NATIONAL

ASIAN PACIFIC

AMERICAN BAR

ASSOCIATION

IN THIS ISSUE

Volume XXI No. 2 Spring 2011

NAPABA

1

L A W Y E R

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 is seeking comment on whether lawyers and nonlawyers in the United States should be allowed to team up to form en-tities that provide legal services and, in some cases, do other work as well.

The Commission is asking for input by June 1. An issues paper produced by the Working Group on Alternative Business Structures was posted on the Commis-sion website.

The posting is an early step in the Com-mission’s process of deciding whether to recommend changes in ethics rules or other regulations governing lawyers in a way that would allow some forms of al-

ternative business structures, which right now are prohibited in every U.S. jurisdic-tion except the District of Columbia. Al-ternative business structures have gained a significant foothold, however, in Can-ada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

“These issues are no longer theoretical. They are not merely domestic concerns,” said Jamie S. Gorelick, one of the com-mission’s co-chairs, in comments sent by email in response to questions from the ABA Journal. “U.S. lawyers and law firms of all sizes serve clients in the global legal services marketplace. Their clients are taking advantage of these al-ternative models, and these lawyers and law firms are both encountering and par-

ticipating in them. The Commission is studying the impact of this reality in the context of how to provide guidance to those lawyers and law firms.”

The Commission is taking a wide-ranging look at how ethics and lawyer regulation are being affected by tech-nology and globalization.

Gorelick is a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washing-ton, D.C. The other commission co-chair is Michael Traynor of Berkeley, Calif., a past president of the American Law Institute.

Although the issues paper does not

Ethics 20/20 Commission Seeks Input on Alternative Business Structures for Law Firms

By James Podger

continued on pg. 9

NAPABA Members LobbyCongress to Address Chinese Exclusion Laws 1

Ethics 20/20 CommissionSeeks Input on AlternativeBusiness Structures fo LawFirms 1

President’s Message 2

Leadership Corner:Judge Richard K. Sueyoshi 5

NAPABA Direct Members 6

Regional Highlights 8

Annual Lobby Day 11

NAPABA Members Lobby Congress to Address Chinese Exclusion Laws

By Richie Khanh Nguyen with Azizah Ahmad

At the NAPABA Lobby Day this past May, NAPABA members from geographically and professionally diverse backgrounds met with the 30 members of Congress (or their staff) from both sides of the aisle to discuss issues including judicial nomina-tions, citizenship, and immigration policy. Lobby Day was thus a fitting kick off for Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage month, a time when we commemorate the invaluable contributions that millions of APAs have made over the years and cel-ebrate the diverse cultures that enrich this nation.

APA Heritage Month began as a week-long celebration and expanded to its cur-

rent month-long observance in 1990.1 The original cosponsors – Representative Frank Horton, Representative Norman Mi-neta, Senator Daniel Inouye, and Senator Spark Matsunaga – chose May to be APA Heritage Month because of two significant dates in APA history: May 7, 1843, which witnessed the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States, and May 10, 1869, which saw the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad that Chi-nese workers had greatly helped build.2 There is, however, another date that is equally important in APA history: May 6, 1882, when Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 18823 – a law for which NAPABA Lobby Day participants called

continued on pg. 10

President’sPaul O. Hirose

N A PA B A L AW Y E R

Vol. 21 No. 2 Spring 2011©National Asian Pacific

American Bar Association

CO-EDITORS

Bryce Kunimoto • Tina Matsuoka

Steven Najarian • Azizah Ahmad

Newsletter submission general guidelines:Letters to the Editor (250 words or less),

newsletter articles (500 words or less)and announcements (100 words or less)may be sent to programs@napaba.org.

The opinions expressed in the NAPABA LAWYER are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect NAPABA policy or editorial

concurrence. Publication of any written or graphi-cal material or advertisement does not constitute

an endorsement. The editors reserve the right to edit, accept or reject prospective materials or advertisement in accordance with their editorial

judgment.

NAPABA retains the copyright to this publica-tion and its contents, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact NAPABA for permission to repro-

duce any of its contents.

2

We have a long history of NAPABA leaders lobbying specific issues on Capitol Hill. Honoring this work and with the benefit of our full-time staff and increased resources, we institu-tionalized our efforts and held our first membership-wide, Annual Lobby Day!

A little background will explain how this event is evidence that NAPABA is sustaining its growth for today and tomorrow (note the not-so-subtle 2011 convention plug). About a de-cade ago, NAPABA Board members and Leadership Advisory Commit-tee members held a strategic planning session and developed a plan to grow NAPABA. During that meeting, we wrote the NAPABA Mission State-ment. We wanted to build NAPABA as

a professional trade organization and foster professional development, legal scholarship, advocacy and community involvement. Furthermore, it was envi-sioned that NAPABA would grow to a point that we would have the influence to promote justice, equity and opportu-nity for Asian Pacific Americans.

