As another year draws to a close for APABA-DC, I am thank-ful for the opportunity to have served as president of this or-ganization this year. I have met a number of extraordinary indi-viduals and have certainly learned a lot about the Asian Pacific American community both at the local and national levels.

I also appreciate the hard work and commitment my fellow board members have shown this year in providing APABA-DC members with quality services and programming. Among some of our recent accomplishments are the offering of two continuing legal education courses in legal writing and ethics, which APABA-DC members attended for free; a panel discussion on the Senior Executive Service; a presentation on Asian Pacific American non-profit organizations and the ser-vices they provide locally and nationally; Trivia Night at Fadó's; and our annual career options event for law school students.

Additionally, our Nominations Committee, led by co-chairs Peter Ohr and Phong Nguyen, has been particularly busy these past sev-eral months, having interviewed a number of individuals seeking APABA-DC's endorsement for the position of United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and for vacancies on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

And I would be remiss in fail-ing to mention that the APABA-DC dragon boat team, the Bakun-awas, won a silver medal in the E Division 500 meter race during this year's D.C. Dragon Boat Fes-tival, which was held on May 16-17 on the Potomac River.

As much as APABA-DC has accomplished this year, I recog-nize that there is always more that can be done in areas such as raising the profile of the organi-zation, increasing membership, and promoting the interests of Asian Pacific Americans in the legal profession and community. I am confident that Tacie Yoon, our incoming president, and the re-cently elected board of directors for 2009-2010 will make signifi-cant contributions next year.

Thank you for supporting APABA-DC this year and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Rosy Lor <president@apaba-dc.org>

On June 25, 2009, Jones Day hosted APABA-DC’s an-nual career options event, “Law Students Know Thy Ca-reer Options.” The APABA Educational Fund and SABA-DC co-sponsored the event.

The program began with general networking and min-gling among law students and practicing attorneys on Jones Day’s beautiful rooftop ter-race with its sweeping views encompassing the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, and other landmarks around the mall. Then, during the formal part of the program, panelists from a large na-tional law firm, the D.C. and federal governments, and

Capitol Hill an-swered questions and gave exam-ples from their own careers to help students think about their career options.

The panelists included Emily Mao, a partner at Alston & Bird LLP; Kris Dighe, Assistant Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natu-ral Resources Division; Maribeth Raffinan, Attorney at the Special Litigation Divi-sion of the Public Defender Service for the District of Co-

lumbia; and Janelle Hu, Elec-tions Counsel, Committee on House Administration, U.S. House of Representatives.

The panelists described how they came to be in their current positions, and gave students suggestions about questions to ask of their col-

APABA-DC Hosts Annual Career Options Event For Law Students

President’s Letter

President’s Letter 1

Law Students’ Event 1

2008-09 Board of Directors

2

APABA-DC Bakunawas 2

Job Panel Q&A 3

Trivia Night! 4

Installation Dinner 6

Partners’ Forum Event/ Real Estate Seminar

7

Discussion on Senior Executive Service

8

“Know Your Community” 8

Legal Ethics CLE 9

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4

SUMMER 2009

Rosy Lor APABA-DC President, 2008-2009

leagues at their summer jobs to evaluate whether the work environment is really what they want after law school. Their journeys involved ele-ments of persistence, flexibil-ity, networking, and being in

Left: Kris Dighe and Janelle Hu serve as presenters. Right: Law students enjoy the June 25th event.

Continued on page 3.

Chung, Leah Frazier, Bill Ho-Gonzalez, Jeewon Kim, Joyce Koo, Laureen Lagla-garon, Jason Lagria, Jason Lee, Liz Lee, Scott Lee, Jane Liu, Rosy Lor, Anh Mai-Windle, Nhat Nguyen, Justin Pan, Brian Su, Tacie Yoon and Ngai Zhang.

— David Hsu

Page 2 Volume 2, Issue 4

practices led the Bakun-awas to win a Silver Medal in the 500 meter race in the "E" finals. Each team member received individual medals to com-memorate the exciting weekend.

The celebratory team dinner held on June 5,

2009 capped off the 2009 dragon boat sea-son!

2009 APABA-DC Ba-kunawas: David Hsu (Captain), Marita Etcu-bañez (Co-Captain), Mariel Lim (Drummer), Trever Asam, Cathy Chen, Eunice Chung, Laura

The APABA-DC Bakun-awas competed in the an-nual DC Dragon Boat Fes-tival for the third year in a row. The festival was held on two days, May 16-May 17, 2009, at the Thomp-son's Boathouse Center, near the Georgetown Wa-terfront along the Potomac River. APABA-DC mem-bers, family and friends joined us to watch the races and cheer us on!

