campaigns On Behalf Of Access To Justice
This past May, APABA-DC
participated in a successful
campaign to save the D.C.
Access to Justice program
from drastic budget cuts that
would have slashed the program to fifty percent of its
fiscal year 2009 level and
eliminated many of the important legal services the
program provides to the
city’s most underserved residents.
As a result of a viral e-mail
and letter writing campaign
conducted by approximately
sixty organizations and coalitions (plus the D.C. Bar and
25 former D.C. Bar presidents), the D.C. Government’s
Committee of the Whole
voted to fund the program in
the amount of $3.5 million,
rather than at the $1.8 million level proposed by
Mayor Adrian Fenty.
The Access to Justice Program supports civil legal services for indigent District residents, the Community Legal
Interpreter Bank, and the
Loan Repayment Assistance
Program, and helps to ensure
that poor District residents
have access to attorneys to
help them with urgent legal
issues. Access to Justice
Funding has had a dramatic
impact across the city. It has
deployed 30 new lawyers to
some of the city’s poorest areas, established offices and
eted, as already 12% of
legal services lawyers and
nearly 40% of support staff
positions have been eliminated. The proposed cuts
projects east of the Anacostia
River, placed lawyers in National Children’s Medical Center Clinics, funded a lawyer
who makes house calls to
homebound elderly clients,
and provided same day services to clients in landlordtenant court who are at risk of
losing their homes.
Further, because of the economic downturn, the need for
legal services has skyrock-
would have seriously
harmed the ability of the
network to provide critical
services.
To avert the funding cuts,
APABA-DC sent letters to
each of the members of the
D.C. Council to urge them to
support restoring funding
for the D.C. Access to Justice
Commission, and encouraged our membership to
send additional e-mails and
letters to the D.C. Council.
As a result of our campaigning, and the hard
work of several local and
national organizations, the
Committee on Public
Safety and the Judiciary
took the unusual step of
producing a separate
Committee Report on the
Access to Justice Program.
According to the report,
the Committee was extremely impressed by the
broad expression of support for the program from
multiple segments of the
legal community, and
noted communications it
had received from voluntary bar associations.
The participation of
APABA-DC and its members helped to underscore
that the legal community is
broadly supportive of access to justice and that as
lawyers we understand the
peril faced by litigants
who have to confront legal
crises alone.
Thanks to all of you who
helped support our campaign.
— Rudhir Patel
PAR Committee Hosts Panel On Alternative Careers
On April 13, 2010, the Practicing Attorneys’ Resource Committee held a panel titled,
“Alternative Careers for Lawyers: Find New Opportunities” at Morgan Lewis & Bockius
LLP’s D.C. office. Panelists included Jeewon Kim, Policy Fellow at the House Democratic
Caucus, Julie Liu, co-owner of Scion Restaurant, Alpha Lillstrom, Legislative Assistant to
U.S. Senator Jon Tester, and Veronica Zeitlin, program management analyst at USAID’s
Office of Women in Development. The panel was moderated by Eliza Park Musallum,
Career Counselor at American University Washington College of Law. The panelists
each discussed their transitions from practicing law to their “alternative” careers.
Said attendee Andrew Wone, “The panel gave helpful insights on what it is like working
on the Hill, doing advocacy work at a non-profit, and opening a small business. The program illustrated both the challenges of leaving traditional legal practice and the motivations for exploring a rewarding alternative
career path.”
Many thanks to Phil Olaya for planning the event and to Esther Park and Tricia Farringer at Morgan Lewis for hosting us.
— Taron Murakami
Summer 2010 Newsletter
Page 3
RIVIA NIGHT!
APABA-DC T
Busboys & Poets
June 22, 2010
Photos by
Christopher Chan
To see more photos from recent APABA-DC events,
log onto the APABA-DC page on facebook.com!
Page 4
Volume 3, Issue 4
APABA-DC Hosts Annual Event for Law Students, cont.
Continued from page 1.
The panelists described how
they decided to pursue their career paths and how they obtained their positions. They also
discussed recruiting and hiring
practices at their places of employment and noted the importance of networking, obtaining
advice, preparing for interviews
and “selling” themselves.
In addition, the panelists discussed the benefits and drawbacks of law firm, in-house, government and non-profit positions.
Finally, the panelists provided
advice about how students and
new attorneys can succeed in
their careers, by finding mentors,
working hard, doing quality work
and being involved at their
places of employment.