I am pleased that we are fulfilling our mission. We began this year with an initiative to build a stronger voice for the Asian Pacific American (APA) community. With that focus, NAPABA planned Lobby Day, albeit a two-day event, to engage members in civic duty, the legislative process and, most importantly, making a strong APA pres-ence on Capitol Hill.

On May 2, with the country buzzing from President Obama’s announcement about Osama Bin Laden only twenty hours earlier, NAPABA members from across the country met in the United States Capitol for our Congressional Reception. The reception celebrated our Lobby Day festivities and the start of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Representative Judy Chu gave an inspiring speech – encouraging those in attendance to advocate on behalf of the APA community. Amongst those attending were Representative Bobby Scott, Representative Mike Honda and Representative Mazie Hirono.

Lobby Day began the following morn-ing in the Rayburn House Office Build-ing with an excellent training session by Vincent Eng (Principal at The Raben Group and Interim Executive Director at NAPABA), Bob Sakaniwa (Associ-ate Director of Advocacy at the Ameri-can Immigration Lawyers Association and Co-Chair of NAPABA’s Legisla-tive Committee), Meredith Higashi (Staff Attorney at the Asian American Justice Center and Chair of NAPABA’s Civil Rights Committee) and Emily

Chatterjee (NAPABA Policy Director). They explained the legislative process (think, “Schoolhouse Rock”), the role of lobbying and how to conduct meet-ings with legislators and staffers. More importantly, they went beyond the typi-cal issue briefing, and provided insight and strategic advice on the issues and legislation to be discussed.

Congresswoman Mazi Hirono then treated us with her remarks – stress-ing the importance of our meetings and the roles we play as APA lawyers. NAPABA then sent 5-6 teams who col-lectively visited over 30 Senators and Representatives and/or their staff mem-bers. Amongst the issues discussed were judicial appointments, immigra-tion and Representative Judy Chu’s ef-fort to pass a Congressional Resolution that would formally acknowledge and express regret for the passage of anti Chinese legislation in the late 1800s to early 1900s. NAPABA Immediate Past-President Joseph Centeno and Vice President of Communications Bryce Kunimoto accompanied me to visit Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. During our meeting, we told Senator Reid about the increased frus-tration expressed to us from NAPABA members due to the lack of APAs on the federal bench – only 14 of the 875 Article III judges are APA while Judge Denny Chin is the only APA amongst the country’s 179 circuit court judges. We were adamant that judicial nomi-nees, Judge Ed Chen and Goodwin Liu (who have been waiting several hundred days each) get an up-or-down vote.

Lobby Day closed with a debrief and reception at Jones Day where NAPA-BA members strategized and shared their experiences about their various office visits. Following the debrief, APIA Vote held a reception (co-spon-sored by NAPABA) and briefing about

3

innovative ways on how to engage the APA community in the voting process.

As NAPABA continues to grow, I strongly encourage all of you to attend next year’s Lobby Day. No experience is necessary – what is necessary is that our collective voice be heard.

Congratulations and Thank You

I would like to congratulate our Exec-utive Director, Tina Matsuoka, and her husband, Donny Waack, on the birth of their first child – Atticus. Atticus was born February 6, 2011 and weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds, 3 ounces.

On behalf of the NAPABA Board of Governors, I would like to express our gratitude to Vincent Eng who served as our Interim Executive Director while Tina was on maternity leave. Vincent was invaluable in providing guidance and insight on many “inside the belt-way” issues and worked very hard alongside NAPABA staff to ensure NAPABA continued to progress.

Lastly, in our previous newsletter, we inadvertently left out a big thank you to the following NAPABA affiliates for their hard work and support of the 2010 Inspire Convention (respective presi-dents then and now are also noted):

• Asian Pacific American Wom-en Lawyers Alliance, www.apawla.org (Mia Yamamoto, President)

• Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Orange County, www.apabala.org (Flora Yin, President; Karin Wang, For-mer President)

• Japanese American Bar As-sociation of Los Angeles, www.jabaonline.com (Alison Matsumoto, President; Diana Nishiura, Former President)

• Koreans American Bar Asso-ciation of Southern California, www.kabasocal.org (Princ-eton Kim, President; Marrian

Chang, Former President)

• Philippine American Bar As-sociation of Los Angeles, www.pabala.org (Corinne D. Orquiola, President; Angeli Aragon, Former President)

• South Asian Bar Association of Southern California, www.sabasc.org (Salil Bali, Co-President; Fred Thiagarajah, Co-President; Ankita A. Patel, Former Co-President; Gaurav Monhindra, Former Co-Presi-dent

• Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, www.sccla.org (Wesley L. Hsu, President; Arthur Tsai, Former President)

• Taiwanese American Lawyers Association, www.tala-ca.org (Miriam L. Wu, President; Tony M. Lu, Former Presi-dent)

• Ventura County Asian Ameri-can Bar Association, www.vcaaba.org (John Fukasawa, President; Leeton Lee, Former President)

• Vietnamese American Bar As-sociation of Southern Califor-

nia, www.vabasc.org (Domi-nique N. Thieu, President; Luan Phan, Former President).

