“Their professional achievements are only matched by their dedication and service within the Asian Pacific American community.” -Don Liu
When Asian students were being harassed at a New York City public school, Sunil Mansukhani, then with the U.S. Department of Justice, did not hesitate to act. Mansukhani, who led the investigation, applied Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; it was the first time the Act was used to address peer-to-peer harassment between students. “School administrators were deliberately indifferent to peer-on-peer harassment of Asian students—a number of these students were being beaten up and called ethnic slurs,” Mansukhani recalls. “Moreover, the school failed to adequately instruct limited English proficient students in learning English.” Once Mansukhani’s investigation concluded there was adequate cause to hold the school district liable for these problems, intensive negotiations eventually led to a lawsuit and a detailed consent decree, the first of its kind under Title IV (school desegregation).
Mansukhani, now the first executive director of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, is one of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s (NAPABA) Best Attorneys Under 40. NAPABA unveiled its Best Under 40 list at its national conference in Philadelphia last November. Public servants, in-house counsel, and law firm attorneys graced the list. “NAPABA’s Best Attorneys Under 40 list recognizes the very best young attorneys throughout the country,” says Jim Goh, chair of NAPABA’s Best Under 40 Selection Committee and partner with Holland and Hart, LLP. Selection Committee Member Don Liu, senior vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer of Toll Brothers, Inc., agrees. “Their professional achievements are only matched by their dedication and service within the Asian Pacific American community.”
Results for Clients and Justice for All
Service and dedication—to the Asian Pacific American (APA) community in particular—are common themes among this year’s NAPABA honorees. Victor Hwang, managing attorney for Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach in San Francisco, champions a number of APA issues, including curbing violence against women, seniors’ rights, immigrants’ rights, stopping human trafficking, and other social justice causes.
But public service takes many forms, and NAPABA’s Best Under 40 lawyers are not just focused on APAs. Leslie Hatamiya cites the year she spent as deputy campaign manager of Senator Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign. Hatamiya found the campaign to be the “most exhausting, exhilarating, infuriating, and demanding 12 months” of her life. It also gave her “a renewed appreciation for the democratic process and a deeper understanding of what it takes to serve the American people.” Hatamiya, who now serves as executive director of the Foundation of the State Bar of California, urges APA lawyers to “give back to your community, volunteer, join a board, and to donate time and money to causes and organizations that you believe in.”
NAPABA’s Best Under 40 practitioners are also focused on achieving results for their clients. For Ben Lumicao, counsel in Allstate’s Law and Regulation Department, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other Atlantic storms provided an opportunity to counsel internal clients on compliance with new regulatory issues. “The catastrophic losses our nation experienced in 2004 and 2005 have obviously been a tremendous challenge to the public, government on every level, the insurance industry, and our company,” says Lumicao, who helped internal clients evaluate strategies to better manage exposure. “We recognized the urgency and importance these decisions had not just for the company, but for all the stakeholders involved.”
Michael Cho, chief compliance officer for commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, agrees on the importance of good counsel, “working with the business side [bankers] on particular compliance issues and helping them realize that good compliance can translate into good business as well,” says Cho.
Asked to describe his most interesting transaction, Joe Khanna, senior counsel at Pitney Bowes Inc., cites Pitney Bowes’ acquisition of Group 1 Software, Inc. “Before the acquisition, Group 1 was a separately traded public company whose software enhances mailing efficiency and improves customer data quality as part of customer communication management. Working on a public company acquisition is always exciting given the variety of legal issues that tend to arise, especially when the company is engaged in such exciting new technologies.”
Issues of Concern Among Asian Pacific Americans
Despite their success, issues of concern are brought forth in the responses of the Best Under 40. Many cite the glass ceiling that many Asians face in Corporate America. In particular, Michael Cho notes the dearth of APAs among senior management in large corporations. “Most diversity initiatives target entry or mid-level employees, not senior management,” says Cho. “Two areas we can target are to encourage existing APA senior managers to be proactive with peers about advancement of other APAs. We can also encourage employee networking groups (internal) or external groups to continue pushing corporations on the issue,” Cho suggests.
Steven Wu, senior counsel with Chevron Services Company, agrees: “We need to take a hard look at the contributing factors, and then find ways to overcome these barriers. I believe many of them actually lie within ourselves, as a result of our upbringing and cultural differences. I am working with Chevron on programs to address this issue.”
Another issue that recently found its way to the political forefront is immigration policy. Jim Ho, who recently completed a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and is currently of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Dallas, has also found time to publish a law review article in The Green Bag and to deliver lectures across the country opposing efforts in Congress to repeal birthright citizenship for the children of non-U.S. citizens. “Birthright citizenship is a constitutional right, no less for the children of undocumented persons than for descendants of passengers of the Mayflower,” he argues.
Lumicao agrees that in the current debate on immigration law, there is not enough attention being paid to backlogs, which disproportionately prevent Asian families from being reunited. “A Chinese or Indian American sponsoring a son or daughter may be forced to wait up to eight years; a Filipino American can wait as long as 18 years. Policy makers who say they are concerned about family values should first show they value families. Our families are as important to us as to anyone else.”
