2014 Jan/Feb - Diversity & The Bar Magazine

® January/February 2014

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PLACE 20

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T H E VA LU E S & E X PE C TAT IONS OF T H E M YST E R IOUS GE N E R AT ION Y

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON: A VOICE FOR FREEDOM PAGE 20

NAPABA’S BEST UNDER 40 PAGE 34

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Taking diversity and inclusion to the next level At Ogletree Deakins, we believe that our philosophy and practice of inclusion—soliciting, valuing, and incorporating the myriad viewpoints of our lawyers—make the firm more creative, stronger, and better able to address the evolving issues in the workplace.

With more than 700 attorneys in 45 offices in the United States and Europe, Ogletree Deakins is one of the nation’s largest labor and employment law firms, exclusively representing management.

FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT OGLETREE DEAKINS’ INCLUSION EFFORTS, PLEASE CONTACT: Michelle P. Wimes, Director of Professional Development and Inclusion michelle.wimes@ogletreedeakins.com | Phone: (816) 471-1301 | www.ogletreedeakins.com

Chicago Leaders Carmen H. Lonstein

Baker & McKenzie LLP

Chicago

312.861.8000

Beverly N. Masuda

Brady Connolly & Masuda PC

Chicago

312.425.3134

Danielle Anne Phillip

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

Chicago

312.840.3232

Aurora N. Abella-Austriaco

Clark Hill PLC

Chicago

312.985.5900

René A. Torrado, Jr.

Corboy & Demetrio PC

Chicago

312.346.3191

Sang-yul Lee

Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP

Chicago

312.873.3631

LaVon M. Johns

Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP

Chicago

312.236.0475

Emily J. Kuo

Harrison & Held LLP

Chicago

312.332.5547

José Jorge Behar

Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym Ltd

Chicago

312.604.2614

Rick Hammond

Johnson & Bell Ltd

Chicago

312.984.3425

Nerissa Coyle McGinn

Loeb & Loeb LLP

Chicago

312.464.3130

Li-Hsien Rin-Laures MD

Marshall Gerstein & Borun LLP

Chicago

312.474.6300

Michael C. Kim

Michael C Kim & Associates

Chicago

312.419.4000

Langdon D. Neal

Neal & Leroy LLC

Chicago

312.641.7144

Larry R. Rogers, Jr.

Power Rogers & Smith PC

Chicago

312.236.9381

Larry R. Rogers

Power Rogers & Smith PC

Chicago

312.236.9381

Jorge V. Cazares

Pugh Jones & Johnson PC

Chicago

312.768.7800

Walter Jones, Jr.

Pugh Jones & Johnson PC

Chicago

312.768.7800

Kathleen R. Pasulka-Brown

Pugh Jones & Johnson PC

Chicago

312.768.7800

Preston L. Pugh

Pugh Jones & Johnson PC

Chicago

312.768.7800

Stephen H. Pugh

Pugh Jones & Johnson PC

Chicago

312.768.7800

Patricia Brown Holmes

Schiff Hardin LLP

Chicago

312.258.5722

Erika N. Chen-Walsh

Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP

Wheaton

630.784.7412

Graham C. Grady

Shefsky & Froelich Ltd

Chicago

312.836.4036

Michael A. Chabraja

Vedder Price PC

Chicago

312.609.7790

Leading Lawyers Recognizes Our Diversity

Bankruptcy & Workout: Commercial Workers' Compensation Defense Intellectual Property

Foreclosure Defense; Real Estate: Associations & Condominiums; Real Estate: Residential; Real Estate: Commercial Antitrust; Commercial Litigation; ADR: Commercial Litigation; Personal Injury: General Employment: Management; International Business & Trade; Labor: Management

Land Use, Zoning & Condemnation; Public Finance; Real Estate: Commercial; Real Estate: Finance Trust, Will & Estate Planning

Civil Rights/Constitutional; Employment: Employee; Employment: Management; School Law Insurance, Insurance Coverage & Reinsurance

Advertising & Media; Arts, Entertainment & Sports; Copyright & Trademark; Intellectual Property Intellectual Property

Real Estate: Associations & Condominiums; Real Estate: Commercial; Real Estate: Residential

Commercial Litigation; Governmental, Municipal, Lobbying & Administrative; Land Use, Zoning & Condemnation; Public Finance; Real Estate: Commercial Personal Injury: General

Aviation; Personal Injury: General; Personal Injury: Professional Malpractice; PI: Transportation Including FELA & Maritime Civil Rights/Constitutional; Land Use, Zoning & Condemnation; Public Finance Civil Appellate; Commercial Litigation; Criminal Defense: White Collar

Commercial Litigation; Federal Regulatory; Governmental, Municipal, Lobbying & Administrative; Telecommunications

Civil Rights/Constitutional; Commercial Litigation; False Claims Act/Whistle Blower; Governmental, Municipal, Lobbying & Administrative Commercial Litigation; Governmental, Municipal, Lobbying & Administrative; Public Finance Commercial Litigation; Criminal Defense: White Collar Family Law

Governmental, Municipal, Lobbying & Administrative; Land Use, Zoning & Condemnation; Real Estate: Commercial Commercial Litigation

A lawyer CANNOT buy the distinction of being a Leading Lawyer. This distinction was earned by being among those lawyers who were most often recommended by their peers in statewide surveys. Respondents COULD NOT recommend themselves or lawyers at their law firm. For a complete list of all Leading Lawyers and to view profiles of the lawyers listed on this page, go to www.LeadingLawyers.com.

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A Division of Law Bulletin Publishing Company–est. 1854

January/February 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS p.20

Langston’s brief stint in Congress foreshadowed the hardship of the Jim Crow era.

p.28

Generation Y’s values will reshape law offices by the year 2020.

FEATURES 20 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON: A VOICE FOR FREEDOM He was the first African American elected to public office.

Later, he was the first dean of Howard University School of Law and the first president of what is now Virginia State University. Elected to Congress in 1888, the first representative of color from Virginia, he symbolized a spark that went out with the Jim Crow era and wasn’t resurrected until the Civil Rights era. BY TOM CALARCO

28 WORKPLACE 20/20 Gen Y attorneys are entering the workforce and it’s causing the usual commotion from established lawyers.

MCCA’s most recent research report examines young lawyers’ expectations for the workforce and their values.

BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS

N A PA BA'S

UNDE R 40

34 NAPABA’s Best Under 40 The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association recognized 20 outstanding attorneys within its ranks.

The attorneys practice all types of law, all around the country. They deserve a round of applause.

BY AZIZAH AHMAD

VISIT WWW.MCCA.COM FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS, AWARDS, AND RESEARCH.

MCCA® Board Of Directors

COLUMNS 8 Notes from the President & CEO 10 Perseverance in Profile Highlighting the contributions and talents of attorneys with disabilities.

Cristina Rubke

BY TOM CALARCO

12 Lawyer’s Lantern

Offering illuminating professional guidance for your career.

An Essay by Javade Chaudhri

16 Spotlighting Tristan E. Higgins

BY PATRICK FOLLIARD

DEPARTMENTS 44 Association Focus Society of American Law Teachers

BY BRIAN DABBS

46 Diversity News

Adapting to a Changing Legal Landscape: Generation Y Attorneys

BY JINA LEE

48 In Closing…

An Interview with Wendy Shiba

BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS

50 Movers & Shakers

BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS

RAINMAKER UPDATE: While the November/December 2013 issue of Diversity & the Bar went to print, Yvette Ostolaza joined Sidley Austin LLP in October 2013, where she serves as a global coordinator of the firm’s complex commercial litigation practice. Ostolaza will also assume the role of Sidley’s Dallas office managing partner effective January 2014.

Vernon G. Baker II Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Meritor, Inc. Michelle Banks Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer, Gap, Inc. Clarissa Cerda Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, LifeLock, Inc. A. B. Cruz III Former Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. Anthony K. Greene Director, Jamison Insurance Group Gary F. Kennedy Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, American Airlines, Inc. Jean Lee Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, JPMorgan Chase Don H. Liu Senior Vice President, General Counsel, & Secretary, Xerox Corporation Hinton J. Lucas Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, DuPont Company Robbie E. B. Narcisse Vice President-Global Ethics & Business Practices, Pitney Bowes Inc. Advertising For advertising inquiries, contact Don Cooksey, Montrose Media Sales, at donald.cooksey@verizon.net.

MCCA® Membership Please visit our web site at www.mcca.com for membership and other information.

General Information and Address Changes Send your questions, complaints, and compliments to MCCA®, Editor, Diversity & the Bar®, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. Address changes should be sent to MCCA’s Director of Membership and Development at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

Permissions and Reprints Reproduction of Diversity & the Bar in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The Copyright Act of 1976 prohibits the reproduction by photocopy machine or any other means of any portion of this issue, except with the permission of MCCA. To obtain permission, contact: Joshua H. Shields, Editor-in-Chief, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

Copyright Copyright® 2014 by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Diversity & the Bar is published six times a year and is distributed to supporters and subscribers, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

The information contained in this publication has been provided to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA®) by a variety of independent sources. While MCCA makes every effort to present accurate and reliable information, MCCA does not endorse, approve, or certify such information, nor does MCCA

Samuel M. Reeves Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Walmart U.S. Legal Carlos Rincon Partner, Rincon Law Group, P.C. Thomas L. Sager Senior Vice President & General Counsel, DuPont Company Robin H. Sangston Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer, Cox Communications, Inc. Kenneth S. Siegel Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Mary E. Snapp Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation Lawrence P. Tu Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, Dell, Inc. Neil Wilcox General Counsel Chase Card Services, JP Morgan Chase Simone Wu Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer, Choice Hotels International, Inc.

guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or chronological sequence of any such information. Use of such information on the readers’ part is entirely voluntary and reliance upon it should be undertaken only upon independent review and due diligence. References herein to any commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise shall not constitute or imply endorsement, preference, recommendation, or the favor of MCCA. MCCA (including its employees and agents) assumes no responsibility for consequences resulting from the use of the information herein, or in any respect for the content of such information, including (but not limited to) errors or omissions, the accuracy or reasonableness of factual or other data, including statistical or scientific assumptions, studies or conclusions, the defamatory nature of statements, ownership of copyright or other intellectual property rights, and the violation of property, privacy, or personal rights of others. MCCA is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims and denies liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance upon such information. No guarantees or warranties, including (but not limited to) any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose, are made by MCCA with respect to such information.