Thank you,

Paul O. Hirose

Editor’s Note: Two days after Paul Hirose’s meeting with Sen-ator Reid, a consent agreement was reached to limit debate on the nomination of Judge Edward Chen to three hours followed by a floor vote. On May 10, Judge Chen was confirmed to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. On May 17, Senator Reid filed a motion for cloture to end debate on the nomination of Professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Cir-cuit Court of Appeals. The clo-ture motion – which would have ended debate and allowed a full vote on the merits – failed. On May 25, Professor Liu formally notified the White House of his request that his nomination be withdrawn.

NAPABA President Paul O. Hirose with Representatives Judy Chu and Mike Honda at the Annual Lobby Day Congressional Reception.

apaba.org

4

NAPABA | Leadership Corner

5

I serve as Judge of the Supe-rior Court of California, County of Sacramento. On Septem-ber 1, 2009, I was appointed to the bench by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. I am currently assigned to a general trial de-partment in which I preside over felony and misdemeanor criminal trials, short-cause civil trials, civil debtor examination proceedings, and various criminal and civil law and motion matters. Prior to my current assignment, I pre-sided over a high-volume, crimi-nal process department handling arraignments, pleas, sentencing, post-sentencing matters, and trial readiness conferences. Before becoming a judge, I spent 13 years at a private law firm, prac-ticing business and commercial litigation.

My first NAPABA Convention was in Washington D.C. in 2000. That convention was perhaps the most impressive introduction to a national professional organiza-tion that I had ever experienced. I have since been to every annual NAPABA convention, including last year’s in Los Angeles. My introduction to leadership posi-tions in NAPABA was made by Ruthe Ashley and Patty Reeves, both of whom were on the NAPABA Board at the time. As virtually everyone in NAPABA knows, once you know Ruthe (a NAPABA Past President), you automatically get more and more involved in the organization. It was an excellent experience.

I would suggest that attorneys and law students get involved with their local affiliate, try to attend regional conferences, and make every effort to attend the annual conventions. While time is precious for all of us, I have found that participating in NAPABA is time well-invested.

I recently joined the NAPABA Judicial Council. As an attor-ney, I had the privilege of serv-ing NAPABA in a number of different roles. I served as the NAPABA Regional Governor for the Eastern California and Nevada affiliates for three years. Subsequently, I was elected to two separate, one-year terms as the NAPABA Vice President of Membership. In addition to working with excellent and hard-working NAPABA officers, board members, and staff, in my role of

VP of Membership, I had the distinct honor of working with many core groups of APA at-

across the nation, as well as the personal opportunities to serve NAPABA on a national leader-ship level. Additionally, being a consistent NAPABA participant means creating and maintaining long-lasting friendships with at-torneys and judges across the country. I still look forward to every convention as a way to re-connect, as well as build new re-lationships with attorneys, judg-es, law students, and others.

As an attorney, I found among the most valuable benefits of NAPABA to be the vast network-ing forum, the opportunities to serve our communities on im-portant national issues, the edu-cational experience of learning what our APA leaders have ac-complished and were working on

Do you want to get involved with NAPABA? Are you interested in how current board members or committee chairs got involved? You can learn more about NAPABA’s leadership in this feature of NAPABA Lawyer. This quarter, we get to know Judge Richard K. Sueyoshi.

Judge Richard K. Sueyoshi

Judge Richard K. SueyoshiSuperior Court of California,County of Sacramento

Q ~

Q ~

Q ~

Q ~

Q ~ What type of law do you practice and where?

What is your current role in NAPABA? Which positions have you held in the past?

How did you f i rs t ge t involved with NAPABA?

What do you most enjoy about being involved in NAPABA?

How do you recommend others get involved with NAPABA?

torneys across the nation in form-ing new NAPABA affiliates. I also served as a co-chair for the affiliate planning committee of the NAPABA Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Know of any NAPABA members that should be featured in the next

Leadership Corner? Send your suggestions to Azizah

Ahmad at programs@napaba.org.

