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).

Attorney Emeritus Program

Attorney Emeritus Program

Chinese-American Planning Council Holds Conference for Chinese Families with Developmental Needs

Chinese-American Planning Council Holds Conference for Chinese Families with Developmental Needs

Free Legal Services at the Legal Pit Stop Clinic!

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The next Legal Pit Stop is fast approaching. The clinic intends to reach a broader range of small business owners who lack the time, expertise or income to address their specific legal needs. 

The “Legal Pit Stop” legal advice clinic will be held on Monday, June 26th from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM at Pillsbury LLP’s offices in Times Square (1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036), with appointments beginning at both 5:30pm and 6:30pm.

Please register at: https://www.tfaforms.com/4618359

Volunteer attorneys will be on hand  to advise on the following legal topics: sales tax, business insurance, entity choice, contract and commercial lease review, corporate governance, and corporate risk assessment. The Legal Pit Stop does not have business stage requirements, but each business candidate must receive less than 300% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

NAPABA Seeks Volunteer General Counsel

NAPABA Seeks Volunteer General Counsel

NAPABA is searching for a pro bono General Counsel to advise the NAPABA Board of Governors and the NAPABA Executive Director on a broad range of legal issues. The General Counsel also acts as a key strategic partner to the Board and Executive Director by providing guidance on many non-legal governance matters.

The General Counsel should be a senior-level, highly respected lawyer who has been active in NAPABA and who has some familiarity with the organization’s history and leadership. The General Counsel does not need to possess any particular legal background, but s/he should have access to other lawyers at his/her firm who could provide specialized expertise in areas such as non-profit governance, Illinois corporate law, employment, contracts, privacy, public communications, and non-profit tax. Although NAPABA is incorporated in Illinois and based in Washington, D.C., issues do arise from time to time that require expertise in the law of other jurisdictions. For these reasons, although association with a large firm is not required, it could be very helpful to the General Counsel in executing his/her duties.

To recommend a candidate or for more information, please contact NAPABA Executive Director Tina Matsuoka at [email protected].

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association | 1612 K St. NW, Suite 510 | Washington, D.C. 20006 | www.napaba.org

NAPABA Files Amicus Brief Supporting the First Legal Challenge to President’s Revised Muslim and Refugee Ban

For Immediate Release

March 13, 2017

For More Information, Contact: 

Brett Schuster, Communications Manager

[email protected], 202-775-9555

WASHINGTON — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) filed an amicus brief in State of Hawaii v. Trump to support Hawaii’s challenge to President Trump’s March 6, 2017, revised executive order barring individuals from six Muslim-majority countries and refugees from entering the United States.

Filing just before midnight on March 7, Hawaii became the first state to challenge the revised order and the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii agreed to hear the case on an expedited schedule. Judge Derrick K. Watson will hear oral argument on the State’s motion for a temporary restraining order on March 15, the day before the revised order is to take effect.

“I look no further than NAPABA’s mission to underscore the imperative for NAPABA to file its own amicus brief on this very issue. The new executive order is no less invidious than its predecessor,” said NAPABA President Cyndie M. Chang. “Asian Pacific American communities historically have been excluded and restricted in immigration and naturalization policies and have experienced the tragedy of forced incarceration during WWII. We understand first-hand the harms that this kind of discrimination will inflict upon Muslim and refugee communities. We will not forget this particular anti-immigrant history, and we are compelled to share our historically-based legal perspectives with the Court.”

NAPABA’s amicus brief describes decades of statutory exclusion of citizens of Asian and Pacific Island countries under early U.S. immigration law, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 — the first federal law to ban a group of people on the basis of their race. The Civil Rights Era marked a dramatic turning point that saw Congress dismantle nationality-based discrimination with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The brief explains that presidential discretion in the area of immigration and refugee admission, while broad, is limited by statute. NAPABA argues that President Trump’s revised order, motivated by anti-Muslim purpose, violates the unambiguous prohibition on discrimination established by Congress.

“I thank the many members of the NAPABA legal community who supported NAPABA’s drafting and filing of this expedited brief,” continued Chang. “Particular thanks goes to our pro bono counsel at McDermott Will & Emery LLP and pro bono local counsel at Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing for their leadership on this important brief.“

NAPABA recognizes lead counsel, James W. Kim, a NAPABA member and partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, in Washington, D.C., Mr. Kim’s team (Mark Calaguas, David Gacioch, Andrew Genz, Matthew Girgenti, Emre Ilter, Neha Khandhadia, Philip Levine, Riley Orloff, Sara Raaii, Joshua Rogaczewski, Amandeep Sidhu, and Michael Stanek), and NAPABA Amicus Committee chair, Professor Radha Pathak of Whittier Law School, for their leadership drafting the brief, which also involved the efforts of NAPABA staffers. NAPABA is represented by local counsel Pamela W. Bunn and John Rhee, with the support of William Kaneko, of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Read the amicus brief here.

Read the March 6, 2017, statement of NAPABA and the South Asian Bar Association – North America, joined by 14 affiliates, against the revised executive order.

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 almost 50,000 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).

AFFILIATE GRANT PROGRAM

The NAPABA Affiliate Grant Program provides support to affiliates and national associates for projects related to membership development and pro bono activities.

Deadline | March 31, 2017

For more information about the application schedule and to apply visit the program page here.