Copyright in this publication, including all articles and editorial information contained herein, is exclusively owned by MCCA and MCCA reserves all rights to such information.

MCCA is a tax-exempt corporation organized in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its tax ID number is 13-3920905.

MCCA® Law Department Members The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) acknowledges the support of the following law departments whose financial contributions have helped to advance the goal of furthering diversity in the legal profession.

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3M Company AARP AT&T Accenture LLP AECOM AGCO Corporation Allstate Insurance Altria Group, Inc. American Airlines, Inc. American Express Company American Lawyer Media Aon Corporation Areas USA, Inc. Bank of America Bechtel Becton, Dickinson and Company Behr America Inc. Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation Booz Allen Hamilton BP America Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BNY Mellon CALIBR, global leadership network Capital Legal Solutions, LLC Capital One Financial Corporation Cargill Inc. Catalent Pharma Solutions CBIC Construction & Development, LLC Chevron Corporation Choice Hotels International, Inc. CIGNA Corporation CITGO Corporation Colgate-Palmolive Company Compass Group, The Americas Compassion Care Hospice Computer Science Corporation

ConAgra Foods, Inc. ConocoPhillips Constellation Energy Cox Communications Crawford & Company Darden Restaurants, Inc. Deere & Company Dell Inc. DHL America Diageo North America Inc. Dignity Health DiversityInc Media, L.L.C. Dow Corning Corporation Duke Energy DuPont Eaton Corporation Eli Lilly and Company Entergy Corporation Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Exelon Business Services Company Fannie Mae Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Fickel Enterprises Inc. Flagstar Bank Freddie Mac Fujitec America, Inc. Gap Inc. General Electric Company General Mills Inc. GlaxoSmithKline Graduate Management Admission Council Genentech, Inc. Goldman Sachs & Co. Google Inc. Hewlett-Packard Company HJ Heinz Company H.J. Russell & Company Halliburton Honda of America MFG., Inc.

Honeywell International Huntington Ingalls Industries IBM Corporation Ingersoll-Rand PLC Intel Corporation International Paper Company Jamison Insurance Group JC Penney Company, Inc. JetBlue Airways Corporation Johnson & Johnson JPMorgan Chase Bank NA JM Family Enterprises, Inc. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. KeyCorp Kraft Foods Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Leading Educators Leo Burnett Company LexisNexis Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Lifelock, Inc. LifeVantage Corporation Liquidity Services, Inc. Macy’s, Inc. ManpowerGroup Marriott International, Inc. MassMutual Financial Group Medifast, Inc. MetLife Inc. Merck & Co., Inc. McDonald’s Corporation Microsoft Corporation MillerCoors Monsanto Company Morgan Stanley National Grid Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company Navistar, Inc.

Neighborhood Defender Service Newegg Inc. New York Life Insurance Company NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company Northrop Grumman Corporation Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited Office Depot Pacific Gas and Electric Company Pepco Holdings, Inc. PepsiCo, Inc. Pfizer Inc. Pitney Bowes, Inc. PPG Industries, Inc. Porzio Life Sciences, LLC PRAXAIR, INC. PreCash Premier Media, Inc. Prudential Financial Quest Diagnostics Incorporated RBS Americas Reckitt Benckiser, Inc. Reed Elsevier, Inc. Rockwell Collins Rolls Royce North America Inc. Rosetta Stone Inc. Sara Lee Corporation Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. Sears Holding Company Sempra Energy ServiceMesh, Inc. Shell Oil Company Sodexo Sony Electronics, Inc. Southeastern Freight Lines, Inc.

Southern California Edison Company Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Staples, Inc. Starbucks Coffee Company Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. Synopsys, Inc. Target Corporation Tessera North America, Inc. The Brookings Institution The Church Pension Fund The Clorox Company The Coca-Cola Company The Conference Board, Inc. The Dow Chemical Company The Juilliard School The Vanguard Group, Inc. The Walt Disney Company The Williams Companies, Inc. Tyson Foods Inc. UBS UnitedHealth Group United Parcel Service United Technologies Corporation U.S. Food Service, Inc. Verizon Communications Walmart Stores, Inc. WellPoint, Inc. Waste Management Wells Fargo & Company Wireless Generation Inc. Xerox Corporation XO Holdings, Inc. Xylem Inc. Yazaki North America Inc. Zenith Insurance Company

All Firm Affiliates Receive These Exceptional Benefits: • Use of MCCA Law Firm Affiliate Network’s logo for the firm’s business cards, ads, website, etc. (under license agreement).

marketed to MCCA member companies for outside counsel selection.

• Listed as a Firm Affiliate Network (FAN) member on the MCCA website—this will be regularly circulated to MCCA member companies who care about diversity for their information and reference.

• Access to the FAN Virtual Library of diversity resources (FAN directory, law firm best practices, sample documents, message board) and ability to contribute and share resources for inclusion in the FAN Virtual Library or Career Center.

• Ability to post bios and practice information on the firm’s diverse attorneys in an online directory that is

• Access to MCCA’s Career Center. Firms will be able to post jobs at low cost and review resumes at no cost.

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

• Professional development information via Career Center and Group Mentoring opportunities via KAN-Do! Mentoring.

• Special firm affiliate e-newsletter containing trends, statistics, article links, and information on in-house counsel promotions.

• Two (2) MCCA Diversity Planning Toolkits (compendium of diversity research and best practice information compiled by MCCA).

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MCCA® Law Firm Affiliates MCCA® acknowledges the decision of the following law firms who have joined with MCCA to advance the goal of furthering diversity in the legal profession.

Alchemy-Partners, PC Alexander & Associates Anderson Kill P.C. Archer & Greiner, P.C. Arrastia & Capote LLP** AXIOM Law Baldassare & Marra LLC** Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP Beveridge & Diamond, P.C. Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC Bressler, Amery & Ross PC Bricker & Eckler LLP Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione Brown Law Group** Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP Cavich, Familo & Durkin Co., LPA Christian & Small LLP Clifford Chance US LLP Cooley LLP Cottrell Solensky & Semple, P.A. Courington Kiefer & Sommers LLC Cozen O’Connor Crumbie Law Group, LLC** Davis & Gilbert LLP DeMahy Labrador & Drake, PA** Dickstein Shapiro LLP Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP Duane Morris LLP Epstein, Becker & Green, PC Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP Fish & Richardson P.C. Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto Goldberg Segalla, LLP Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP** Griffith Sadler & Sharp, P.A.** Hamilton Miller & Birthisel LLP** Helms & Greene LLC Hinkley Allen & Snyder LLP

Hughes Roch LLP** Ice Miller LLP Infante Zumpano** Igbanugo Partners International Law Firm Jeffrey Samel & Partners** Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck, LLP Kenyon & Kenyon LLP Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP King Branson LLC Kirkland & Ellis LLP Kumagai Law Group PC Kumar, Prabhu, Patel & Banerjee** Lathrop & Gage LLP Leader & Berkon LLP Littler Mendelson P.C. Lim Ruger & Kim LLP** Loeb & Loeb LLP Lowe & Associates LLC Martin & Martin, LLP** Maynard Cooper & Gale PC McGuireWoods LLP Meckler Bulger Tilson & Pearson LLP Messner & Reeves, LLC Miles & Stockbridge P.C. Miller Law Group** Montgomery, Barnett, Brown, Read, Hammond & Mintz LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Nemeth Burwell, P.C.** Nicholson Law Group LLC** Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C. Patton Boggs LLP Pepper Hamilton, LLP Peter Law Group** Phelps Dunbar LLP Pinckney, Harris & Weidinger LLC** Polsinelli PC Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, PC Quarles & Brady LLP

Quintarios Prieto Wood & Boyer, P.A.** Rivero Mestre, LLP** Rooney Rippie & Ratnaswamy, LLP Sanchez & Amador, LLP** Sanchez-Medina, Gonzalez, Quesada, Lage, Crespo, Gomez & Machado LLP** Saul Ewing LLP Schiff Hardin, LLP Schwartz Hannum PC** Shella, Harris and Aus, P.C.** Sher Garner Cahill Richter Klein & Hilbert LLC Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, LLP Snell & Wilmer LLP Steptoe & Johnson LLP Stevens & Lee Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, P.C. Sughrue Mion PLLC Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm P.A. Thompson Hine LLP Troutman Sanders LLP U.K. Vyas Law** Vinson & Elkins LLP Waas Campbell Rivera Johnson & Velasquez LLP Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Willis Law Group** Winston & Strawn LLP Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP Wong Fleming P.C.** Vinson & Elkins LLP Xupkus & Angell, P.C.** Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP Zuber Lawler & Del Duca LLP

• Unlimited licenses to reprint articles/ information from Diversity & the Bar® and MCCA Research Reports for internal educational use and distribution within the firm.

• Subscriptions to MCCA’s invitation-only Connected online community (Connected is a social networking service offered by Lexis/Nexis via MCCA).

• Ability to sign up high potential diverse associates as KAN-Do! mentees.

** Minority or Women Owned Law Firm

• Bulk rate subscriptions* to Diversity & the Bar for unlimited number of firm’s attorneys.

* This item will require an additional payment at MCCA’s cost for printing and centralized shipping of a specified number of copies of the magazine to an office of the firm for the firm’s further internal distribution.

For more information, contact David Chu, MCCA’s Director of Membership & Development, at 202-739-5906 or davidchu@mcca.com.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

7

Notes

From the President & CEO

EXPANDED PRIORITIES FOR 2014 IN 2014 MCCA PLANS TO FOCUS ON THE MOST SUBSTANTIVE AREAS OF OUR MISSION AND TO DO SO IN THREE MAIN AREAS:

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The first is pipeline programs. So much of our work to provide greater opportunities for women and minority lawyers will be for naught without a more diverse talent pool entering the profession. MCCA’s scholarship program has provided over $2.5 million in scholarship support for deserving law students in the last five years, but we need to do more. MCCA is increasing the scope of the scholarship with a pilot program that connects students with sponsor companies. The students will have an on-going relationship with sponsor companies, like DuPont, Microsoft, and Walmart, that will assist with training, provide internship opportunities, and will introduce a sustained and multi-year mentoring component. We are also developing relationships with existing programs that encourage students at a much earlier age to consider the law as a profession.

The second area of focus will be talent development. As an organization focused on all phases of the career trajectory, we will use all of our resources— publishing, networking, business development, speaking opportunities, training programs—to help develop the next generation of leaders of the profession and to expand both career and personal growth opportunities for lawyers within our network.