6

Platinum

Joseph J. Centeno

Lee C. Cheng

Hon. Denny Chin

Frederick Chung

A.B. Cruz III

Jim Goh

David M. Humiston

Michael Kam

Rudy Y. Kim

Stephen S. Korniczky

Judy M. Lam

Parkin Lee

Rebecca A. Lee

Esther H. Lim

Goodwin Liu

Gina Shishima

Henry C. Su

Bijal V. Vikal

Alys C. Williams

Gene S. Woo

Gold

J. Weili Cheng

Han C. Choi

Kevin M. Fong

Edward Groves

Jennifer Groves

Howard L. Halm

Joan Haratani

Lisa Kobialka

Paul W. Lee

Raymond Lin

Henry Liu

David M. Louie

Yuri Mikulka

John Nakahata

Leighton K. Oshima

Lorna Schofield

Mark Suzumoto

John C. Tang

Willard K. Tom

Calvin K. Woo

Darryl M. Woo

Stacie Yee

Deborah W. Yue

Silver

Soonhee Bailey

Jessica Cha

Paul S. Chan

Hemmie Chang

Amy Chen

Emma Chen

Nicholas V. Chen

Tom Chen

Yong Chen

David K. Cheng

Kiran Chhaganlal

Joseph E. Ching

Lily N. Chinn

Steve Y. Cho

Teresa Chow

Grace Chu

Jamie Chu

Wilson Chu

Catherine Endo Chuck

Evan Chuck

Jamie Chung

Sunny Chung

Lloyd Costales

Aimee Decker

Harmeet Dhillon

Ching-Lee Fukuda

David G. Halm

Julie Han

Izumi Hara

Khue Hoang

Curtis Hom

Deborah Hong

Joon Hong

Vivian Hsu

David Hwang

Bonita B. Hwang Cho

Bruce G. Iwasaki

Les R. Jin

John C. Kang

Christopher Kao

Eric Kawamura

C. Morgan Kim

Christopher Kim

Constance Kim

Jason Kim

Nam Kim

Richard Kim

Emily T. Kuo

Joyce Kwok

Cecilia Lai

Minh Le

James Lee

Jennifer Lee

Mark C. Lee

Michael D. Lee

Moon Soo Lee

Yun Lee

Chunlin Leonhard

Garrick S. Lew

Lisha Li

Jim Liang

John Lim

Yoko Lim

Thomas S. Loo

Stanley Young

Jennifer Yu

Jeffrey Zuber

Bronze

Keith Agena

Kenesa Ahmad

Elizabeth Allen

Annette Barnes

Abigail Beaudoin

Avania P. Bhatt

Wanying Bin

Michiko Brown

Brian Calub

Shirley Cantin

Christopher Centeno

Eric Cha

Merry Jean Chan

Thomas Chan

Christopher Chang

Peter Chang

Tan Ho Chao

Charles Chen

Eric Chen

Jiamie Chen

Kent Chen

Sheana Chen

Jennifer Cheng

Jimmy Cheng

Julie Cheng

Richard Cheng

Lawrence Chew

Catherine Ching

Andy Chiu

Eugene Cho

Aram Choi

Fred Choi

Wooseok Choi

Kunoor Chopra

Danny Chou

Curtis Chow

Anu Chudasama

Michael Chun

Janet Chung

Michael Chung

Noelle Chung

Susan Chae Corcoran

Frank Cote

Deanna Dawson

Hemanth Digumarthi

Erika Dillon

Kathy Dong

Heidi Durr

Gordon I. Endow

Edward Fabi

Brad Farrar

Courtney Fong

Tzung-lin Fu

Sandra Fujiyama

Jay Gandhi

Sonia Gill

Gus Gomez

Spencer Gong

Rosemarie Grino

Rita Gunasekaran

Helena Gweon

John Hamasaki

Douglas Han

Leighton Hara

Stuart Hing

Jayanne Hino

Julie Holmerg

Russell Hom

Warren Hong

Katherine Hsiao

Anita Yang Hsu

Edward J. Hu

Wei Huang

Venora M. Hung

Daniel Huynh

Audra Ibarra

Jo Jagor

Shon Jeng

Shazi Jiang

Monique Joe

Miki Kamijiyo

Cynthia Kao

Neal Katval

Tara Kaushik

Fatima Khan

Saira Khan

Dwight D. Kim

Grace M. Kim

Hyun Zu Kim

Jean Kim

Jeannie Kim

John K. Jim

Jonathan Kim

Paula Kim

Wan Kim

Young Kim

Yudong Kim

Anthony King

Victor King

Yasue Koblitz

Suhi Koizumi

Kevin Kono

Patricia A Konopka

Jane Kow

Perry Kusakabe

Judy Kwan

Albert Kwon

Lisa H.Kwon

Vy Van Ky

Annie Lai

Erica Lai

Phillina Lai

Carolyn Lam

Flora Lau

Michele Lau

Karen Law

Alice Lee

Daniel Lee

Evangeline Lee

Gina Lee

Joyce Lee

Katrina Lee

Kwangwook (Paul) Lee

Michelle Lee

Peter Lee

Priscilla Lee

Robert Q. Lee

Suzy Lee

Taeho Lee

Vivian lee

Larry Leung

Agnes Li

Gary Li

Connie Liem

Cindy Lin

Diana C. Liu

Jennifer Liu

JiaJing Liu

Lawrence Liu

Diana Lock

Ann Marie Logarta

Cynthia Loo

Alexis Lu

Quincy Lu

Catherine Lui

Pamela Mallari

Joseph Manalili

M. Kay Martin

Amy Matsui

Marisa Matsumura

Annalynn S. McDermott