The evening concluded with
networking at roundtables
staffed by volunteer attorneys in
private practice, government, inhouse, and public interest careers. About 70 students from the
D.C. area and from law schools
across the country and 25 attorneys attended the event.
— David Hsu
Attendees mingle at the June 15, 2010 APABA-DC Annual Career
Options event for law students hosted by Jones Day.
APABA-DC Members Sharpen Their Negotiation Skills
On June 3, 2010, APABA-DC presented a 2-hour CLE program on
“Negotiation and Advocacy in Mediation.” The instructors were Amy
Wind, Chief Circuit Mediator for the
D.C. Circuit and Judge Brian Kim of
the District Court of Maryland for
Montgomery County.
Through a combination of lecture
and interactive exercises, the attendees learned how negotiation skills
can be used effectively in everyday
Page 5
life as well as in the service of their clients. Judge Kim focused on negotiation
strategies and styles, and the ten stages
of negotiation. Ms. Wind explained
what to expect in a mediation, how to
prepare for a mediation, and how
understanding the difference between interests and positions can help
an attorney become a better negotiator. Both Ms. Wind and Judge Kim
drew on their personal experiences
to provide concrete examples of effective negotiation techniques.
APABA-DC sincerely thanks Judge
Kim and Ms. Wind for preparing and
presenting the program, and Crowell
& Moring LLP for hosting the event.
Volume 3, Issue 4
Partners’ Forum & In-House Counsel Committee Host Panel
On April 14, 2010,
APABA-DC’s In-House
Counsel Committee and
Partner’s Forum presented a distinguished
panel on the topic of
“Changes in the Relationship between General
Counsels and their
Outside Attorneys.”
The event was
generously sponsored
by Freddie Mac and
hosted by Robert
Bostrom, Freddie Mac
Executive Vice President and General
Counsel, and Ankur
Shah, Freddie Mac
Associate General
Counsel and APABADC In-House Counsel
Committee Co-Chair.
The panelists were:
Richard T. Choi,
Partner at Jorden Burt,
LLP; Christiana Lin, Executive Vice President
and General Counsel of
comScore, Inc.; Jessie K.
Liu, Partner at Jenner &
Block, LLP; Ho Shin, General Counsel of Octagon;
and Michael Wu, General Counsel of Rosetta
Stone, Inc.
The panel was moderated by Benjamin Y.
Roca, Senior Counsel at
Northrop Grumman and
APABA-DC In-House
Counsel Committee CoChair.
Mr. Bostrom opened
the program with welcoming remarks. After
panel introductions, Mr.
Page 6
Roca described the depressed state of our
economy and the challenges that these times
present for both law
firms and private corporations. This introduction
led our panel to discuss
product.
However, Ms. Lin
stated that predictability
in costs is also key for a
GC. Unexpected large
bills are difficult to explain to her board and
the issues that relationship partners and corporate law departments
are facing and solutions
for today’s challenges.
Each panelist agreed
that their organization
must find ways to be
more efficient. Employees all need to work
harder and watch their
budget.
But Mr. Choi warned
against being too frugal,
which can result in an undesirable work product
from outside counsel. He
pointed out that billing
rates at larger, more experienced law firms are
higher, but generally so
is the quality of the work
management. When outside counsel provide advance notice of justifiable
large legal expenses, a
GC can more easily explain to their management (including their corporate board and shareholders) the need for
such overhead expenses.
Thus, law firms that provide the business case in
advance for such large
costs help maintain a
firm’s good relationship
with a corporation’s legal
department.
The current economy is
also influencing corporations to retain specialized, more senior, outside
legal counsel. The trend
in these difficult economic
times is to keep the basic
legal research in-house
and farm out the more
complex legal issues.
None of the GCs on
the panel was interested
in paying for legal
work performed
by a junior or firstyear associate. As
a result, law firms
are hiring fewer
graduating law
students or lateral
associates with
only a few years
of experience.
Managing a corporate legal
budget is one of
the main tasks of a
GC and thus, finding the “right” outside counsel to
handle complex legal
issues is crucial. GCs
need outside counsel who
understand their business
and have become more
focused on hiring those
with a proven track record. Thus, the reputation of a firm or individual become the key to
hiring outside counsel.
In addition, because
fixed fee billing and alternative fee agreements
are becoming the norm,
firms that are more creative in that area are
more attractive.
Ms. Liu reminded the
audience to try to find a
Continued on page 8.