The third area of focus is what I will call member support and engagement. We saw, with the inception of our Leadership & Inclusion training programs, what a significant difference a hands on approach to member needs can make. We are looking closely at a more granular, individualized approach to the issues faced by our member organizations and will be taking

a personal stake in their efforts to increase diversity and inclusion within their own ranks as well as among their external vendors, as appropriate.

In addition, we are moving our Diversity Gala from the Lincoln Center in New York City to the Kennedy Center in our own backyard, Washington, D.C. We continue to develop cutting edge programming for our three CLE programs and the successful Academy for Leadership & Inclusion training program will visit six cities around the country—even expanding into our northern neighbor by conducting a training session in Toronto.

Finally, we have a number of exciting research projects planned for release this year, the latest of which is our report on Generation Y—or “Millennials” as they are known, which is featured in this issue of Diversity & The Bar and begins on page 28.

To all our supporters and stakeholders, good luck in 2014 and thank you as always for helping us make the profession better by making it more inclusive.

JOSEPH K. WEST

President & CEO MCCA_law

www.facebook.com/mcca.law

Publications Staff President & CEO Joseph K. West Founder and Publisher Emeritus Lloyd M. Johnson Jr. Editor-in-Chief Joshua H. Shields

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

Publishing Consultants Toni Coleman Advertising Don Cooksey Design/Art Direction Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

MCCA® Staff Jennifer Chen Mahzarine Chinoy David Chu Donna Crook Charles Hollins Jessica Martinez Aracely Muñoz Petrich Andrea Pimm

Contributing Writers Azizah Ahmad Tom Calarco Brian Dabbs Patrick Folliard Jina Lee Joshua H. Shields

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Photo by Heather Moran

Perseverance in Profile

CRISTINA RUBKE: Community Service Advocate and World-Class Sailor

BY TOM CALARCO

Cristina Rubke can write legal documents and navigate the workplace as well as anyone.

She just does it differently— with her mouth and her chin.

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The San Francisco-based Shartsis Friese attorney was born with arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that has prevented the use of her arms and legs. Still, she’s never thought of herself as different.

DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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rowing up, Rubke wrote with a pen in her mouth and still uses the same method for her computer keyboard. In a wheelchair since youth, she controls it with her chin. “I don’t know any different,” she says. “It’s my normal.”

“It was pretty easy growing up,” adds Rubke, who grew up in Moreno Valley, California, a suburban community 50 miles east of Los Angeles. “I know it sounds severe, and it is, but I don’t have any pain. I wasn’t selfaware of being different, and kids didn’t treat me different; I was in a mainstream class, and I even played dodgeball with my wheelchair.”

A good student but unsure of what to study in college, she got an idea during a Washington, D.C., leadership conference when another high school student asked a question about appropriate majors for pre-law students.

“When I learned you can major in anything,” she says, “law school seemed like an option because I wasn’t set on a plan for college.”

Rubke enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, and after changing her major a few times, she settled on MCCA.COM

People with disabilities need a position at the decision-making table.

English. As was her normal way of doing things, she didn’t expect any preferential treatment and didn’t indicate that she needed special accommodations.

“They had a huge disability residence program, but I didn’t know that,” Rubke says. “Something in the application suggested I had a disability, so they called and said they had this program for first-year students with disabilities that provided personal care staff.”

Not only does the program offer personal assistants, but there is also a course that teaches students how to better manage their assistants.

Although she had one through high school and appreciated the services, it was no longer a priority for her because she is fiercely independent.

Rubke’s independent streak led her to her greatest passion: sailing. Like most of the important events in her life, she came to sailing by accident.

“I was in San Francisco, at a marina,” she says, “and someone stepped out of a building and asked if I was looking for the group for disabled sailors. They said you could rig the sail with your chin so that you could sail independently. I thought it sounded like fun.”

Rubke not only took up the sport, she has excelled at it. Last year she placed first in the Liberty Servo division of the Access Class European Championships in Switzerland, which included 60 sailors in ten divisions.

Many think that a sport like this could be especially hazardous for someone who can’t use their arms or legs, but Rubke can swim.

MCCA.COM

“I have good strength so I can move my legs around with my core to kick,” she says. “The problem is that I’m tied to the boat so if the boat goes over I’m in trouble.”

She says, however, her boat’s weighted keel gives it more stability.

The danger doesn’t faze her because sailing gives her so much enjoyment.

“It’s so much fun and every time you go out the conditions are different, you never have the same experience twice,” she says. “It’s cool to work your way out of situations, and despite my disability I can participate —I can compete.”

Rubke’s independent nature has cast her into leadership roles. Today, she is the president of the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors, and she’s been drawn to other community work like her advocacy in disability rights. She currently is co-chair of the disability rights committee for the Bar Association of San Francisco.

“People assume that because I’m disabled I’m an expert, but I’m not,” she says, “and they ask me to get involved. I do want to get others in the legal profession involved in disability rights, so I’m happy to do it.

I can’t take credit for recruiting anyone. That said, I did encourage three of my close friends with disabilities from UC Berkeley to attend law school. One passed away shortly after passing the California Bar before he was sworn in. The other two are practicing attorneys now.”

Rubke admits that she’s probably overbooked with her community service committees; currently she serves on about a dozen.

“I’m trying not to be on too many committees, but I’m interested in all this stuff,” she explains.

As a person with a disability with a successful career, Rubke feels that she has a responsibility to be a representative voice.

“People with disabilities need a position at the decision-making table,” she says. “I feel a sense of responsibility to give back to the community, so that others like me who have not been given the opportunities that I have, can have a voice in making decisions.”

Her community service caught the attention of San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee, who appointed her to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) board of directors.

“It’s one of the city’s most important commissions,” Rubke says of the panel that oversees light rail, buses, and taxis in the city. “It appoints the executive director, approves the budget, and sets agency policy.”

She also attributes her current focus in her legal work to serendipity.

“By accident, I began to concentrate on intellectual property, though it does interest me in general,” she says.

Rubke had been doing primarily civil litigation, but stepped up two years ago when an associate dealing with trademarks left the firm. This area of law gives her more distinction, she says, because there is a smaller pool of lawyers. She also likes it because there is the element of creativity. It’s an opportunity to work with people who are creating something new, she says, rather than dealing with the stresses of litigation. Nevertheless, she still does civil litigation.

The flexible deadlines of intellectual property work also give her more freedom to do her community work. And of course, this allows her time for sailing.

Her not-so-secret goal is to start competing in Paralympic sailing. “I don’t want to get bored,” she says.

Tom Calarco is a freelance writer based in Wildwood, Fla.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

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Lawyer’s Lantern

REFLECTIONS ON THE JOURNEY

BY JAVADE CHAUDHRI

I was born in Kenya when it was still a British colony and educated initially in the British tradition. I follow politics and other events in the old British colonies and many other parts of the world.

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M My father, who was also born in Kenya but educated in the Indian subcontinent, would have me re-read the stack of newspapers that piled up and direct me to clip and save “important” articles. Although the holes in the pages made the owner of the Nairobi grocery store where I recycled the newspapers (for 10 cents a pound) rather unhappy, the clipping process certainly reinforced

DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

important news stories and other events for me. That was obviously my father’s real objective. In general, as will surprise nobody, once clipped, the articles were rarely looked at again or saved for very long. In retrospective, however, the more important lesson that I learned was the nature of the articles that my father thought should be clipped and saved. When he described those stories that were “important,” the items that interested my father most were those that demonstrated friendships and bridges across national borders, ethnic groups, political enmities, and geographies. While we discussed political developments or sporting events, his real enthusiasm was for the developments that advanced cross-cultural relationships and his lasting disappointments were about the events—far too many, unfortunately—where relationships broke down, leading to disputes, war, and worse.

The 1960s and early 1970s had their challenges. On the one hand, the British colonies in Africa began to become independent nations with all the promise and excitement that went with it. On the other hand, there were uneven political developments, drought, and famine in parts of Africa, strife, revolution, and worse in many parts of the continent, including East Africa. This was a source of great distress to my father, both in his capacity as a senior member of the East African civil service and as an optimist who believed that bridges could be built across any divide.

In any event, to fast-forward, the family immigrated westward, and my siblings and I are now scattered on three continents. Our collective families are a mini-United Nations MCCA.COM

of ethnicity and geography. My father, who passed away in 1995, would be content that the values he believed in are manifest in the personal relationships and spouses of his children.

My amazing mother, who turned 90 in December 2013, is proud of her extended international family.

My siblings and I, whether in Kenya, England, or Canada, continue to love the same human interest stories that my father enjoyed. We certainly have our differences of opinion. Should the United States have intervened in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda? That list is endless.

Drone strikes, NSA data collection, or whether Manchester United is really the best soccer team of recent times are other debatable topics.

Where we totally agree, however, is our distress at the continuing and troubling manifestations of prejudice that creep into so many aspects of life, both in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.

Even in the genteel sport of cricket, there were recent instances of a commentator making inappropriate jokes about a star English player, Monty Panesar, whose parents are of Indian Ramgharia Sikh origin. Meanwhile, there has been an ongoing and disquieting discussion about whether only “English-born” players should be allowed to represent England in cricket or other sports. As with similar rhetoric on this side of the ocean, the verbiage—let alone the underlying prejudices—makes one cringe.

It certainly does so for most people in Britain who have rejoiced in the achievements of foreign-born British persons such as double Olympic gold medal winner Mo Farah, who was born in Somalia.

As I reflect on these instances, I am reminded that as far as we have all come, on this side of the Atlantic as well as in those great civilizations of Europe, we have just as far to go. In many parts of Europe, for example, there continue to be deeply troubling cases of blatant racist abuse by soccer MCCA.COM

fans directed at non-white players.

To the credit of sporting authorities and teams, there have been strong responses, but these cases haven’t ceased. In North America, we hope that we are past the time when the racial or ethnic make-up of a sports team or other institution is at all relevant to anyone’s passion for that team. (Hope, after all, does spring eternal!) The reality is much more nuanced. The disturbing percentage of Americans who continue to espouse theories about President Obama’s birthplace or other forms of election disqualification are prime examples of continuing racism.