Cherylnn Esoy Mizzo

Iris Y. Mok

Jeremy Moorehouse

Audra M. Mori

Christian S. Na

Peter Nadimi

Dina Nam

Elizabeth Nguyen

Mica Nguyen

Minh-Chau Nguyen

Xin Nie

Daniel T. Nishigaya

Julie Nong

John Oh

Corrinne D. Orquiola

Miyuki Oshima

Erin Oshiro

Reginald A. Pacis

Kristal Padolina

BJay Pak

Benny Pang

Ann Park

Clarissa Park

Jessica (Eun A) Park

John Park

Steven Park

Shreedhar Patel

James Pham

Tuan Pham

James Plott

Duriye Powell

Grace Powers

Frank Oi

Sakina Rasheed

Leonard Reuter

Eunice Rho

Daniel Sakaguchi

Jaya Saxena

Reid Seino

Carey Seki

Monica Shaw

Angelica Shepard

Palak Sheth

Michika Shimabe

Michael A. Shimokaji

Cheryl Shitabata

NAPABA Direct Members as of April 2011

7

Gurinder Singh

Cathy Smith

Andy Sohrn

Jason Soo

Jesse Souki

Christopher T. Sukaphachana

Eddie Sun

Richard Y. Sung

Kitty Szeto

John Tan

Shannon Tan

Jason M. Tani

Dominique N. Thieu

Carolyn Toto

Andrea Tran

Eleanor Ung

J. Dino Vasquez

Jacqueline Vidmar

Alison Cillarivera

Ricardo Villarosa

Catherine Wang

Connie Wang

Joseph Wang

Ruke Wang

Alicia Whiting-Bozich

Ray L. Wong

C. Craig Woo

Michael Wu

Stan Yang

Stephanus Yang

Mallun Yen

Stacey Yeung

Tabatha Yin

Kristin Yoo

Nury Yoo

Salle Yoo

Troy Yoshino

Bonnie Youn

Linda Zachariah

Christa Zamora

Yue Zheng

Lin Zhou

Faisal Zubairi

Student

Priya Aggarwal

Luv Agrawal

Byron Ahn

Mark Ahn

Paul Ahn

Shaharvar Ali

Christopher Alvarez

Michael Andersen

Mari Aoyagi

Christopher Austria

Maria Bae

Adam Bair

Mari Bandoma

Samantha Bautista

Christina Becker

Christine Berk

Brandon Beyer

Robert Carman

Shaw-Jiun Chalitsios-Wang

Vic Chan

Andrew Chang

Jeanie Chang

Szu-Ju Chang

Ann Chao

Tran Che

Jouyu Chen

Anna Cheng

Cindy Cheung

Herman Cheung

Justin Chi

Kimberly Chin

Peter Chin

Karen Cho

Daniel Choi

Hangrak Choi

Lisa Choi

Mina Choi

Yeon Soo Choi

Christopher Chou

Iris Chou

David Chu

Hannah Chung

Catherine Chyi

Adam Colegrove

Edward Dailo

Brenda Dang

Jessica Deihl

Matthew Deleon Guerrero

Sanu Dev

Hamsa Devineni

Nicole Do

Kirk Dungca

Huy Duong

Virginia Duong

Nadisha Foster

Birunthan Ganaganayagam

Shelly Garg

Janice Goh

Erin Goltz

Gus Gomez

Avani Goragandhi

Charmaine Halstead

Kristen Hiraoka

Nobumasa Hiroi

Angela Ho

Kristi Hsu

Jenny Hu

Chao Huang

Jenny Huang

Stephanie Huang

Christina Hung

Dennyna Huynh

Karyn Ihara

Chul Jong Im

Arvind Jairam

Haeyoung Jang

Ryan Jang

Yungbi Ann Jang

Shan Jiang

Amy Johnson

Colin Johnson

Iris Jun

John Jung

Punam Kaji

Andrew Kama

Kevin Kao

Brian Karol

Charles Keh

Bolam Kim

Christine Kim

Doah Kim

Dong-Keun Kim

Elizabeth Kim

Eun Sol Kim

Irene Kim

Jihoon Kim

Kye Kim

Sumin Kim

Tae Yeon Kim

Tae Hyung Kim

Jennifer Kishimizu

Louisa Kiu

Connie Yik Kong

Sophia Kou Tiong

Siew Kwok

Richard La

Edwin Lam

Thoai Ngoc Lam Do

Gina Le

Jonathan Le

Bethany Lee

Jen Jee-Hyun Lee

Joseph Lee

Joy Lee

Kyuchul Lee

Lisa Lee

Sola Lee

Sung Un lee

Youngchae (Maxine) Lee

Jeffrey Leng

Alston Lew

Chad Li

Jonathan Li

Kelly Li

Lily Li

Christy Lim

Lawrence Lin

Mendel Lin

Teresa Lin

Luis Lipchak

Cindy Liu

Fang Liu

Katie Liu

Zhao Liu

Adrianne Lo

David Lo

Xuanning Lu

Alexander Ma

Tam Ma

Zheng Ma

Jennifer Maguire

Jeffrey Makino

Sangeetha Mallavarapu

Elizabeth Manso

Michael Marcelo

Kellie Mariteragi

Regina Mason

Angelo Mathay

Sarah Mathews

Christopher Membribes

Timothy Miller

Larissa Murakami

Sana Nadeem

Kimiko Narita

Yogu Nawa

Tuan Ngo

Cam-Van Nguyen

Diem Chi Nguyen

Marie Nguyen

Paul Nguyen

Peter Nguyen

Trai Nguyen

Vivienne Nguyen

Wayne Nguyen

Carrie Niew

Lisa Noble

Jay Oh

Mioko Okubo