The team name, “Bakunawa,” comes from a legend about a Philippine dragon or sea serpent. It was chosen to acknowl-edge our Asian heritage and to signify our strength. Enthusiasm, team spirit and grueling paddling

Institutional affiliations are provided for identification purposes only.

Congratulations to the APABA-DC Bakunawas!

APABA-DC 2008-2009 Board of Directors

Rosy Lor President Internal Revenue Service

Margaret Hu VP, Membership United States Department of Justice

David Hsu Secretary United States Securities & Exchange Commission

Sanya Sukduang Partners Forum Finnegan

Tacie Yoon President-Elect Crowell & Moring LLP

Grace Wu de Plaza

VP, Programs Nixon Peabody LLP

Elbert Lin Treasurer Wiley Rein LLP

Stephanie Yu Government Attorneys Forum Environmental Protection Agency

Leah E. Frazier Imm. Past President Federal Trade Commission

Vacant VP, Comm. Affairs

Sujit Raman Newsletter Editor U.S. Attorney’s Office

Kris Dighe Government Attorneys Forum

U.S. Dept. of Justice

Priya Nair Practicing Attorney Resource BNA, Inc.

Marita Etcubañez Women’s Forum Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center

Tessie Abraham Women’s Forum Office of Congressman Lee Terry

Lei Mei VP, Communications Mei & Mark LLP

Phong Nguyen Partners Forum; Nominations Baker Hostetler LLP

Mimi Rajapakse Practicing Attorney Resource National Labor Relations Board

Peter Sung Ohr Nominations National Labor Relations Board

Paul T. Kim NAPABA Southeast Regional Governor Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP

Susan Kim In House Counsel Committee Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.

Benjamin Roca In House Counsel Committee Northrup Grumman

Taron Murakami APABA Educational Fund (AEF), ex officio Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Page 3

the right place at the right time. They also discussed recruiting and hiring prac-tices at their places of em-ployment, and offered tips about how students at other than top tier schools can distinguish themselves in the marketplace and try to obtain employment at a large firm or a selective government office.

In addition, the panelists provided advice about how students and new at-torneys can maintain and enhance their marketabil-ity in case they decide to change jobs at some

point.

The evening concluded with networking at round-tables staffed by volun-teer attorneys in private

practice, government, in-house, public interest, and related legal ca-reers.

About 65 students from the D.C. area and from

APABA-DC Hosts Event For Law Students, cont.

On June 11, 2009, APABA-DC and the Young Lawyers Section of the Bar Association of D.C. (YLS-BADC) co-hosted a “Job Panel Question and Answer” discussion at The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.

Panelists included: Jes-sica Heywood, Director of Catholic University School of Law’s Office of Career and Professional Develop-ment; Matthew Pascocello, Assistant Director for Alumni Counseling at American University’s Washington College of Law; Jeffrey Schimelfenig, National Director of Pro-ject Management for Kelly Law Registry; Leah Frazier, Attorney, Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Consumer Protection,

The panel was set up so that individuals attending the event could submit questions anonymously to the event organizers. Those questions provided the structure for the Q&A discussion, and panelists discussed a broad range of topics and issues con-cerning the current legal job market.

Topics ranged from a general assessment of the current legal job market to specific advice on tran-sitioning into the govern-ment and conducting job searches.

Because of the diverse backgrounds of the pan-elists, each could give unique insights and per-spectives on different is-

Division of Financial Prac-tices; Hsinyu Yu, Attorney Recruitment & Retention

Manager at the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service; and Nicole Puri, Manager, Deloitte Financial Advi-sory Services. Amy Ye-

ung, chair-elect of the YLS-BADC, moderated the discussion.

After the panel discus-sion, a networking session was held to allow atten-dees to follow-up with panelists, other profes-sionals, and career coun-selors.

APABA-DC and Bar Association of D.C. Co-Host Job Panel Q&A Discussion

Continued on page 6.

Continued from page 1.

law schools across the country, and nearly 25 attorneys, attended the successful event.

— Tacie Yoon

Panelist Biographies:

Jessica L. Heywood, Director of Catholic University School of Law’s Office of Career and Professional Development. Jessica also teaches in Catholic’s legal externship clinic.

Matthew L. Pascocello, Assistant Director for Alumni Counseling at American University’s Washington College of Law.

Jeffrey Schimelfenig, National Director of Project Management for Kelly Law Registry, (legal staffing arm of Kelly Services).

Leah Frazier, Attorney, Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Con-sumer Protection, Division of Financial Practices.

Hsinyu Yu, Attorney Recruitment & Retention Manager at the Of-fice of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service.

Nicole Puri, Manager, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services.