There has been, however, great progress. Institutions that were exclusively white and male are now teeming with people who more fully reflect the world. As a young lawyer in the 1980s, I was helping a tech company that was building hardware and writing software for products manufactured in China, Russia, and elsewhere. The make-up of the software team intrigued me. The team members came from many states and many countries, some of whom could barely communicate with each other in colloquial English. They sure could

write code though, which is why they were there. It was a wonderful model that I have never forgotten.

They were there—Vietnamese, Serbs, Indians, and Texans—because of their capabilities and the contributions they could make, not the color of their skin or university T-shirts.

The technology world and its progress has been a great model for the rest of society. One has only to see the make-up of the great innovators and leaders of great tech institutions— electronic, biotech, and beyond—to appreciate that anything is possible, regardless of who one is and where one started. For all of us lawyers however, we work in environments that are slower to change and more prone to hold on to subtle or not-so-subtle prejudices. Our job, individually and collectively, is to overcome these prejudices, each and every day. That remains the challenge. And how do we do this? Here are some thoughts.

First, each of us comes to the journey with a rich and multi-dimensional history and unique set of experiences that are an important springboard and a unique asset. Make your story the proud bedrock from where you

Make your story the proud bedrock from where you set out. Your unique story and your history will make you stand out.

It should sustain you, not limit you. Don’t leave it behind on your journey.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

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JAVADE CHAUDHRI AND HIS FAMILY TOUR THE MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE IN KENYA.

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set out. Your unique story and your history will make you stand out. It should sustain you, not limit you.

Don’t leave it behind in your journey.

Build on it. Rejoice in it, whether it’s your immigrant grandfather’s songs, your tiger mother’s discipline, your family’s love of books and learning, or your rural farm, modest retail store, or island retreat’s life experiences.

Second, always remember that you are not alone in your journey. There are many people who have gone before you and opened doors, whether or not you see that specifically and explicitly.

Who we are, how we look, our skin color, our lifestyle choices, and how our names are pronounced are now mainstream America, whatever the past may have been. Believe that and act accordingly. It’s not we and they.

We are they. We belong at the table.

We are part of the mainstream that is the world and the legal profession today. Act accordingly.

Third, bring along others on your journey. In the September/October 2012 issue of this magazine, my friend

Ivan Fong, the general counsel of 3M Corporation, wrote eloquently about the importance of both seeking mentors and being a mentor. That is so very important. Mentoring does not have to be formal to be incredibly useful. You will find that being a mentor is as valuable to you as perhaps it also will be to the person you mentor. We all have had great mentors over the years in relatives, teachers, coaches, colleagues, and perhaps, the barista at your local coffee shop. Keep it going.

Each phase of the journey calls for new mentoring relationships, in all directions—up, down, and sideways.

You can always use additional input and advice. You can always give additional advice and counsel.

By the way, there is a myth that mentoring relationships are best between similarly situated persons or persons with similar histories. That is not true at all. Some of my great mentors were very different people, from totally different walks of life, with divergent political, religious, and scientific views.

Fourth, spend time doing things

DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

other than your day job. This has two aspects. The first is that you ought to participate in professional organizations, such as MCCA. The second is that you volunteer and do things that are loosely described as “pro bono” work. Over the years, especially as an associate and young partner at Jones Day, I had the opportunity to be active in work on behalf of developing countries and emerging democracies.

Those experiences, while highly enjoyable and great learning experiences for me personally, were also a critical element in my professional growth as a lawyer. Perhaps no other single aspect of my development over the years was as important to me. Find your passion and work at it, whatever that is—children’s rights, global warming, renewable energy, wildlife conservation, homeless shelters, or healthcare.

Finally, don’t forget to have fun.

The stress of our profession is well chronicled and we all probably talk incessantly about the impossibility of having a balanced life given the sheer width and breadth of the day job.

This is especially true for people with young families or who are responsible for the care of elderly relatives. As diverse lawyers and/or women lawyers, more recently arrived at the table, we must demonstrate that we can seek to achieve the balance more successfully, having learned from those who paved the way. So make the time for fun, whatever your idea of fun is—playing Scrabble with your kids, hacking at golf balls in the rough, watching your football team self-destruct regularly, or singing in a choir. It will make you a more interesting person on the never-ending journey. D&B Javade Chaudhri recently rejoined the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day after 15 years on the West Coast, where he was the general counsel of Sempra Energy for ten years and prior to that the general counsel at Gateway.

MCCA.COM

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Spotlighting

16

CHANGE FROM WITHIN Tristan E. Higgins

BY PATRICK FOLLIARD

It was a bad motorcycle accident that first prompted Tristan Higgins to consider a career in a law. She was 21 and seeking a fair settlement, so she looked to her parents’ family attorney for counsel. “He proved to be a regular knight in shining armor,” says Higgins, now a director in Sony Electronics’ law department. “The experience showed me how much a lawyer can impact your life. He said I argued well and was a good negotiator—I’d negotiated his rate—and suggested that I consider a career in law.”

DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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iggins was working on her theater degree from the University of California, San Diego, and wanted to direct, but the idea of law school followed by a dependable, well-paying job became increasingly more attractive. The young Higgins imagined entertainment law as a good way of marrying her extant theatrical experience and newfound legal interests. “I thought that if I wasn’t willing to take the risks of becoming a working, and frequently unemployed, director, I could perhaps represent those that were willing to take that risk, and become an entertainment lawyer.” She adds: “The theatrical aspects of my undergraduate education have served me well, especially as a trial lawyer early in my career. I was always able to keep juries and judges’ attention.”

Higgins, who describes herself as “an out and proud lesbian,” joined Sony Electronics in 2008. Initially she was brought in to handle the digital cinema business. Five years ago Sony started upgrading existing movie theaters with digital projectors. “They needed a lawyer with both technology and entertainment experience, and, luckily, I fit the bill,” she says. “First I handled that business nationally, dealing with the Hollywood studios and theater exhibitors across the country, and later internationally.”

Today, she advises Sony’s components business in Silicon Valley in licensing, sales, development, and manufacturing deals for image sensors, batteries, audio products, and semiconductors. Sony sells components (such as batteries, image sensors, and cameras for smart phones, tablets, and laptops) to many electronics manufacturers and automotive makers, requiring Higgins to deal with everyday contracts, sales, negotiations, and development deals. She describes her position as the classic in-house attorney gig.

“I love my job. I’m like a Silicon Valley attorney. I have relationships with my in-house clients who value my legal expertise and my business thoughts. But I don’t push. Typically, I wait until I’m asked for my opinion,” says Higgins, who splits her time between San Diego and San Jose. “Lawyers often have good business minds.

We may not naturally understand profit and loss but because legal is removed from the pressure of sales, we can offer some objectivity because we have the ability to ask the business side ‘Are you making a quick sale or increasing the value of the company?’”

When asked about working at Sony given the difficulty facing the consumer electronics industry in MCCA.COM

general, Higgins says “I am ecstatic to have a job in this economy, and so I make sure to share that attitude whenever I can. It’s important. I love working at Sony and I love the team of people that I am lucky enough to work with.”

Before graduating from California Western School of Law in 1997, Higgins had been hired as the San Diego deputy city attorney, where she prosecuted scores of misdemeanor cases and appeals, and handled 18 jury trials. After almost five years, she secured a position in Los Angeles as legal counsel at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American labor union representing film and television performers worldwide. (In 2012, SAG merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists [AFTRA] to create SAGAFTRA.) Higgins says SAG was a good fit. The union hired nimble prosecutors and public defenders who were comfortable juggling multiple

cases on short deadlines. At SAG, Higgins was involved in everything from huge residual claims on behalf of hundreds of actors to making a small claim for an actor whose cell phone was stolen on set. It was also at SAG that Higgins first developed a love of the video game industry.

She was tasked with advising SAG in its video game contract negotiations (on behalf of the voiceover actors), and she was taken by the creativity and intelligence of those on the other side of the table. Her curiosity was further piqued when she saw an opportunity with Sega of America, where she was hired in Los Angeles, and later promoted to director of legal for North America and corporate secretary in San Francisco. At Sega, she oversaw the legal needs of all the Japanese-owned corporation’s subsidiaries in North America. “I was excited to learn more about technology, and I loved the Bay Area, but I was cold all the time!” So when the

opportunity to return to her warm and sunny home in San Diego and join the international entertainment giant Sony came up in 2008, she was delighted.

Her career trajectory has been intentional and well planned, though looking back Higgins thinks maybe some time spent at a firm would have been good for her. Looking forward, she greatly values her position and opportunities at Sony, and she wants to expand her speaking on diversity and tactics for making a workplace open and inclusive. Higgins, a recently married mother of two, says, “I’m determined to be the best at what I do, and I’m also very serious about work/life balance. Family means a lot to me.”

At 17, Higgins came out to her friends and family in her hometown, San Diego. “I was lucky. It wasn’t a harrowing experience for me. Those who already loved and cared about me continued to do so.” And though

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It’s good to be known as an attorney who is knowledgeable about LGBT issues and helps corporations to be inclusive.

Way past being tolerant, they must embrace our community, including the transgender employees, which some groups are still struggling to do.

Higgins has always been out professionally, she says it was trickier to come out at work than home: Each job took a different amount of time, she explains. The city attorney’s office in San Diego was as conservative as a white shoe firm, but still, as she made friends and began to feel more comfortable, Higgins came out when it felt right.

It was easy to be out at SAG in Hollywood, she remembers, and the same for Sega. At Sony, Higgins made it clear during her first interview with the GC that she was out.

“It’s so freeing. I didn’t have to fret about whether to place a photo of my partner on my desk or talk specifically about my home life. When you’re out, you no longer have to waste energy being concerned about those things.”

Andrea A. Kimball, a partner at SNR Denton U.S., met Higgins 15 years ago when they served on the

board of the Tom Homann Law Association in San Diego, a nonprofit LGBT law association dedicated to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues throughout California and the country. “Tristan is without doubt a trailblazer,” she says. “Her bravery of being out in the workplace helps her co-workers.”

Shortly after joining Sony, says Kimball, Higgins worked to make the entertainment company a more inclusive, welcoming environment for all LGBT employees. She founded Sony’s Equality Alliance, an employee resource group that now boasts participation from six Sony affiliates (Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Network Entertainment, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Sony Music Entertainment). She also got

DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

Sony involved with the San Diego Pride Parade and Festival, and has served as a mentor for Sony’s interns placed through the San Diego County Bar Association’s Diversity Fellowship Program.