Frederick Ou

Jessica Ou

Michell Paresi

Jungyoon Jaz Park

William Park

Poonam Patel

Bo Peng

Christine Pham

Jenny Phung

Raymond Pottenger

Dana Reyes

Zhen Ruan

Amanda Rucks

Reshma Sambre

Mohitinder Sandhu

Douglas Sayranian

Brandon Schilling

Eunbee Seo

Marcy Seo

Charles Shih

Jopei Shih

Tim G.H. Shimizu

Pax Sinsangkeo

Vatsady Sivongxay

Rachany Son

Kee Ryong Song

Chassica Soo

Patrick Soon

Chethan Srinivasa

Huseina Sulaimanee

Maki Tagai

Yuan Tang

Adam Tanouye

Jacquelyn Temple

Nathan Thomas

Sarun Tosirisuk

Richard Toves

Ryosuke Toyoda

Mimi Truong

Patricia Tsai

Peter Tsai

Tricia Tsai

Diana Tsow

Mai Kia Vang

Laurie Velasco

Corona Wang

HaoCheng Wang

James Wang

Lin-Chi Wang

Winston Wang

Yanling Wang

Stephanie Wesley

Hong-Shik Tyler Won

Christina Wong

Elaine Wong

Francis Wong

Jessica Woo

Andrew Wu

Randy Wu

Ya Xia

Fang Xie

Yang Xu

Yinping Xu

Edmund Yan

Rose Yan

Ting Ting Yan

Elaine Yang

Inae Yang

Jesse Yang

Yihuan (Ivanna) Yang

Yu Yao

Nicole Yap-Maranan

Crystal Yee

Chinffany Yeh

Eva Yin

Hanna Hye-In Yoon

Peter Yoon

Arthur Yu

Nathan Zhang

Chelsea Zuzindlak

NAPABA Direct Members provide critical support to our organization through enhanced membership dues. Please go to www.napaba.org to become a Direct Member today!

8

Reg

ion

a

Re

gio

na

l H

igh

lig

hts

Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento’s 30th Anniversary

NAPABA Regional ConferencesNortheast Regional

Conference

Stamford, CTJune 3-5

Hosted by: CAPABA

For more info or to register, go to:

www.capaba.org

Western Regional Conference

Portland, ORJune 3-5

Hosted by:OAPABA

For more info or to register, go to:

www.oapaba.org

Central Regional Conference

St. Louis, MOAug. 19-20

Hosted by:MMABA

For more info or to register, go to:

www.napaba-crc.org

Oh, how far we’ve come. The Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento (ABAS) celebrated 30 years of service on March 10, 2011. The California Automobile Museum served as the backdrop for a room packed with nearly 300 attendees, including NAPABA President Paul Hirose, a majority of the 29 past presidents of ABAS, over 30 judges from state and federal benches, and keynote speaker California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. As the 30th president of ABAS, I am fortunate to have the advantage of all the APIs/women lawyers who came before me and paved the way. In her keynote address, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye recognized that being Chief Justice is not hard work, but rath-er: “back-breaking labor in the fields, that’s hard…working in the restaurant or service industry, that’s hard.” What we do may seem like a challenge, but compared to our brothers and sisters, we’ve got it

made.

Celebrating 30 years is a wonderful reminder of where we have been and where we are going with our organization’s commitment to justice, equal-ity, mentorship, and the promotion of communi-ty members to political, judicial, and leadership roles. Our role in the next 30 years is to continue to help one another advance and to put children and students on the pathways to becoming our future lawyers, professionals, and leaders. This is not only ABAS’s responsibility, but our responsibility as a community that is still growing and learning across the United States. We are all one commu-nity that needs to continue mentoring not only our students and our lawyers, but also our communi-ties. This is our goal--our challenge. I am looking forward to the next 30 years.

by Grace M. Arupo, ABAS President

Right: CA Chief Justice Tani Cantil-

Sakauye inspiring the crowd.