Sang-Yul Lee, a partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago, cites the poor distribution of economic opportunities within the APA community itself. Lee believes that the “model minority proposition hurts as many APAs as it helps” because “most APAs struggle to obtain an education and make ends meet.” Along the same lines, Sunah Park, a partner with Thorp Reed & Armstrong, LLP in Philadelphia, is concerned with immigration and violence against Asian immigrant business owners like her parents. Both Park and Lee suggest that APA service in community organizations is an important way to address these issues.
A similar concern is the continuing perception that APAs remain outsiders. “I can’t tell you the number of people who have asked me where I’m from,” remarks Sunil Mansukhani. “Although I know what’s coming next, I always answer ‘Chicago.’ Then comes the inevitable, ‘Oh, I mean where are you from?’ ”
Perhaps the most effective way to shatter this perception is for APAs to become more actively involved in “mainstream” organizations, run for elected office, and become the public face in other government positions, suggests Mansukhani. Fiona Ong, a partner at Shawe Rosenthal LLP in Baltimore, agrees, suggesting that the APA community must “groom and support more qualified and articulate APA candidates for public office—elected and appointed.”
Honoring Those Who Came Before Them
This year’s honorees also take care to not take themselves too seriously. After giving the keynote speech at a naturalization ceremony, Sunah Park received a thank you letter from the federal judge presiding over the ceremony. Park framed the letter and hung it next to her U2 poster. Similarly, Ben Lumicao notes that he took first prize in a hard-fought karaoke contest at the NAPABA convention in Hawaii. “It was a tankard courtesy of the folks at Anheuser Busch,” smiles Lumicao. “I treasure it.”
But the honorees recognize that for all their accomplishments, they stand on the shoulders of those who came before them. Some of the Best Under 40 cite the pioneering work of coworkers. Joe Khanna cites Michele Coleman Mayes, Pitney Bowes’ senior vice president and general counsel, who is one of the first female African American general counsel of a Fortune 500 company. “Michele is truly a trailblazer and I get to see her in action on a daily basis,” says Khanna. “That is humbling.”
Other honorees credit their parents with helping them succeed. Henry Wang, litigation partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, thanks his “industrious and generous” mother. Sang-Yul Lee, a partner with Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago, credits his father for teaching him the importance of “sticking to one’s principles, being persistent about one’s goals, and being proud of one’s background.” Joseph Centeno, partner at Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel, LLP, credits his wife Candace, a professor at Villanova Law School, and his immigrant parents.
Asked to cite his proudest moment, Steven Wu notes that his career enabled him to put his father through seminary. “Compared to law school, the cost to me was nothing,” says Wu. “But to him, it was everything.”
Similarly, Jacklyn Park, senior corporate counsel at Oracle Corporation, says her proudest moment was when she telephoned her parents to inform them that she had been accepted to Harvard Law School. Park, Oracle’s lead attorney for mergers and acquisitions and strategic investments, related how her father told her how proud he was, and that he believed that all of his and his wife’s sacrifice in bringing the family to the United States from Korea had been worth it. That moment, Park notes, reminded her of where she came from and how grateful she is for the opportunities she has been given. It also reminded her never to take anything for granted.
Paving the Way for the Future Through Mentorship
Perhaps in recognition of these sacrifices, mentoring remains a top priority among this year’s Best Under 40. “As a minority in a field where there is historically low minority representation, you influence others whether you realize it or not,” says Joe Khanna. “Once you realize this, it becomes much more of an imperative to reach out and help those that are coming up the ranks behind you.”
In this vein, this year’s honorees have plenty of advice for young attorneys. As Jim Ho advises, “Figure out—as soon as you can—what you love, and do it. With a combination of hard work, integrity, treating others with respect, and just a little bit of luck, one can make a real impact.”
Similarly, Mansukhani suggests that young practitioners “spend a great deal of time thinking about which issues are going to be at the forefront five to 10 years from today, and try to develop expertise in those issues now. I wish when I was in law school, I had spent more time learning about national security and civil liberties issues, two areas of law at the forefront of our political discourse today.”
Andrea Tran, an intellectual property partner at Gilbreth Roebuck, encourages young attorneys to develop a level of comfort in marketing early in their careers. “Be active in the community and start developing relationships with colleagues early in their careers,” says Tran. “This will bolster their confidence when the time comes for them to develop direct relationships with clients as their experience grows.”
Others focus on the wide variety of opportunities available to attorneys. Oracle’s Jacklyn Park says, “Having a law degree and being in the legal profession opens many opportunities both in and outside the profession.” But she is concerned that “too many attorneys work in the legal profession for years but are unhappy,” and urges young APA law students and attorneys to “look at our professional scope broadly.”
Leslie Hatamiya agrees, citing her own “untraditional” career working as deputy campaign manager for presidential candidate Bill Bradley and chief of staff and director of corporate communications at SOMA Networks. “Don’t think you have to practice law in the traditional sense,” says Hatamiya. “There are many rewarding paths you can take—don’t be afraid to take risks and take advantage of unplanned opportunities that may come your way.” DB
 | Joseph J. Centeno |
 | Michael Cho |
 | Leslie T. Hatamiya |
 | James C. Ho |
 | Victor Hwang |
 | Betty Y. Jang |
 | Joe Khanna |
 | Sang-Yul Lee |
 | Ben Lumicao |
 | Sunil Mansukhani |
 | Fiona W. Ong |
 | Jacklyn Park |
 | Sunah Park |
 | Andrea E. Tran |
 | Henry Wang |
 | Steven Wu |
From the January/February 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®