Higgins and a lesbian colleague can also be credited with Sony Electronics’ participation in the annual Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. In close partnership with Human Resources and Sony’s diversity team, Higgins’ efforts helped Sony achieve a score of 95/100 in Sony’s first year participating in the 2011 Index and a score of 90/100 for 2012 and 2013, and a very exciting, but as yet unreleased, score for 2014. “We convinced Sony that it wasn’t just the right thing to do, but it was also very good for business,” says Higgins. “A high rating attracts better job candidates and more customers.”

While her first concern is turning out first-rate work, Higgins says “It’s good to be known as an attorney who’s knowledgeable about LGBT issues and helps corporations to be inclusive.

Way past being tolerant, they must embrace our community, including the transgender employees, which some groups are still struggling to do.”

In 2012, Higgins received the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Bar Association’s Out & Proud Corporate Counsel Award. She speaks regularly at various bar associations and law school events about being out in the profession, and tirelessly meets with LGBT students and LGBT attorneys who ask for her guidance.

She considers it her responsibility within the profession: “I was warned I might be overwhelmed, but that’s OK. I’ve benefited from informational meetings with powerful, diverse women and men who took the time to talk to me, so I’m happy to talk to students and attorneys who are gay, straight, minorities, whatever. I get busy, but if they’re willing to wait a little, I’ll meet for that coffee and see how I can help.” D&B MCCA.COM

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JOHN MERCER    

Freedom L A N G S T O N A VOICE FOR

BY TOM CALARCO

m

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JOHN MERCER LANGSTON WAS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE.

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

MCCA.COM

I

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INTIMIDATION AND FRAUD WERE USED BY HIS OPPONENT TO DISENFRANCHISE VOTERS, BUT THE LAWYER WOULD NOT BACK DOWN.

He contested the election. After an 18-month investigation, the congressional committee declared him the rightful congressman from Virginia’s 4th district. John Mercer Langston was sworn in September 23, 1890, but the victory was short-lived. Langston served the remaining six months of his term in Congress. It would be over one hundred years until another African American represented the state of Virginia in the U.S. Congress.

MCCA.COM

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

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   

THE ODYSSEY OF JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, THE FIRST MAN OF COLOR TO REPRESENT VIRGINIA IN THE U.S. CONGRESS, WAS A LIFELONG STRUGGLE TO SECURE FREEDOM AND EQUALITY FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS.

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BORN TO A FORMER SLAVE AND HER FORMER MASTER in 1829 on a plantation in Louisa County, Virginia, Langston passed the bar before he was 25 despite being refused acceptance into law school on account of his color.

Still, Langston was the beneficiary of advantages few born of a slave received. His father, Ralph Quarles, treated him and his older brothers, Gideon and Charles, as his own.

Quarles embodied the qualities of the so-called benevolent slaveholder. As Langston wrote in his 1894 autobiography, From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol: Or, the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from the Old Dominion, Quarles employed no overseers, rotating this duty among the slaves, and believed that slavery should be abolished, but voluntarily by each slaveholder.

“He held that slaves should be dealt with… [so] as to prevent cruelty,” he wrote, “… and to inspire in them… feelings of confidence in their master.”1 Quarles left his considerable estate to his sons.

EARLY LIFE

John was four when both his father and mother, Lucy Langston, who was part Native American and black, died in 1834. Because of recent laws that restricted free blacks in Virginia, a reac-

tion to the Nat Turner uprising three years earlier, it was decided that the boys would leave for Ohio and that the plantation and other assets be sold. The boys took the surname of their mother.

According to the terms of their father’s will, the boys were not permitted their inheritance until their 21st birthdays.

Gideon took charge of Charles, but a close friend of Quarles’, Colonel John Gooch, became John’s guardian.

John lived a carefree life with the Gooch family for five years near Chillicothe, Ohio, about 80 miles east of Cincinnati. He wrote that it was among the happiest periods of his life.

Gooch’s oldest daughter, Virginia, a student at the Young Ladies Seminary in Chillicothe, taught him the fundamentals of reading and proper speech. Gooch, with whom Quarles had entrusted the responsibility of the boys’ education, helped Gideon and Charles enroll at the Preparatory Academy at Oberlin.

John’s life was disrupted when Gooch found better business opportunities in Missouri, a slave state, and asked John to join the family in their move. Concerned about John’s safety in a slave state, his older half-brother, William, who had been emancipated years earlier by Quarles and lived in Chillicothe, obtained a court order to block John from moving.

Richard Long, an abolitionist from New England who purchased

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

the Gooch property, became John’s new guardian. Long believed in selfreliance and put John to work around the farm before later sending him to one of the best schools for young black students in Cincinnati, which was operated by the Baker Street Baptist Church. While in Cincinnati, he lived through one of the era’s worst race riots there, in 1841.

The riot, which followed similar race riots that had occurred in 1829 and 1837, had been precipitated by the growing participation of black and white abolitionists in the Underground Railroad. Mobs of angry slaveholders formed across the river in Kentucky, and burned and looted black neighborhoods, which were provided little protection from law enforcement and which forced black citizens to come to their own defense in protecting their property.2 The incident opened young Langston’s eyes to the problem of race like never before. It also allowed him to hear the eloquence of the city’s black activists, who rallied their fellow citizens in defense of their freedom.

STUDENT / TEACHER

John enrolled at Oberlin Preparatory School in 1844, boarding at the home of mathematics professor George Whipple. It proved to be a life-changing experience. At Oberlin John’s MCCA.COM

ABOVE: LANGSTON’S HOMECOMING AT THE LOUISA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, COURTHOUSE. BELOW: HIS ADMISSION TO THE OHIO BAR.

During the next decade, John furthered his studies at Oberlin, where he excelled in debate and public speaking and joined the antislavery movement with Charles. Oberlin didn’t just preach abolition, it actively participated in it. Fugitive slaves regularly came to the village, and a special school was established for them.

Blacks in Oberlin, wrote Langston, “were made welcome as equals in the best families”4 and were provided every social and educational advantage.

By the time Langston graduated from the college at Oberlin, he had been regularly addressing meetings of antislavery societies and state Negro conventions. In 1850, he accompanied Frederick Douglass on a lecture tour through central Ohio and east to Pittsburgh. After the passage of the second Fugitive Slave Law5 in September 1850, which required citizens to assist in the capture of fugitive slaves, Langston became more vocal and helped to organize the Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society of Oberlin.

LAWYER, PUBLIC SERVANT, & RADICAL ABOLITIONIST

life’s path as a fighter for freedom and equality took root. Founded as a school whose religion was ending slavery, it nourished the growth of a community devoted to abolition.

Langston described his first morning there, auspiciously a Sunday when the villagers were preparing for church. The fervor they felt was heightened by their expectation of hearing “the greatest pulpit orator at that time” of whom, wrote Langston, “the wild torrents which sweep the sea… may be as easily described as the… bounding power which moved this irresistible, vanquishing son of MCCA.COM

eloquence.” Langston had never heard such preaching and at the end of the sermon, “he moved away in silence, seemingly afraid to speak.”3 The preacher Langston described was Charles Finney, perhaps the greatest evangelist of the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival that lasted about 30 years and whose central message was that salvation could be attained through the practice of good works. He headed Oberlin’s Theology Department, and Langston’s later development as an orator may have owed much to Finney, Langston’s teacher and close friend.

During this period Langston set his sights on a law career. There were no African American lawyers in Ohio and only a few nationwide. Langston made several applications to law schools and despite his impressive credentials was rejected by all because of his color. Consequently, he decided to continue his studies in theology thinking it would help prepare him for law.

Langston earned a master’s degree in theology and secured a position at the law office of Philemon Bliss in nearby Elyria, where he learned the fundamentals of law and prepared for the bar exam.

In the spring of 1855, when he was elected town clerk of Brownhelm, he became the first African American man elected to public office in America, and that summer he distinguished JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

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LANGSTON’S HOUSE IN OBERLIN, OHIO, IS A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK.

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himself on the podium at the American Anti-Slavery Society’s convention in New York City, opening with words that seem appropriate today in an age when the Bill of Rights is being undermined by national security to some: “Some great man has remarked that a nation may lose its liberty in a day, and be a century in finding it out… There is not, within the length and breadth of this entire country… a solitary man or woman who is in the possession of his or her full share of civil, religious and political liberty….” (151) A contemporary described his presence on the podium as “uncommonly graceful” with “very clear and distinct” enunciation and a “strong, musical voice” that was “bold and energetic.” Abolitionist William C. Nell called Langston “a walking, talking encyclopedia of the colored American’s position, aspirations, and capacities.” 6 So he became known as Langston, “the Ohio orator.”

That fall Langston passed the bar exam and married Oberlin student Caroline Wall with whom he would have five children. A native of North Carolina, she too was the offspring of an enslaved mother and her master, and had been emancipated by her father when he died in 1845.

The couple first settled at a homestead in Brownhelm, where Langston began his law practice. A clever lawyer, he did not discriminate when it came to clients, and much of his early business came from defending liquor vendors, whose licenses had been affected by changes in the local laws due to temperance agitation.

Ironically, Langston was temperate but didn’t let that interfere with this business opportunity.

Following a move back to Oberlin, he was elected to the city council and to town clerk, and he managed the town school system. As town clerk, he was responsible for legal and financial matters. The latter involved funds put aside to aid fugitive slaves.7

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Not everyone was pleased with Langston’s political ascent. The prior clerk was angered over his loss to a black man. He began a campaign of agitation against the town by collaborating with slave catchers in the capture of fugitive slaves. In September of 1858, the slave catchers met success with the abduction of John Price, a fugitive slave from Kentucky. They proceeded with him to Wellington, a village about 10 miles south of Oberlin, awaiting the next train to Columbus, Ohio, at the Wadsworth House hotel.

The people of Oberlin wasted little time in tracking them down. Acting as spokesman for the armed posse, numbering as many as 500, was Charles Langston. They surrounded the hotel and Charles demanded Price’s release.

When the slave catchers refused, they took Price by force. Thirty-seven of the Oberlin-Wellington rescuers were prosecuted and refused bail, spending 83 days in jail awaiting their trial. One of two men convicted, Charles spent 20 days in jail. Charges against the others were dropped.

