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PRESS RELEASE: NAPABA Names Michelle K. Lee as its 2015 Women’s Leadership Award Recipient

For Immediate Release: Aug. 26, 2015

For More Information, Contact:
Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
[email protected], 202-775-9555

NAPABA Names Michelle K. Lee as its 2015 Women’s Leadership Award Recipient

WASHINGTON – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) has named Michelle K. Lee, under secretary of Commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as the recipient of the 2015 NAPABA Women’s Leadership Award. This award recognizes the accomplishments of women lawyers and is presented to an individual who has achieved professional excellence in her field, demonstrated leadership and understanding of women’s issues, and made significant contributions to the Asian Pacific American (APA) legal community.

Ms. Lee will be honored at the Women’s Leadership Breakfast at the 2015 NAPABA Convention on Nov. 7, 2015, in New Orleans, La.

As the first woman and person of color to head the USPTO in its 225-year history, Ms. Lee leads almost 13,000 employees with an annual budget of $3 billion and is also the principal advisor to the President – through the Secretary of Commerce – on domestic and international intellectual property (IP) policy. Prior to her current role, she served as deputy director of the USPTO, and before that as the first director of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley office.

Ms. Lee has spent most of her professional career advising some of the country’s most innovative companies on technical, legal, and business matters. Prior to joining the USPTO, she was Deputy General Counsel for Google and the company’s first Head of Patents and Patent Strategy. She was formerly a partner at the Silicon Valley-based law firm of Fenwick & West LLP, where she specialized in advising a wide range of high-technology clients – from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies – on patent law, IP, litigation, and corporate matters.

In 2004, Ms. Lee co-founded Chief Women IP Counsels (ChIPs), whose mission is to support and promote the advancement, development, and retention of women in technology and IP through substantive and inspiring speakers, relationship building, mentoring, education, best-practice sharing, and other forms of support. Since the organization’s inception, membership in ChIPs has steadily grown from a small group of women in the Silicon Valley to over one thousand members internationally.

“Ms. Lee has long been a pioneer and innovator in the IP field,” said NAPABA President George C. Chen. “She has had, and continues to have, an incredibly distinguished career, and we applaud her commitment to advancing women and people of color in the workforce. NAPABA is proud to honor Ms. Lee as this year’s Women’s Leadership Award recipient.”

Previously, Ms. Lee was named a 2015 Washingtonian Tech Titan by Washingtonian Magazine and one of D.C.’s Top 50 Women in Tech in 2015 by Fedscoop. She was also the recipient of the 2015 ICAS Liberty Award from the Institute for Corean-American Studies and was named one of 2015’s top 50-most influential visionaries in American public policy by Politico Magazine. The San Francisco Business Times and San Jose Business Journal recognized Ms. Lee as Best Bay Area IP Lawyer in 2012 and one of the top 100 most influential women in the Silicon Valley in 2013.


The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of over 40,000 attorneys and approximately 75 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government.

NAPABA continues to be a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network of committees and affiliates, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession.

To learn more about NAPABA, visit www.napaba.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@NAPABA).

2015 Fall Conference Sneak Peak

By Marianne Chow
AABANY Vice President of Programs and Operations


On Saturday, September 19, 2015, AABANY will present its Sixth Annual Fall Conference,  Charting New Frontiers, hosted by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.   The Fall Conference consists of a full day of programs in a wide variety of areas of law geared towards promoting knowledge, business and professional development.  Read on for highlights from this year’s Fall Conference.  For more information and to register online, visit us at: conference2015.aabany.org

Inaugural Diversity Career Fair

We are excited to announce our inaugural Diversity Career Fair, where we look forward to featuring selected public sector and corporate sector employers who will host informational sessions, meet and greet interested applicants, and in some instances, conduct first-round on-site interviews.  Attendees will also have an opportunity to meet members of the AABANY Career Placement Committee, receive career advice and learn more about other job openings.  

CLEs and Career Panels

An impressive roster of CLE programs will cover cutting edge topics in areas ranging from tax to intellectual property to international arbitration to civil rights, such as:  

  • Justice for All:  LGBT Civil Rights and the API Community; 
  • Legal Perspectives on the Continuing Evolution of Media; and 
  • Hot Topics in Immigration Law—What is the Current Status of Executive Action, and Other Immigration Measures?

We will also offer several career-focused panels aimed to help APA attorneys advance, whether to equity partner, general counsel or the judiciary, such as: 

  • Business Development and Advancement for Firm Practitioners and In-House Attorneys–What Works and What Doesn’t?; 
  • Exploring In-House Legal and Non-Legal Paths; and 
  • Pathways to the Judiciary.  