Page 4 Volume 2, Issue 4

APABA-DC Trivia Night! Photos by Kris Ikejiri Text by Grace Wu de Plaza

APABA-DC invited its members to participate in Trivia Night at Fado Irish Pub on June 22, 2009. Over 40 members joined six different teams to test their knowledge of trivia and compete for prizes. Members of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (Team APALRC), Asian Pa-cific American Bar Association Education Fund (Team AEF Chantastic), and the Organization of Chinese Americans (Team OCA) organized teams. In addition, others partici-pated on the following teams: Team Jeng-A-Brain, Team Inteli-APABA, and Team Bakunawas. Trivia Night at Fado's consisted of seven rounds of questions. Team Jeng-A-Brain was in the lead after the third, fourth and fifth rounds. It slipped to second place after the sixth round, and by the end of the seventh round, it finished third amongst all of the teams at Fado’s. Team Jeng-A-Brain edged out Team AEF Chantastic in a bonus round tie-breaker! Four lucky members also won door prizes at the beginning of the event. APABA-DC would like to thank Lana Jeng for orga-nizing Trivia Night, and plans to make it an annual program.

Page 5 Volume 2, Issue 4

To see more photos from recent APABA-DC events, log onto the APABA-DC page on facebook.com!

Page 6 Volume 2, Issue 4

sues. For example, Ms. Heywood and Mr. Pascocello provided unique insights on conducting effective job searches. Mr. Schimelfenig, who consistently works with many different law firms, discussed recent trends with private law firms and how current economic conditions have affected hiring. Ms. Frazier and Ms. Yu talked about transitioning into govern-ment and the qualities that government

employers look for when making hiring decisions.

After the panel discussion, atten-dees had the opportunity to mingle with panelists, other professionals, and career counselors. Attendees could ask follow-up questions and seek further career advice based on

their interests. Additional resources also were provided to attendees.

Many thanks go to the panelists, other professionals, career counsel-ors, attendees, and organizers for making this event possible.

— Justin Pan

APABA-DC Co-Hosts Job Panel Q&A Discussion Continued from page 3.

Installation Dinner

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area

invites you to please join us in

Welcoming the Members of the APABA-DC Board of Directors for 2009-2010

When? Wednesday, September 23, 2009 6:00 pm — Registration & Cocktails

6:45 pm — Dinner

Where? National Press Club 529 14th Street, NW; 13th Floor Washington, DC 20045

(Closest metro station: Metro Center)

More details to follow soon...

From L-R: Nicole Puri, Jeffrey Schimelf-enig, Hsinyu Yu, Jessica Heywood, Mat-thew Pascocello, Amy Yeung, Leah Frazier

From L-R: Jessica Heywood, Matthew Pascocello, Leah Frazier, Amy Yeung

Attendees listen as the panelists discuss effective job searching.

Page 7

APABA-DC Partners’ Forum Event April 23, 2009

Photos by Tacie Yoon

APABA-DC Real Estate Seminar April 29, 2009

Page 8 Volume 2, Issue 4

Mazzi, Acting Deputy Associate Director, Cen-ter for Learning, Execu-

tive Resources, and Pol-icy Analysis, Division for Strategic Human Resources Pol-icy, U.S. Office of Per-sonnel Management;

and S. Ken Yamashita, Acting Assistant Admin-istrator, Bureau for

Europe and Eurasia, U.S. Agency for Inter-national Development. Finnegan sponsored the event, which about 40 people attended.

If you would like more information about career Senior Executive Service positions, go to www.opm.gov/ses. For information about political appointments within the Senior Execu-tive Service, www.excellenceintransition.org is a helpful re-source. You can also find a summary of highlights from NAPABA's Febru-ary 2009 debriefing on political appointments in the Obama Admini-stration at www.napaba.org.

— Rosy Lor

Legal Resource Center), and George Wu (Executive Director of OCA).

On June 3, 2009, the Practicing Attorneys’ Re-source Committee hosted a “Know Your Commu-nity” panel discussion, ad-dressing issues and trends affecting Asian Pacific Americans in the D.C. area and beyond. The panel discussion was ably moderated by Vincent Eng (Deputy Di-rector of the Asian Ameri-can Justice Center) and featured panelists Deepa Iyer (Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together), Myron Dean Quon (Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American

The lively and infor-mative discussion en-gaged an audience of over 30 people and

PAR Committee Hosts “Know Your Community” Panel

APABA-DC Co-Sponsors Discussion On Senior Executive Service On May 28, 2009, APABA-DC co-sponsored "Discussion and Q&A on the Senior Executive Ser-vice" with the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership and the NA-PABA Public Sector Com-mittee. Panelists included Grace Chung Becker, for-mer Acting Assistant At-torney General, Civil Rights Division, U.S. De-partment of Justice; Leezie Kim, Deputy Gen-eral Counsel, U.S. Depart-ment of Homeland Secu-rity; Dr. Simon Liu, Direc-tor of Information Sys-tems, National Library of Medicine, National Insti-tutes of Health; Ana

drew on the panelists varied experiences serving APA communi-ties in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. The PAR Committee wishes to thank the law firm of Wilmer Hale for generously providing their space and support for this event.