Left: All smiles from ABAS crowd, (from left to right) Ruthe Ashley, CA Assemblymember Mariko Yamada, NAPABA President Paul Hirose and ABAS President Grace Arupo.

9

constitute a formal recommendation or policy position by the Commission, it does confirm that the Commission will not consider the full range of Alterna-tive Business Structure possibilities.

“Alternative business structure” is an umbrella term that covers entities in which lawyers organize themselves with nonlawyers to provide services to clients that could be limited only to le-gal services or that might also include certain nonlegal services. The District of Columbia, for instance, permits lawyers to share a management and/or financial interest with nonlawyers in entities that are limited to provid-ing legal services. At another point in a potentially broad spectrum, the mul-tidisciplinary practice approach would allow lawyers and nonlawyers to share management and/or ownership of enti-ties that provide both legal services and other types of work for clients.

In February, the commission decided that allowing outside passive invest-ment by nonlawyers in law firms—ei-ther with or without caps on the extent of such ownership—“would not be appropriate to recommend for imple-mentation in the United States at this time, though both have been adopted elsewhere since July 2000,” the issues paper states.

Instead, the commission is seeking feedback on three specific types of al-ternative business structures:

• Limited lawyer/nonlawyer partner-ships with a cap on nonlawyer owner-ship. A narrow version of this approach would require that the firm limit its work to the practice of law and that a cap be imposed on the percentage of the firm’s nonlawyer ownership. Non-lawyer owners also would be required to pass a “fit to own” test.

• The District of Columbia Model. Un-der its version of Rule 5.4 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the District of Columbia permits law-yers to form partnerships with nonlaw-yers that engage only in the practice of law, but does not impose a cap on non-lawyer ownership or require nonlawyer

owners to pass a “fit to own” test.

• Multidisciplinary practice. Essential-ly, this option would allow firms orga-nized under the District of Columbia’s version of Rule 5.4 to offer both legal and nonlegal services.

The ABA has been down at least one lane of this road before, only to come to a dead end.

In its work that led to the adoption in 1983 of the Model Rules of Profes-sional Conduct to replace the Model Code of Professional Responsibility, the ABA’s Commission on Evaluation of Professional Standards—known as the Kutak Commission—drafted a ver-sion of Model Rule 5.4 that would al-low some partnering between lawyers and nonlawyers. But the ABA’s poli-cymaking House of Delegates rejected that approach in favor of a Rule 5.4 that essentially prohibits any partner-ing between lawyers and nonlawyers in an entity that engages in the practice of law.

That version of Rule 5.4 has remained pretty much intact ever since, both in the ABA Model Rules and in the ver-sions adopted by the states—with the exception of the District of Columbia. Twice, in 1999 and 2000, the House turned back recommendations by the Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice to open the door to some forms of MDP.

The question now is whether the cli-mate in the United States is any more receptive to MDP or other forms of al-ternative business structures than it was 30 or even 10 years ago. The answer may still be at least a year away, since the Ethics 20/20 Commission’s sched-ule calls for it to submit the bulk of its recommendations for consideration by the House of Delegates at the ABA’s 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Reprinted by permission, ABA Journal, 2011

NAPABA Board of Governors

2010-2011

OFFICERSPresident

Paul O. HirosePresident-Elect

Nimesh M. PatelVice President of Finance & Development

Linda LuVice President of Membership

Sumbal MahmudVice President of Programs & Operations

Emily T. KuoVice President of Communications

Bryce Kunimoto

TreasurerCamilla M. Eng

SecretaryBijal Vakil

Immediate Past PresidentJoseph J. Centeno

REGIONAL GOVERNORSNortheast Region

Jeffrey Hsi • Jin HwangCentral Region

Lawrence “LG” AlmedaSoutheast Region

Bill SimonitschSouthwest RegionGeorge ChenNorthwest RegionMichele Wong

Central California RegionCyndie Chang

Southern California RegionTirzah Lowe

Eastern California RegionDanette “Dee” C. Brown

Northern CaliforniaKiran Jain

AT-LARGEAndrew T. Hahn, Sr.

Christopher C. JavillonarEkwan RhowAndrew A. Vu

Ethics 20/20 Commission continued from pg. 1

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NAPABA 2011 Resolutions

The NAPABA 2011 Resolutions provides the basis for NAPABA’s

advocacy efforts in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. The Resolutions will be

presented at the annual Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC) conference that NAPABA will be

hosting this year. The Resolutions include:

1) Resolution in support of Congressional Expression of Regret for Asian Exclusion Laws

2) Resolution opposing proposed cuts to funding for the Legal Services Corporation

3) Resolution in support of pay equity legislation

4) Resolution in support of the End Racial Profiling Act

5) Resolution in support of marriage equality

6) Resolution in support of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act

7) Resolution in support of the Democracy Restoration Act

8) Resolution in support of the DREAM Act

9) Resolution opposing efforts to reinterpret the 14th Amendment to abolish birthright citizenship

10) Resolution in support of eliminating employment based visa backlogs

11) Resolution in support of eliminating family based visa backlogs

12) Resolution opposing SB 1070 and

copycat legislation

on members of Congress to formally ex-press regret.