As the militancy of the abolition movement grew, Langston was among those advocating ending slavery by force. In fact, Langston recruited two men from Oberlin to join John Brown’s assault at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Sheridan Leary and John Copeland Jr., one of the 37 OberlinWellington rescuers, perished. Leary died at Harpers Ferry and Copeland was hanged two weeks after Brown.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL

With the impending Civil War, Langston started to recruit black troops before they were approved to join the military. George Stearns, one of John Brown’s chief financial supporters, chose Langston to recruit men in the west for the Massachusetts 54th regiment. Finally, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln approved their use.

Because of his reputation as a compelMCCA.COM

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Education topped [Howard and Langston’s] agenda, and they created what would become the leading black institution of higher learning in America— Howard University.

ling orator, Langston was asked to speak to the many freedmen encamping in areas taken by the Union army to boost their morale. This led to his appointment in 1867 as Inspector of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. His focus was to impress upon blacks that education, economy, industry, and virtue were the keys to their future success as free persons.8 Langston and his immediate supervisor General Oliver Otis Howard, a decorated veteran of Gettysburg, meshed well. Education topped their agenda and they created what would become the leading black institution of higher learning in America—Howard University.

Howard became president, and Langston was founding dean of the law school. Langston also served as acting president for two years during Howard’s leave of absence.

After nine years at Howard University, Langston spent another eight as ambassador to Haiti.

Returning to the U.S. in 1885, Langston accepted the presidency of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, today Virginia State University, in Petersburg. He resigned 1 John Mercer Langston, From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol, Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1894: 12 2 See Keith P. Griffler, Frontline of Freedom, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004: 52-56 3 Langston, Op. Cit: 79 4 Langston, Op. Cit: 102 MCCA.COM

after two years but was recruited to run for Congress. It proved to be the greatest challenge of his career.

As expected the polling sites, which were under control of the state’s majority party, the Democrats, were rigged against Langston. Separate lines were designated for black voters and they were arranged so that black voters had to wait their turn while whites voted. This caused lengthy delays for black voters, most of whom were voting for Langston. When the final tally was made by Democratic operatives, Langston lost by 641 votes to the Democratic candidate.10 Langston’s representatives urged him to contest the election. What followed was a bitter, nearly two-year investigation that cost Langston substantially. However, on September 6, 1890, he was finally declared the winner of the 1888 election for Congress in the Fourth Congressional District of Virginia, the first African American to be elected to Congress from Virginia.

It would take more than 100 years for another man of color to represent Virginia in Congress when Robert C. Scott was elected in 1992 from the Third Congressional District.

Langston served out his term but lost reelection. He retired to his homestead in Petersburg, Virginia, and died in Washington, D.C., in 1897. D&B

RUNNING FOR CONGRESS

Once he accepted the mandate, he immediately went to work. Black voters outnumbered whites by nearly 2-1 in his congressional district, but the power resided with the racist white electorate. Although Langston secured the Republican nomination at the state convention, party boss General William Mahone declared that “no colored man would be allowed” to represent Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District.9 A smear campaign directed against Langston with the cooperation of the National Committee of the Republican Party included the publication of a letter from Frederick Douglass attacking Langston. His supporters anticipated efforts to obstruct black voters. Langston was not deterred, and special instructions were given to Langston voters. Voters who encountered problems were to advise Langston’s representatives stationed at each polling place.

5 This second federal law was stricter than the first one passed in 1793, not only increasing the penalties for aiding fugitive slaves but making it easier for their capture.

6 William and Aimee Lee Cheek, John Mercer Langston and the Black Fight for Freedom, 1829-1865, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989: 264-265.

7 Ibid: 296 8 Ibid: 261 9 Langston, Op. Cit: 471 10 Ibid: 482

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T H E VA LU E S & E X PE C TAT IONS OF T H E M YST E R IOUS GE N E R AT ION Y The Millennial Generation Takes Over.

BY JOSHUA H. SHIELDS

THERE IS A LOT OF DEBATE ABOUT THE MERITS OF ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER.

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T

he year is 2020 and the young millennial lawyer has matured into a partner who controls the corner office.

Changing attitudes, new technology, and increased diversity will create a new office paradigm.

Millennials, born between 1980 and the early 2000s, are perceived as lazy, entitled people who dislike picking up the phone but are otherwise tech-savvy.

This new generation of workers joins Generation X and Baby Boomers to create an interesting dynamic in the office. This year millennials, or Gen Y, will make up 36 percent of the American workforce, and 46 percent by 2020, according to a study by the University of North Carolina’s KenanFlagler Business School.

Columnists and pundits argue that millennials are destroying the NFL, the housing industry, and dating rituals, while not spending enough, overspending, and expecting a trophy for all their hard work. The contrarian barbs are confusing and for the most part—untrue.

MCCA’s “Workplace 2020: What Gen Y Attorneys Experience &

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Expect,” a study released in January 2014, examines this enigmatic generation. Gen Y’s experiences and expectations for legal workplaces are complex and not always reflective of the stereotypes and complaints that have been affixed to this generation, according to the results of an online survey of 938 millennials working in legal departments and law firms of varying sizes. The respondents, made up equally of men and women and 35 percent minorities, give insight into Gen Y work habits, expectations, and diversity and inclusion views.

A JOB IS A JOB

This is what millennials consider when searching for an employer: geographical location, the opportunity to do meaningful and satisfying work, to work with great colleagues, to train and to develop their skills, and to learn from proven experts and leaders.

Among the least important factors were limited travel, access or ability to travel, a diverse workforce, flexibility with where or when to work, and an inclusive workplace.

Economic conditions were a major driver for millennials when selecting a job. Comments ranged from “simply wanted to be employed” to “previous MCCA.COM

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offer was rescinded due to economy” to “high student loans” as the focus on the economy stayed consistent across genders and ethnicities.

“I looked for the group of people that had the highest concentration of influencers who would be directly invested in my career trajectory and in my life in general,” says 30-year-old Chequan Lewis, a first-year associate in the Dallas office of Baker Botts.

He noted that firm lawyers may spend more time with colleagues than with family and friends, so it is important to him to work with people he liked.

Several minority respondents said that although having a diverse workforce was not that important to them, having an inclusive workplace was. They placed greater value on the practices of inclusion than on simply having diverse co-workers. Minority respondents were less likely to feel the opportunity to advance into senior leadership roles was important.

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AN IMPULSIVE GENERATION

The overwhelming majority of respondents are not planning to stay at their employers for more than five years (57 percent), and higher percentages of minorities and women were planning to stay less than five years. Approximately 18 percent of women and 20 percent of minorities were planning to stay in their workplaces more than five years.

“People are trying to buckle down, pay off [law school] debt, and then go into something they are more passionate about. You never know what new, exciting thing is going to come in the next few years,” says 27-yearold Shivani Ballesteros, an in-house lawyer for San Diego Gas & Electric.

SAY IT TO MY FACE

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%

of all respondents felt that their workplaces did not utilize technology efficiently as a training and development tool.

Many respondents expressed frustration with their leadership’s overall ability to modernize their workplace JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

“My dad raised me as a ‘look you in the eye’ type of guy...

Obviously, only one form of communication provides that.”

—Chequan Lewis, Baker Botts

MOST IMPORTANT CRITERIA IN SELECTING AN EMPLOYER Geographical Location Opportunity to do Meaningful/Satisfying Work Learning/Training Opportunities 32

Opportunity to Work with Great Colleagues Opportunity to Learn from Proven Experts/Leaders

LEAST IMPORTANT CRITERIA IN SELECTING AN EMPLOYER Limited Travel Access/Ability to Travel Diverse Workforce Flexibility Where and/or When I Work Opportunity to Advance into Senior Leadership Roles

technology to make communication processes smoother.

The overwhelming majority of respondents felt that face-to-face communication, networking, and email communications needed to be improved, in that order.

“My dad raised me as a ‘look you in the eye’ type of guy. I value that more and more as I get older.

Obviously, only one form of communication provides that,” says Lewis.

Men favored face-to-face communication in both private and professional lives. Minorities and women valued email as their preferred communication tool in their professional lives but valued face-to-face communication in their personal lives.

“It depends on the situation,” says 25-year-old Steven Roberts, a lawyer for AP Wireless Infrastructure Partners. “Face-to-face is my preferred method of communication because there’s less misunderstanding.

However, some communications need to be documented or can be answered with a simple email. Complex problems are better discussed face-to-face.”

Email is an efficient communication tool for less intricate problems.

“With email, I can quickly scan a subject heading or the body of the email and decide if I need to respond now or if it can wait until tomorrow,” says Ballesteros.

Minorities, more than whites, valued networking events more than telephone communications.

Minorities noted that they were more

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likely to connect with other minority attorneys through strategic networking events.

“I find networking events valuable because they put me on equal footing,” says Lewis. “There is an understanding and an openness to meeting new people in that space.”

WORK STYLE IS IMPORTANT

Gen Y attorneys say they are most productive in an informal work culture that allows a flexible work schedule, telecommuting opportunities, and individual office space. Respondents reported that they often had to “look like they were working” to senior lawyers by staying in their offices when it was not productive to do so.

The survey indicates that at least one aspect of the stereotypical millennial is true: They crave feedback on their work and constructive advice on how to develop their careers. Even attorneys who participate in professional development programs lament the lack of one-on-one mentoring with senior attorneys.

The most important component of workplace life for millennials is flexibility. Many workplaces have implemented some type of flex-time policies. However, comments such as “what they say they do and what they actually do is so different that you can’t believe what they say in recruiting” and “even if they have the policies, there are unwritten rules to not use the policies if you want to MCCA.COM

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%

of respondents felt that their workplaces were not utilizing technology very well with overall productivity.

get ahead” illustrate the inconsistent messages millennials experience in the workforce. The stated rules are at odds with the unspoken rules of the office.

Millennials need mentors to navigate the confusing system.

Women are far more likely to believe that the balance options in their workplace did not work for them (31.38 percent to men’s 24.51 percent), that their careers would be negatively impacted if they utilized the available options (41.34 percent to men’s 34.8 percent), and that greater flexibility in the workplace would have a positive impact on their careers (79.2 percent to men’s 65.19 percent). Women are looking for a “culture of acceptance” to develop around flexible time. According to the survey, men are overcoming the stigma that was once associated with flex time and are now using it more than any other generation.

“Flexible hours depend on the person. If you are prompt and can get the work done when it needs to be it’s not a problem,” says Roberts, whose company permits flex hours.

