NAPABA 2017 Officers Election Results

NAPABA congratulates the newly-elected officers of the NAPABA Board of Governors for the 2017-18 board year. They will be sworn into office at the 29th Anniversary Gala during the 2017 NAPABA Convention in Washington, D.C.

The following individuals were elected by the NAPABA membership:

  • President-Elect | Daniel Sakaguchi
  • Vice President for Finance and Development | Courtney Fong
  • Vice President for Membership | Tacie H. Yoon
  • Vice President for Communications | Sun E. Choi
  • Vice President for Programs and Operations | Charles H. Jung
  • Treasurer | Eugene Kim
  • Secretary | Bonnie Lee Wolf

In addition to these newly-elected officers, Pankit J. Doshi will serve as President and Cyndie M. Chang will serve as Immediate Past President. Joining the officers on the NAPABA Board of Governors will be 10 regional governors and four at-large board members.

NAPABA Names Jae Park as Its 2017 Pro Bono Award Winner

WASHINGTON — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is proud to present the 2017 Pro Bono Award to Jae Park, senior managing associate, Dentons US LLP, in San Diego, California. The NAPABA Pro Bono Award recognizes attorneys for outstanding achievements in pro bono service that: 1) involved impact litigation to advance or protect civil rights, and 2) provided direct legal services to individuals in the furtherance of the administration of justice.

The 2017 Pro Bono Award will be presented at the NAPABA Anniversary Gala at the 2017 NAPABA Convention in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4, 2017.

Mr. Park began his legal career with a deep commitment and dedication to providing assistance to the underserved in his community by utilizing his skills and expertise as a lawyer. Over the course of his career, Mr. Park has amassed over 1,000 hours of pro bono service helping countless people and non-profits along the way.

Having spent much of his childhood moving from country-to-country — he was born in Seoul, South Korea, and lived in Korea, Australia, and India before he and his family immigrated to the United States when he was 12 — Mr. Park empathized with the plight of refugees who are trying to adjust to a foreign country and culture. Early in his career, he was presented with opportunity to represent an Ethiopian refugee in Immigration Court. Since then, he has represented numerous victims of abuse, torture, political attacks, and other human rights violations from across the globe and helped them to obtain asylum in the United States. For his work on behalf of refugees, Mr. Park was named Distinguished Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the Casa Cornelia Law Center, a non-profit law firm providing pro bono legal services to victims of human and civil rights violations.

Additionally, Mr. Park has worked with several non-profit organizations whose mission is to serve the Korean American community in San Diego. He has helped establish the Korean American Community Center of San Diego and Total Youth Productions, a non-profit community group that provides mentoring and counseling to Korean American middle and high school students.

Mr. Park is a litigator at Dentons US LLP where he focuses on complex commercial litigation and construction litigation. He represents businesses in commercial disputes involving commercial torts, breach of contract, trade secrets, fraud, unfair competition, and employment issues from pre-litigation counseling and negotiations through trial. Mr. Park also works with public and private developers and contractors on a wide variety of disputes arising out of public infrastructure projects, as well as private commercial and residential developments.

NAPABA congratulates Jae Park as the 2017 NAPABA Pro Bono Award recipient.

For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at202-775-9555 or [email protected].

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 50,000 attorneys and over 80 national, state, and local 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).

NAPABA Responds to Revisions to Muslim and Refugee Ban

On Sunday evening, the president announced revisions to the Muslim and Refugee ban, following a review required under the March 6, 2017, Executive Order. North Korea, Venezuela, and Muslim-majority Chad, were added to the list of restricted countries that continues to include Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. The restrictions on travel vary from country to country, ranging from limits on the entry of government officials to bars on immigrant and nonimmigrant admission.

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) has consistently opposed this series of discriminatory executive orders. The addition of new countries does not correct the problems inherent in the original action, including its anti-Muslim underpinnings and statutory deficiencies. NAPABA will continue to oppose discriminatory immigration policies.

Read more about NAPABA’s position on the executive orders and the brief it filed in the Supreme Court here.