Volume 3, Issue 4
APABA-DC GAF Wraps Up A Successful Year
In response to the high demand
for legal employment in the Federal Government, the Government
Attorneys Forum of APABA-DC
(GAF) organized several events
this past term geared towards
serving the interests of APABA-DC
members. GAF wrapped up the
year of various programs with
two successful events
oriented towards
public service.
On May 6, 2010,
GAF sponsored a
seminar on “Securing
Legal Employment in
the Federal Government” hosted by the
law firm of White &
Case in Washington,
D.C. Representatives
from the Department
of Justice, the Department of Homeland
Security, and the Securities and Exchange
Commission spoke to
an audience of about
sixty people.
The two-part seminar consisted of a
panel session and a
breakout session.
During the panel session moderated by
Les Jin (DOJ, Civil Rights Division), panelists Gail Johnson
(DOJ, Civil Division), Marc
Sharma (SEC, Division of Investment Management), and John
Walk (DHS, Office of the General
Counsel) presented an overview
on the hiring processes in their
respective agencies, shared information on learning about legal
job opportunities, and offered
advice on securing legal employment with the Federal Government.
The audience had further opportunities to speak with the three
participating agencies during the
breakout session. Paul Uyehara
(DOJ, Civil Rights Division), Maya
Samms (SEC, Recruitment Office),
and Walt Cain (DHS, Office of
the General Counsel) joined their
colleagues in smaller group sessions where attendees gained
additional insight on each participating agency’s hiring programs
and needs. Participants walked
Summer 2010 Newsletter
away from the seminar with a
better perspective of what to
do and not to do and contacts
for future employment prospects within the Federal Government.
On June 30, 2010, GAF cosponsored a seminar on “Why
and How to Start Your Own
campaigning experiences with
the audience, spoke about why
more Asian Pacific Americans
(“APAs”) need to run for office,
and shared some DOs and
DON'Ts of campaigning for office.
In addition to personal anecdotes, the panel offered an
Campaign For Office” with the
Conference on Asian Pacific
American Leadership (“CAPAL”)
and the Asian Pacific American
Institute for Congressional Studies (“APAICS”). The law firm of
Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C., hosted the event attended by about sixty-five people. The panel discussion,
opened by GAF Co-Chair Anh
Mai-Windle and moderated by
CAPAL Chair Gene Kim, presented an overview and components of running a campaign
and concluded with three lessons summarized by APAICS
Acting Executive Director Ruby
Moy.
Congressman Anh “Joseph”
Cao (R-LA), Congresswoman
Judy Chu (D-CA), Delegate
Mark Keam (D-VA), Mayor
Allan Fung (R-RI), and Councilwoman Patty Kim (DHarrisburg, PA) shared their
overview of considerations in
running for office. Those running
for office should keep in mind the
two primary campaign models
involving either candidate or
staff-driven campaigns, consider
the advantages and disadvantages of these models, and decide which to pursue. A candidate should also be able to identify a campaign base of loyal
followers.
The panelists shared a common
voice in encouraging APAs in
particular to run for office. The
interests of the community are
best represented by individuals
who share a similar mindset and
understanding and can offer the
community a voice in the political
process. From the panelists’ perspective, APAs are underrepresented in the political
arena.
The panelists recommended
certain DOs and DON’Ts in run-
ning for office:
DOs
1) Have your family’s support;
2) Think and speak as though
you are already an elected
officer;
3) Be yourself; and
4) Enjoy and embrace the process.
DON’Ts
1) Don’t run without
your family’s support;
2) Don’t run for your
ego;
3) Don’t say anything
just to get a vote; and
4) Don’t think beyond
the election.
Holding an elected
office involves a lot of
work but ultimately
offers many rewards
impacting a large community. An elected
officer should strive for
sincerity, dedication,
and love for his or her
constituents. Audience
members were reminded that one can
ultimately make a significant difference as
an elected officer, but
first one has to participate in the process by
running for office.
These two events along with
the other activities GAF coordinated this year helped GAF to
achieve its goals of serving the
interests of APABA-DC members, increasing membership,
and making a positive impact.
The GAF Planning Committee
capped the year with a happy
hour to celebrate its accomplishments this term, transition
to new leadership, welcome
new members, and discuss
ideas for future events.
This is an exciting time with
great opportunities to be involved with APABA-DC and
GAF. Please contact co-chairs
Anh Mai-Windle and Eunice
Chung at [email protected] if
you are an APABA member
interested in serving on the
GAF Planning Committee.