Special Programming

This year’s Plenary Lunch Session will feature Kicking Glass: Two Decades and Counting, a follow-up program to a video first presented by AABANY at the 1995 NAPABA Convention. Kicking Glass revisits questions on hurdles faced by APA women in law, the successes they achieved, and what success means to them.  A video screening will be followed by a panel discussion which will aim to assess whether APA women attorneys have finally broken the glass ceiling after 20 years and to identify what challenges remain.  

For current and aspiring litigators, we offer our 4th Annual Trial Advocacy Program (TAP), a full-day program offering participants an opportunity to conduct their own openings, directs, cross-examinations and closings, followed by personalized critique from our distinguished APA faculty members which have included judges and practitioners. This year, we are proud to present as our TAP keynote speaker Hon. Kiyo A. Matsumoto, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Apply for a slot in our Law Firm Pitch Sessions, which matches law firms and solo practitioners with AABANY’s expanding network of in-house counsel. These sessions allow outside counsel to showcase their services that are relevant to in-house counsel and who have been specifically selected based on in-house counsel’s needs.  

Finally, join us for a Cocktail Reception during which we will launch our 2015-2016 Mentorship Program, which provides support, advice and networking opportunities to aid both mentors and mentees in their professional and personal development.  We encourage AABANY members to apply to be a mentor and/or a mentee at http://www.aabany.org/default.asp?page=542 by no later than August 21, 2015.

Register Today!

To register for the Fall Conference, click here.  A discounted rate is available for AABANY members.  All participants who register on or before September 4, 2015 will receive a further discount on the registration fee.  Attendees may also sign up in advance for one of the Post-Conference Dinners hosted by various AABANY Committees.  Please contact [email protected] if you have any other inquiries regarding the Fall Conference. 


This article was originally published in the Summer 2015, Volume XVI, Issue III of The AABANY Advocate, which can be read in its entirety here. To see all past versions of The AABANY Advocate, click here. To learn more about AABANY’s newsletter, you can email [email protected].

For more information about the Fall Conference, click here. Questions can be directed at [email protected].

AABANY Fall Conference – Law Student Group Rate

AABANY’s 2015 Fall Conference will include programming geared towards law students, such as panels about navigating the job search process. Also, AABANY’s Career Placement Committee is organizing its first-ever Diversity Career Fair.

To encourage attendance and participation by law students, AABANY is offering a special group rate, based on groups of five or more from the same law school. The cost will be $25 per student for members and $35 per person for non-members. The non-member rate includes a one-year membership in AABANY. This group rate covers all events at the Fall Conference, including all CLE and non-CLE programs, the Career Fair, the cocktail reception and post-conference Committee Dinners. The regular rate for students is $75 for members and $125 for non-members and that’s the early bird rate. The group rate represents a huge discount (even better than the combo package) so gather your friends together and take advantage of it today! The group of five can consist of both members and non-members.

To learn more and to apply for this special group rate, contact [email protected].

Practical Law In-house Counsel File: Austin So, Heraeus Incorporated

Practical Law In-house Counsel File: Austin So, Heraeus Incorporated

PRESS RELEASE: NAPABA Announces Lee Tran & Liang LLP as its 2015 APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year

For Immediate Release: Aug. 19, 2015

For More Information, Contact:
Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
[email protected], 202-775-9555

NAPABA Announces Lee Tran & Liang LLP as its 2015 APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year

WASHINGTON – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) has named Lee Tran & Liang LLP as the 2015 Asian Pacific American (APA)-Owned Law Firm of the Year. NAPABA created the APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year Award to recognize APA-owned law firms that have achieved prominence and distinction while maintaining the highest ethical and legal standards in the profession, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to the APA community.

The Award also celebrates growing APA ownership and entrepreneurship in the legal marketplace. The 2015 APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year Award will be presented at the 2015 NAPABA Convention on Nov. 7, 2015, in New Orleans, La.

“NAPABA is proud to honor Lee Tran & Liang LLP with the Asian Pacific American-Owned Law Firm of the Year Award,” said NAPABA President George C. Chen. “We applaud the firm’s continued commitment to excellence both within and outside the legal arena.

With over 30 attorneys across three offices in California, Lee Tran & Liang LLP (LTL) is one of the largest and fastest growing APA-owned law firms in the country, and one of the largest APA-owned litigation boutiques. LTL started in 2003 as the first spin-off from trial powerhouse Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Devoted solely to trials and litigation, the firm represents global companies and handles complex matters nationwide.

LTL was recently included on the 2014 National Law Journal Litigation Boutiques Hot List (one of ten firms nationally), and was awarded the 2013 Client Service Award by the California Minority Counsel Program. Its attorneys have been honored as among the “Top 20” in California (Daily Journal), “Super Lawyers” (Los Angeles Magazine), and one of LTL’s partners was named “Best Lawyers under 40 in America” by NAPABA (2003).


The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of over 40,000 attorneys and approximately 70 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government.

NAPABA continues to be a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network of committees and affiliates, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession.

To learn more about NAPABA, visit www.napaba.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@NAPABA).