The Law Firm Diversity Report was created and executed by eleven minority bar associations, including VABAW. The Law Firm Diversity Questionnaire was sent to the 50 largest law firms in Washington State and sought detailed demographic information regarding the racial/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status of attorneys and summer associates in the law firms that were surveyed. The results of the 2009-2010 Law Firm Diversity Report can be viewed by clicking here.
Details coming soon on our Sixth Annual Banquet "Reflections," scheduled for November 10, 2010 (Wednesday) at the Triple Door, starting 5:30 pm. Please contact Ty Ho at ty.ho@hoassociates.com for more information.
Congratulations to Kim Tran for being selected by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of its "40 Under 40" recognition for 2010.
Congratulations to Lam Nguyen-Bull for being honored as one of the “Women in Power: Judges from Supreme Court to District Court,” an event organized by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation.
VABAW filed an amicus brief in a child custody case warning against bias on the basis of national origin, along with Seattle University School of Law's Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality and the Asian Bar Association of Washington. The brief was filed in the case In re Marriage of Katare, in which Brajesh Katare has been forbidden from traveling internationally with his children and ordered to relinquish his passport during visits with them. The trial court placed severe restrictions on Katare, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in India and works as an engineer in Washington, based on improperly admitted expert testimony and other evidence that relied on stereotypes, inaccurate characterizations of Indian civil process, and risk profiles that emphasized national origin and culture without sufficient safeguards to avoid bias, the brief argues. This appeal raises for the third time whether the restrictions placed on a parent with ties to family outside the United States are appropriate. VABAW President Lam Nguyen-Bull remarked, "As children of first-generation immigrant parents in Montana, my siblings and I were isolated not only from the communities my parents were accustomed to, but family as well. Traveling with my family to foreign countries to visit far-flung relatives dispersed throughout the Vietnamese diaspora was an important part of forming a sense of myself, not only as a member of an extended family, but as an American citizen and as a citizen of those communities that exist only in cultural and emotional spaces."
Congratulations to Ty Ho for joining the Washington State Bar Association's Leadership Institute class 2010. Ty joins other VABAW members who have served as past Fellows (Kim Tran, Thuy Nguyen-Leeper, Denise Tran, Thi Huynh, Kiet Ngo, and Lam Nguyen-Bull).
Congratulations to Walter Impert who was advanced to partnership at Dorsey and Whitney (effective January 2010).
Congratulations to Peter Chu of Christensen O'Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, who was invited by the Fulbright Foundation to help its primary recipient establish an Intellectual Property program at Vietnam National University. The two areas of laws include Software law and Patent law. Peter travelled to Vietnam in April and May 2009. Many Vietnamese IP attorneys and government officials were trained under the program. Read this recap of Peter's journey.
Congratulations to Kim Tran and Thuy Nguyen-Leeper, for their leadership roles with the Washington Minority Bar Associations in receiving the Washington State Bar Association 2009 Excellence in Diversity Award. For more information, click here.