— Anh Mai-Windle &
Eunice Chung
Page 7
napaba 2436 poster.pdf
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5:12:09 PM
President’s Letter, cont.
Partners’ Forum Event, cont.
Continued from page 1.
Continued from page 6.
in the 500 meter race of the DC
healthy work/life balance. She quipped, “cut yourself some slack. Do it for
your own sanity and good health. You don’t get that time back. Use technology and be sure to take time out. Finding creative ways to balance work/life
is important in challenging times.”
Although some offices have begun to adopt alternative work schedules, Mr.
Wu cautioned, and other GCs agreed, that in-house attorneys (probably
more so than outside counsel) need to be visible during the core working hours
of their clients.
There was also a brief discussion of the use and promotion of diverse attorneys. Our corporate counsel panelists agreed that beyond race and ethnicity, using the best lawyers who do good work is what matters at the end of
the day.
If you are interested in participating in In-House Counsel Committee or
Partners Forum activities, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected].
— Benjamin Roca
Dragon Boat Festival, and once
again, Trivia Night brought out the
inner geek in many of us.
In short, it has been an exciting and productive year. I’m
pleased that the membership is so
engaged. I am confident that incoming president David Hsu and
the 2010-11 board will lead
APABA-DC to even greater success in this anniversary year.
Thank you for giving me the
opportunity to serve as your president and for your continuing support of APABA-DC.
gtv|x lÉÉÇ
<[email protected]>
Mentoring/Wine Tasting Event
On June 5, 2010, the Practicing Attorneys’ Resource Committee
hosted a wine tasting at the OCA National Center. Participants
in both APABA-DC’s mentorship program and AEF’s mentorship
program gathered on a hot Saturday afternoon and were
treated to a tasting of French wines chosen by wine importer Ed
Addiss, of Wine Traditions in Falls Church, Virginia. The event
was an opportunity for mentors and mentees to meet and network with other mentorship program participants.
Mentee Jason Chang said, “For all those moments where we are
required by our profession to be sharp, analytical, and on the record, APABA-DC's wine tasting event is a
refreshing way to relax in an informal setting over several bottles of reds and
whites. I highly recommend this event to
any young attorney who is interested in
getting to know the APABA-DC community!”
Thanks to Tacie Yoon, Mimi Rajapakse and
Priya Nair who helped to plan the event,
and to George Wu and Iimay Ho at OCA
for hosting us!
— Taron Murakami
Page 9
Volume 3, Issue 4
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of
the Greater Washington, D.C. Area, Inc.
P.O. Box 27223
Washington, D.C. 20038-7223
[email protected]
<www.apaba-dc.org>
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Celebrating Nearly Thirty Years Of Professional
And Community Service
1981-2010
The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the
Greater Washington, D.C. Area, Inc. ("APABA-DC") is an
organization of over 500 members comprised of attorneys, law professors, law students, government officials,
and other interested individuals. We are an organization
dedicated to serving our members and advocating for
the legal needs and interests of the Asian Pacific American community, the greater Washington D.C. area, and
the legal profession.
We want to hear from you!
Congratulations to APABA-DC member Jennifer Choe Groves on her
move to Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP from the White House Office of
the U.S. Trade Representative. She is based in the firm’s Washington,
D.C. office and has been appointed the Chair of the firm’s International Intellectual Property Rights and Entertainment practice. Jennifer can be reached at [email protected]. We wish her
the very best as she undertakes the next phase of her career.
Newsletter articles (300 words or
less) and Announcements (100 words
or less) may be emailed to
[email protected].
Any opinions expressed in the
APABA-DC newsletter are those of
the authors and do not necessarily
reflect APABA-DC policy or editorial
concurrence.
Publication of any written or graphical material or advertisement does
not constitute an endorsement. The
editors reserve the right to edit, accept or reject prospective materials
or advertisements in accordance with
their editorial judgment.
Submit your newsletter article today!
Summer 2010 Newsletter
The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the
Greater Washington, DC area is proud to announce its
2010-2011 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
President-Elect
Imm. Past President
Treasurer
Secretary
VP, Communications
VP, Community Affairs
VP, Education
VP, Membership
VP, Programs
David Hsu
Rudhir Patel
Tacie Yoon
Annette Kwok
Sara Bakker
Mia Haessly
Christopher Chan
Anh-Thu Mai-Windle
Priya Nair
Lana Jeng
Committee Co-Chairs will soon be announced.