Association Focus

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American (APA) attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA serves as a legal advocate for the APA community, and represents the interests of more than 40,000 attorneys and about 50 local APA bar associations.

NAPABA Executive Director Les Jin has been involved with the organization from the beginning. He helped form it and served several years on its board. Years later, he would be invited to serve as its executive director. Jin reflects, “I have seen this organization grow over its 20-year history. We began hiring staff only about eight years ago. Only four years ago, we began renting office space, which also was the first time we had more than one staff [member] on payroll at the same time. The growth has been nothing less than spectacular.” Jin is no stranger to fighting for the legal rights of others. Prior to becoming executive director, he served as the staff director for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Since its inception in 1988, NAPABA has been at the forefront of national and local activities in the areas of civil rights, combating anti-immigrant backlash and hate crimes, and increasing diversity on the bench. Over its history, the organization has pursued its two fundamental purposes, notes Jin: “[We] provide membership services and engage in advocacy and public services. Because we are the only national APA bar organization, we feel an obligation to expand pro bono for APAs, draft amicus briefs, address language access—basically to do those things that further the rule of law and make this country stronger.”

Examples of those activities include monitoring legislative developments and judicial appointments, advocating for equal opportunity in education and the workplace, working to eliminate violence against APAs, and building coalitions within the legal profession and the community at large. NAPABA also serves as a resource for federal, state, and local agencies; members of Congress and their staff; and public service organizations on issues regarding the APA legal profession, civil rights, and diversity in the courts.

Bruce Ishimatsu, Chair of NAPABA’s Partners Committee, agrees that NAPABA is a force for change: “NAPABA’s Partner Committee is an active network of outside counsel who work together to promote APA advancement in law firms and to support NAPABA’s diverse initiatives. We coordinate our efforts with NAPABA’s In-House Counsel Committee, which is chaired by Gordon Yamate, to support our corporate counsel colleagues. These committees give us the ability to readily connect with attorneys in private practice and corporations across the country, which enables us to respond quickly to current events and promote career advancement, fundraising, and information flow, as well as supporting NAPABA’s local affiliates with their projects. We are indeed fortunate to have selfless people willing to reach out and assist one another, which strengthens the entire organization to raise the visibility of all APAs in the broad legal community.”

This past year, NAPABA held its 19th annual convention in Las Vegas, which was attended by approximately 1,200 lawyers, judges, law professors, law students, and others. The convention had 42 panels, which addressed issues from securities law to employment law to global warming. For lawyers, the convention provided opportunities to obtain CLE credits, develop professionally, and network. The convention also featured many opportunities for future lawyers, including the annual Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition, one-on-one mock interviews and resume reviews, and law school scholarships. The convention also served as a forum to discuss the organization’s future. The convention included a productive annual strategic-planning session, drafting a blueprint for the years ahead which will push forward the organization’s goals of advancing diversity.

NAPABA accomplished a great deal during the past year. For example, the association launched a language access project that culminated in a report containing recommendations for agencies and organizations vital to improving access to justice for individuals with limited English proficiency. NAPABA is working with its affiliate organizations and others to implement these recommendations. In addition, the project will continue to identify language access needs of low-income APA communities in order to educate and advocate for improved language access to the courts at all levels of government. The project also strives to strengthen pro bono programs and develops training materials to help NAPABA affiliates overcome the impediment posed by the current lack of resources for language access.

NAPABA’s election-protection project showcases the strength of its network and its affiliates. Working with other organizations last year, it gathered almost 700 attorneys, law students, and community volunteers at 150 poll sites in nine states where Asian language assistance is provided and where APA voters historically have experienced intimidation. Volunteers from NAPABA affiliates were instrumental in documenting inappropriate behavior by voting officials on election day.

In addition to these efforts, NAPABA has played an important role in diversifying our judiciary and increasing the number of Asian American general counsels of Fortune 500 companies. In fact, the first Asian American GC of a Fortune 500 company was a longtime active member of NAPABA and a former In-House Counsel Committee chair—Don H. Liu, who was named GC of IKON Office Solutions, Inc., in 1999. Mr. Liu helped form IKON’s Diversity Council in 1999 to build and promote diversity in the company. (Mr. Liu currently serves as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Xerox Corporation, and is a member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association [MCCA] Board of Directors.) “NAPABA, in large part through the efforts of its In-House Counsel and Partners Committees, has played an important role to help Asian American lawyers enter corporate America, climb the corporate ladder, and assume positions of leadership,” concludes Jin.

The organization’s hard work has not gone unnoticed. This past year, through its Diversity Dollars Grant Program, MCCA awarded the NAPABA Law Foundation (NLF) a grant to further its emerging diversity program. As part of the grant, NLF has provided a stipend to a law-student intern to manage the group’s diversity projects. The projects include developing Diversity Symposia targeted at law firms and corporations, implementing an emerging culture-specific mentoring program, developing an award program for selection of an exceptional corporation or law firm that has promoted diversity in the workplace, and monitoring other existing NAPABA and NLF diversity projects. Based on the success NAPABA has achieved in advancing diversity interests, MCCA has no doubt that its grant will bear much fruit.  DB

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Francisco Ramos Jr., is a freelance writer and partner at the Miami-based offices of Clarke Silvergate Campbell.

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From the March/April 2008 issue of Diversity & The Bar^®