“Legal is set up so we are accessible MCCA.COM

to clients, sales teams, or investors during normal business hours. The majority of our employees are paid on commission so ‘looking busy’ isn’t going to do much for them.”

PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY

An interesting result of the survey was the importance placed on diversity in the legal profession by a majority of the respondents, irrespective of gender, race, and ethnicity. Although women and minorities continue to place a higher value on the importance of having a diverse legal profession, there is a growing majority of white males who also value diversity in the profession.

“I think our generation’s experience represents somewhat of a turning point,” says Lewis. “Our lives are increasingly intertwined across race, gender, and, to a much lesser extent, class. I think that people who grow up in that world think it is absurd for their workplace to not look and feel the same way. Places devoid of women and minority groups in all levels of the organization seem awkward to our generation.” D&B

EXPECTATION OF STAYING WITH CURRENT EMPLOYER AVERAGE MINORITY WOMEN Less than 1 year

16% 19% 15% Between 1 and 3 Years

26% 25% 27% Between 3 and 5 years

15% 19% 17% Between 5 and 10 years

16% 7%

7%

More than 10 Years

19% 11% 13% 8%

Don’t Know

19% 21%

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NAPABA'S FOR THE PAST 13 YEARS, THE NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION HAS PRESENTED ITS BEST ATTORNEYS UNDER 40 WITH RECOGNITION FOR BEING EXCEPTIONAL LEADERS IN THEIR PRACTICES AND COMMUNITIES AT EARLY STAGES IN THEIR CAREERS.

FEATURING: JASON DEJONKER, SANDRA FUJIYAMA, ALBERT GIANG, MIKE F. HUANG, JIN Y. HWANG, CHRISTOPHER JAVILLONAR, CHRISTOPHER KANG, WINIFRED KAO, EUGENE KIM, EDWARD LEE, JOHN PARK, MICHAEL PARK, RUDHIR PATEL, SMEETA RAMARATHNAM, STEVEN Y. REEVES, ASIM REHMAN, BETTY M. SONG, DAVID TSAI, ROCKY CHIU-FENG TSAI, SANYA SUKDUANG

UNDER 40

BY AZIZAH AHMAD

The

THE NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (NAPABA) CELEBRATED ITS 25TH ANNUAL CONVENTION IN KANSAS CITY, MO., LAST NOVEMBER. THE FOUR-DAY CONVENTION WAS THEMED MOMENTUM TO CELEBRATE THE CONTINUING GROWTH AND PROGRESS IN THE ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN (APA) LEGAL COMMUNITY, AND BROUGHT MORE THAN 1,200 ATTENDEES TO THE SHOW-ME STATE. AMONG AWARDS GIVEN OUT AT THE ANNUAL CONVENTION IS THE HIGHLY COVETED NAPABA BEST LAWYERS UNDER 40 (BU40) AWARD. NAPABA IS THE ONLY national association of APA attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. It represents the interests of over 40,000 attorneys and 66 state and local APA bar associations. In 2000, NAPABA established the BU40 Award to recognize young APA lawyers who are emerging leaders in their practices and communities at relatively early stages in their careers. The BU40 Award was also created as a way to leverage talented APA attorneys in a field where they are still an anomaly in higher management and executive roles, given the relatively large number of APA associates and those in junior management roles.

This year, NAPABA honored 20 young lawyers with the BU40 Award. These honorees went through a rigorous selection process, which includes nominations, evaluations, and interviews by the NAPABA BU40 selection committee. And unlike other awards similar to the BU40, there is no set number of honorees each year—each

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BU40 class is determined based on the pool of qualified candidates in a given year.

As a group, the 2013 BU40 class was comprised of diverse legal practices and accomplishments that are significant in their own ways. In addition, this class manages to balance a deep sense of community with a demanding legal career, and has done so nearly flawlessly. To give you a taste of what it takes to be part of the BU40 class, we highlighted four of the 2013 honorees: Christopher Kang, Asim Rehman, Christopher Javillonar, and Betty Song.

TOP OF THE CLASS

Serving as President Barack Obama’s special assistant and senior counsel, Christopher Kang is currently the highest ranking APA in the White House. Kang was also a recipient of the 2012 NAPABA President’s Award for his work on judicial nominations and is the only person in NAPABA history to be honored with the BU40 and President’s JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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“I WAS MOTIVATED TO WORK WITH THE ASIAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY AFTER SEEING THE EXPERIENCES THAT MY PARENTS FACED IMMIGRATING TO THE U.S.” – BETTY SONG

awards. Kang’s accomplishments have also been acknowledged by other national organizations—in 2011, he was recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the top 40 minority lawyers under the age of 40.

Kang’s work in public service was not inspired by chance. Kang attributes his commitment to public service to his parents. He is the son of South Korean immigrants who were both very active in fighting for disability rights in South Korea and the U.S. From his parents, he learned the importance of public service and policy, and the influence it can have on a people or country. In addition, his parents’ disability advocacy work led to the appointment of Kang’s father to the National Council on Disability by President George W. Bush.

THE FOUNDER

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Asim Rehman is corporate counsel at MetLife, a Fortune 500 company with 64,000 employees serving 90 million clients around the world. What makes him stand out? He also co-founded and helps run the Muslim Bar Association of New York (MuBANY).

MuBANY is a volunteer-run bar association representing the interests of Muslim attorneys in the New York City metro area. Rehman co-founded MuBANY to address the needs of a growing number of Muslim lawyers in New York. “We saw the important services that other minority bar associations were able to provide to their members, and we realized that we needed the same. Moreover, we started MuBANY because Muslims in America were coming under intense scrutiny in the years following 9/11, and we believed that lawyers were uniquely poised to provide support to the larger Muslim community and to build awareness within our own legal profession,” said Rehman. Since establishing MuBANY, Rehman has given testimonies at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and other agencies regarding anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-South Asian sentiment in the U.S. post-9/11.

Rehman has managed his busy career and community commitments through a supportive work environment.

“Running a bar association is a serious time commitment, but it is made much easier when you have a workplace that encourages and celebrates lawyers who get involved in diversity initiatives inside and outside the company. Further, being in-house allows me to bring a unique perspective to MuBANY’s work.”

MR. DO-IT-ALL

Not only was Christopher Javillonar honored as a BU40, he was also the co-chair of the local host committee that brought the NAPABA Convention to Kansas City. Through a two-year planning process, he committed countless DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

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hours in helping plan, direct, and execute NAPABA’s 25th Annual Convention. Aside from volunteering his time to plan a convention, Javillonar focuses on complex commercial litigation as a partner at the Kansas City office of Bryan Cave LLP. Javillonar’s extracurricular activities are hard to match. He was an at-large member of the NAPABA board, and also served on the boards of Legal Aid of Western Missouri, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, and Asian American Bar Association of Kansas City. The underlying denominators in much of his extracurricular accomplishments are: diversity and Kansas City. Javillonar is deeply committed to promoting diversity in his city and welcoming others who may otherwise overlook the city, to experience it. Javillonar accomplished this feat when over 1200 APA lawyers changed Kansas City’s demographics for four days.

THE COMMUNITY LEADER

Betty Song’s career is built on community. As supervising attorney for the legal services unit at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (formerly Asian Pacific America Legal Center), Song found her passion in community work because of her own life and familial experiences.

“I was motivated to work with the Asian immigrant community after seeing the experiences that my parents faced immigrating to the U.S.,” Song said. “Like so many immigrants, they struggled with learning a new language and understanding a new culture, and they faced discrimination and racism. Advancing Justice-LA is the kind of place I wish my parents had been able to contact after coming to the U.S.” Song uses her parents’ struggles as immigrants as a backdrop to her own work providing legal services to lowincome immigrant communities in the Los Angeles area.

For Song, being aware of one’s own personal immigrant experiences is a valuable tool to underserved community members. “It’s so important to have people from the community, working for and with the community.”

Javillonar, Kang, Rehman, Song and their fellow 2013 BU40 honorees join a distinguished group of NAPABA members who have gone on to establish and continue remarkable careers both within and outside the legal world. They have followed those before them and have blazed trails for those to follow after them. In the 25 years of NAPABA and 13 years of the BU40 Award, we have seen progress in remarkable ways—both through the accomplishments of individual members and as a community working together to break various glass ceilings. As we celebrate these accomplishments, we are also reminded that there is still much more work to be done, and we must keep the momentum going.

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PROFILES Sandra FUJIYAMA

Jason DEJONKER Jason DeJonker is a first-generation immigrant, adopted at three months old from Saigon, Vietnam, at the end of the Vietnam War. He is a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and the co-chair of its bankruptcy, workouts, and business reorganization practice group. DeJonker concentrates his practice on bankruptcy cases, workout negotiations, troubled borrower restructuring and forbearance, and general corporate finance, transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial litigation. In addition to being a member of the board of directors of AABA-Chicago, he is also a member of the board of directors of the Chicago Committee and Little Company of Mary Hospital Foundation. He is active with numerous charitable organizations, including Link Unlimited and the Evans Scholars/Western Golf Association.

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Sandra Fujiyama is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She practices in the areas of intellectual property litigation, predominantly patent litigation, and intellectual property counseling. Prior to joining WSGR, she was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Sidley Austin.

Before that, she was the associate chair of the Biotechnology/Life Sciences practice at Lyon & Lyon. Fujiyama graduated, with honors, from UCLA with a B.S. in Biochemistry and received the Ethel Terry McCoy Award recognizing women for excellence in biochemistry. She obtained her law degree from the UCLA School of Law. She is on the board of the California Bar Foundation, the Japanese American Bar Association Educational Foundation, and is president-elect of the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance.

Albert GIANG Albert Giang is an attorney for Caldwell Leslie & Proctor. He specializes in intellectual property litigation, complex commercial disputes, and class action lawsuits. In addition to an impressive record of wins at the dismissal and summary judgment phases in trial court, Giang also specializes in appellate litigation and has served as counsel in numerous matters in California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

He clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Paez on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and graduated, with distinction, from Stanford Law School.

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Mike HUANG

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Mike F. Huang is a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. His main practice areas include mergers and acquisitions, commercial lending (both syndicated and bilateral loans), and private investment funds. Huang also has extensive experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and financing transactions. Recent transactions for Huang include representing Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network in connection with the sale of a 49 percent equity stake to News Corporation and representing Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. in connection with its $500 million senior unsecured credit facility. Huang currently serves as the president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York. He graduated from Columbia Law School (JD 2002) and University of California at Berkeley (AB 1999, Phi Beta Kappa).