The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States for 10 years. For the first time, the federal government singled out an ethnic group to be barred entry into the United States.4 The broad interpretation of the term “laborer” included both skilled and unskilled laborers, which meant the vast majority of Chinese immigrants could en-ter the United States. When it was extend-ed indefinitely in 1902, Chinese residents were required to register their residency or face deportation.5 Chinese Americans were not the only community affected as more exclusionary laws followed, such as the Gentlemen’s Agreement in 19076 and the Immigration Act of 1917,7 which pre-vented other communities from Asia and the Pacific Islands from immigrating to the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act was in effect for over sixty years until it was repealed during World War II when China became a close ally to the United States.8 Despite repealing the laws, Con-gress has yet to acknowledge that the Chi-nese Exclusion Laws violated fundamental civil rights of Chinese persons.9 Accord-ingly, NAPABA and other organizations such as the 1882 Project, a non-partisan effort to spread awareness of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, are committed to moving Congress to formally acknowledge and ex-press regret for these exclusionary laws.

In a proclamation regarding APA Heri-tage Month, President Obama expressed the need to celebrate progress in the APA community, but also to remember the chal-lenges that define our history.10 He ex-pressed that even in the “darkness of the Exclusion Act and Japanese internment, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have persevered, providing for their fami-lies and creating opportunities for their children.”11 President Obama’s statement is echoed in the efforts of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). As Chair of CAPAC, Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) has been at the forefront in encouraging fellow members of Congress to take action against such historic discrim-ination. On May 26, 2011, Dr. Chu along with colleagues from both the House and Senate – Representatives Judy Biggurt (R-IL) and Mike Coffman (R-CO), and Sena-tors Scott Brown (R-MA), Ben Cardin

(D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) – introduced resolu-tions in both houses calling for Congress to formally acknowledge and express regret for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Laws.12

The introduction of these historic reso-lutions came a few weeks after NAPABA members lobbied Congress to formally address the Chinese Exclusion Laws. “NAPABA was one of the earliest sup-porters of the resolutions and NAPABA members brought this issue to the attention of many of the senators who introduced the resolutions,” said Emily Chatterjee, NAPABA Policy Director. The bi-partisan support from both houses illustrates the desperate need for passage of the resolu-tions and for all of Congress to recognize that the Chinese Exclusion Laws were dis-criminatory acts against APAs.

As this year’s APA Heritage Month con-cludes, the struggle for progress and vis-ibility remains. Although the APA popula-tion continues to grow and become more integral in the fabric of American society, APA history is still merely seen as a foot-note in United States history. A formal ac-knowledgement and expression of regret by Congress for such discriminatory exclu-sion laws will finally close an ugly chapter in United States history. Thanks to the ef-forts of many, including the 1882 Project, CAPAC and other supporting members of Congress, and NAPABA members, we may have another APA achievement to celebrate during next year’s APA Heritage Month.

Richie Khanh Nguyen is the 2011 McGuire-Woods NAPABA Law Clerk. He is currently a rising 2L at UCLA School of Law.

Footnotes: 1 http://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemo-rative-observations/asian.php; 2 http://asianpacificher-itage.gov/about.html; 3 http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=47 ; 4 Id.; 5 http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigratio/32%20stat%20176.pdf (see Chap. 641); 6 http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views4a.htm ; 7 http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/39%20stat%20874.pdf (see 876, “Natives of specified Asiatic, etc. districts.”); 8 http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/57%20stat%20600.pdf (see Chap. 344); 9 http://www.1882project.org/about/ (see What Are the Chinese Exclusion Laws?); 10 http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presiden-tial-Proclamation-Asian-American-And-Pacific-Islander-Heritage-Month/ ; 11 Id. ; 12 http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2011/05/expressing-regret-for-chinese-exclusion.html

NAPABA Members Lobby Congress continued from pg. 1

11

NAPABA’s Annual Lobby Day Highlights

Above: Rep. Mazie Hirono speaking with NAPABA member, Rick Holzheimer, after her remarks during the Lobby Day training Left: Rep. Judy Chu welcoming

members dur ing the open ing reception

NAPABA members with NAPABA leadership during the Lobby Day training

Above: Rep. Bobby Scott and his staffer with Tina Matsuoka and Paul Hirose

Above: Bob Sakaniwa, Vincent Eng and Meredith Higashi leading the Lobby Day training

Right : Rep . Mike Honda addressing the audience during the Congressional Reception

NAPABA members on their visit with Rep. Chaka Fattah

Above:CAPAC members with NAPABA leadership

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association1612 K Street, NW, Suite 1400 | Washington, DC 20006Tel. 202-775-9555 | Fax. 202-775-9333 | www.napaba.org