— Mimi Rajapakse

Page 9

On June 30, APABA-DC held a continuing legal education (“CLE”) course co-sponsored by APABA-VA and hosted by Jenner & Block, LLP, entitled “Lawyer to Lawyer Rela-tions: Balancing Your Obli-gations To Your Client, Your Commu-nity, and Your-self.” Panelists in-cluded Alfred Carr and Katie Uston, Assistant Bar Counsels for the Virginia State Bar; Te-jpal Chawla, Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section of the Superior Court Division of the U.S. At-torney’s Office for the District of Columbia; Jessie Liu, a partner at Jen-ner & Block, LLP; Leah Frazier, an attor-ney at the Federal Trade Commission; and Taron Murakami, an associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP. John Tran, who is both a partner at DiMuroGins-berg, PC and a Substitute Judge for the General Dis-trict Courts and the Juve-nile and Domestic Relations District Courts in the 18th Judicial Circuit of the Com-monwealth of Virginia, and Ashlea Thomas, a law clerk for The Honorable James E. Baker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, mod-

erated the panel. The panel considered three hypotheticals, based on real cases, that relate to a lawyer’s duty of civil-ity, roles as an officer of the court and a member of the legal community, and

the tension that can arise between those concepts and the obligation to zeal-ously represent clients. The first hypothetical addressed the issue of whether an attorney should notify opposing counsel that she miscalculated the date for filing a notice of appeal. The second hypothetical addressed the propriety of threatening sanctions, disci-plinary action, or criminal prosecution in order to gain an advantage in liti-gation.

The third hypothetical dealt with the obligation to report another lawyer’s impairment due to alcohol abuse. Two panelists were as-signed to each hypotheti-cal, and took opposing

sides to ensure a full dis-cussion of the issues. In analyzing the hypotheti-cals, the panelists dis-cussed the rules of profes-sional conduct, court precedent, their own ex-periences in dealing with similar situations, and the practical implications of the various courses of ac-tion. The panelists en-gaged in a lively discus-sion with audience partici-pation. One attendee said, “The hypotheticals were very compelling and realistic, and the panelists were

APABA-DC Co-Hosts CLE Panel On Legal Ethics obviously well prepared to debate the issues pro and con, and to offer ad-ditional twists on the facts and examples from their own professional experi-ence that made the discus-sion even more lively. This

was definitely not your typical, dry, eth-ics lecture.” Another atten-dee said, “The hypotheticals discussed by the panel were very entertaining but also sobering to think that they were true cases. The program was thus educa-tional and also a morality check for both new and seasoned attor-neys.” This ethics panel is part of APABA-DC’s growing efforts

to make CLE courses avail-able to its members, either free of charge or at a considerable discount. APABA-DC began offer-ing CLE courses during 2007-08, with its inaugu-ral program on ethics for government attorneys. This year, APABA-DC increased its offerings to two CLE courses: in addi-tion to this ethics course, APABA-DC recently of-fered a legal writing semi-nar.

— Leah Frazier

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area, Inc. ("APABA-DC") is an organization of over 400 members comprised of attor-neys, law professors, law students, government officials, and other interested individuals. We are an organiza-tion 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.

Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area, Inc.

P.O. Box 27223

Washington, D.C. 20038-7223 apaba@apaba-dc.org <www.apaba-dc.org>

Celebrating Over Twenty-Five Years Of Professional

And Community Service

1981-2009

Join us on facebook.com! (1) Login at www.facebook.com (2) Search for “APABA-DC”

(3) Add us as a “friend” and keep updated with our events!

Newsletter articles (300 words or less) and Announcements (100 words or less) may be emailed to newslet-ter@apaba-dc.org. 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 graphi-cal material or advertisement does not constitute an endorsement. The editors reserve the right to edit, ac-cept or reject prospective materials or advertisements in accordance with their editorial judgment.

We want to hear from you!

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC area is proud to announce its

2009-2010 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Tacie Yoon President-Elect David Hsu Imm. Past President Rosy Lor Treasurer Akira Irie Secretary Stephanie Yu VP, Communications Lei Mei VP, Community Affairs Rudhir Patel VP, Membership Priya Nair VP, Programs Grace Wu de Plaza Newsletter Editor Sujit Raman Co-Chairs, GAF Eunice Chung Anh-Thu Mai-Windle Co-Chairs, In-House Ben Roca, Ankur Shah Co-Chairs, Nominations Phong Nguyen, Peter Ohr Co-Chairs, PAR Angela Gaw Duong Taron Murakami Co-Chairs, Partners Forum Phong Nguyen Linda Kordziel Co-Chairs, Women’s Forum Tessie Abraham Sara Bakker Mariel Lim