Christopher KANG Jin HWANG Jin Y. Hwang is assistant general counsel with Verizon Enterprise Solutions, a business unit of Verizon Communications, a Fortune 15 company, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Previously, Hwang was in-house counsel with Verizon Wireless in a variety of roles including litigation, sales and marketing, bankruptcy, and market integrations. Before that, Hwang was in-house with France Télécom's North American legal department in Washington, D.C. She graduated from American University's Washington College of Law, where she was articles editor of the Administrative Law Review. Hwang earned her bachelor’s degree with double majors in psychology and French studies, with honors, from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Christopher Kang is special assistant to President Obama and senior counsel to the president, in charge of the selection, vetting, and confirmation of President Obama’s judicial nominees. He works to fulfill the president’s unprecedented commitment to expanding the diversity of the federal bench, while maintaining the highest standards of integrity, intellect, and fair-mindedness. From 2009 to 2011, Kang was special assistant to the president for Legislative Affairs, advocating for the administration’s initiatives in Congress, including leading the legislative strategy for the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, and the Senate’s repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Kang worked for Assistant U.S. Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin, as director of floor operations and Judiciary Committee Counsel, and has been VP of the APABA Educational Fund and VP for Community Affairs of APABA-DC. MCCA.COM

Winifred KAO Winifred Kao is Asian Americans Advancing Justice–Asian Law Caucus' litigation director and the head of its workers’ rights program. Under Kao’s leadership, the caucus re-launched its free workers’ rights legal counseling clinic and direct legal services for low-income immigrant workers. Over the last two years, her program’s direct service work has won more than $1.5 million for Asian immigrant workers in back wages and settlements. She has also built a budding impact litigation docket which has included such recent victories as a $750,000 class settlement for nail salon workers who had not been properly paid the minimum wage and overtime owed, and who had been unlawfully barred from speaking Vietnamese while at work. Prior to joining Advancing Justice–ALC, Kao was a unionside labor and employment lawyer. She’s a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Yale University.

Eugene KIM Eugene Kim is a shareholder at Gresham Savage Nolan & Tilden. He is a preeminent business litigation attorney with a record of success in resolving high-profile cases.

Because Kim is known for his courtroom mastery, he works in a wide range of practice areas, including real estate, intellectual property, environmental, tax, business, and public law.

Kim represents businesses, including Fortune 500 companies, in protecting and enforcing their legal rights. He is the founder of the Asian Pacific American Lawyers of the Inland Empire and the president of the Orange County Korean American Bar Association.

Additionally, he is currently the president of the Pick Group, a board member for the San Bernardino County Bar Association, and a NAPABA Alternate Regional Governor.

Christopher JAVILLONAR Christopher Javillonar is a partner in Bryan Cave’s Kansas City office. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and his experience encompasses all aspects of the litigation process, including case strategy, pre-trial briefing, depositions, hearings, trial preparations, and trial. As such, he manages all stages of complex commercial litigation and class actions for numerous regional and national clients. In addition to these duties, Javillonar takes on many leadership roles within the firm, including serving as a member of the recruiting committee. Javillonar assisted in founding the Asian American Bar Association of Kansas City and served as its president in 2008. He graduated from the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association Bar Leadership Academy and chaired the Heartland Diversity Legal Job Fair, which brings diverse law students from across the country to Kansas City.

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Michael PARK Michael Park is a litigation partner in the New York office of Dechert LLP. He has substantial experience representing clients in federal and state courts and before the SEC, FINRA, and other regulators in a wide range of subject areas, including securities, criminal, commercial, administrative, constitutional, and international law. Most recently, Park has been representing financial institutions and individuals in insider trading and mortgage-backed securities matters. His previous experiences include serving as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel; clerking on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.; and working as an associate at WilmerHale. Park graduated from Princeton University in 1998 and received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 2001.

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Edward LEE

Edward Lee is an in-house counsel at Aetna in Hartford, Connecticut.

He is responsible for corporate governance matters and serves as corporate secretary for Aetna’s subsidiaries. He also counsels the business partners on M&A, investment, corporate treasury, and insurance regulatory matters. Lee is the immediate past president and a member of the board of Connecticut Asian Pacific American Bar Association. He was born and raised in Taiwan and completed his secondary education and undergraduate studies in England. He has an LLB from Oxford Brookes University and an LLM from the University of Connecticut School of Law. DIVERSIT Y & THE BARŽ

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John Park is a partner at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP, which is based in Nashville, Tennessee, with offices in Austin, Texas, and Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently the co-chair of the labor and employment committee of NAPABA. Park has advised and successfully defended both global and local employers in various industries at trial and appeal. His experience includes class and collective actions, whistleblower claims, investigations, ERISA, and non-competition and trade secret issues. In 2011, Park was selected to be part of the inaugural Fellows Program of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. He received an MBA and law degree from the University of Notre Dame, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

John PARK

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Rudhir PATEL Rudhir Patel is currently senior patent counsel at Apple, where he handles IP transactions. Previously, he was a principal at Fish & Richardson, with a practice in patent litigation, and prior to this he clerked for Judge Andre Davis at the U.S. District Court (D-Md.). Rudhir has been active throughout his career in the Asian Pacific American legal community, having served as president of APABA-DC, and SABA-DC, and as convention co-chair for both NAPABA and NASABA. Rudhir has also served on the Advisory Board for the Children’s Law Center, through which he represented families pro bono in guardianship matters, and he remains active in politics through Get Out the Vote and election monitoring efforts. Rudhir graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in electrical engineering and later from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Steven REEVES Steven Y. Reeves is a partner with Faegre Baker Daniels, LLP, and is based in the firm’s Minneapolis office. Reeves’ practice focuses on strategic M&A transactions, and he regularly advises on a variety MCCA.COM

of cross-border matters including complex multi-jurisdictional acquisitions and reorganizations, foreign direct investments, licensing and distribution arrangements, U.S. export control compliance, CFIUS strategy, and foreign merger control filings. Before law school, and after graduating from Cornell University's School of Hotel Management, he spent almost four years working at Le Cirque restaurant in New York City. While growing up, he lived in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Switzerland, as well as Chicago, Santa Maria, Calif., and New York. Reeves is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys canoeing, hiking, fishing, hunting, and wilderness cooking.

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Smeeta RAMARATHNAM Smeeta Ramarathnam currently serves as chief of staff to Commissioner Luis Aguilar at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She previously served in many SEC roles, including counsel to former Commissioner Campos, as a senior counsel in the Office of the General Counsel and in the division of Investment Management. Prior to joining the SEC, Ramarathnam worked in the securities practice of a large law firm. She clerked for the Honorable Deborah Chasanow, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Ramarathnam earned her J.D. and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University and served as an adjunct professor at Stanford in Washington.

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Asim Rehman is president and cofounder of the Muslim Bar Association of New York.

An advocate for the rights of American Muslims, Rehman has testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, served as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and was recently invited by the U.S. State Department to lecture overseas about the American Muslim experience post-9/11. An experienced litigator, Rehman is corporate counsel with MetLife where he advises on domestic and international disputes.

He previously worked with Debevoise & Plimpton and as a law clerk in the Southern District of New York. Rehman received the New York City Bar Association’s 2013 Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award and is a graduate of Haverford College and the University of Michigan Law School.

Betty M. Song is the supervising attorney for the Legal Services Unit at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (formerly the Asian Pacific American Legal Center). Song joined Advancing Justice in 2004, and for the past nine years has been providing legal assistance to low income immigrant survivors of domestic violence.

In addition to helping survivors obtain restraining orders, and child custody and support orders, she helps secure legal status for survivors and their children through domestic violence-related immigration remedies. Song received her B.A. in History from UCLA, and her J.D. from U.C. Berkeley. She was born in Ohio to Korean immigrant parents whose struggles inspired her to pursue a career in public interest law.

Betty SONG

David TSAI David Tsai is counsel in Perkins Coie’s San Francisco and Taipei offices and a member of Perkins’ commercial litigation practice group. Tsai’s practice focuses on trade secret and patent litigation involving the Internet, software, smartphones, semiconductors, LEDs, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. He is fluent in spoken Taiwanese and Chinese Mandarin, and has successfully represented numerous Taiwan-based companies. Tsai was recently recognized as one of the top 50 California Lawyers on the “Fast Track,” Super Lawyer in Northern California, Best Lawyer Under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association, a “Top Five Associate To Watch” in California, and Santa Clara County Barrister of the Year.

He is the president of the Silicon Valley IP Law Association and a graduate of Harvard, Stanford, and Santa Clara universities.

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Rocky Chiufeng Tsai is the ranking litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Ropes & Gray LLP, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the firm’s West Coast business and securities litigation. Tsai is the co-chair of Ropes & Gray’s diversity committee. He serves as the national editor-in-chief of the American Bar Association’s highly regarded State Antitrust Practice and Statutes treatise (5th edition). Since 2007, Tsai has served as the co-chair of the Asian Law Caucus’ Annual Dinner Committee, and currently serves as the co-chair of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area’s Education Committee. He was honored in 2012 as one of the California Recorder’s 50 statewide “Lawyers on the Fast Track.”

Rocky CHIU-FENG TSAI

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Sanya Sukduang is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett, and Dunner, LLP. Sukduang concentrates on patent litigation before the federal district courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, primarily in the area of pharmaceuticals, as well as biotechnology, medical devices, and biologics. He has particular experience in cases arising from the filing of Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA). Sukduang currently serves as chair of the firm’s diversity and inclusion committee. He is an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law, and serves on the board of WCL’s Dean’s Diversity Counsel. D&B

Sanya SUKDUANG

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

ASSOCIATION FOCUS

BY BRIAN DABBS

SOCIETY OF AMERICAN LAW TEACHERS (SALT)

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member and a prolific author. “The advisers, students, and others, all wanted to learn the information and were primed for it. We gave them tips. And these tips are as good as gold.”

Run by a volunteer board and co-presidents who serve two-year terms, SALT is an advocacy non-profit with WANT TO BOOST THE NUMBER OF about 500 members that focuses on equal opportunity and WELLQUALIFIED MINORITY LAW SCHOOL human rights issues in the legal academy and profession.

APPLICANTS? HOW ABOUT TRAINING In addition to the BA to JD pipeline launched in 2011, THEIR ADVISERS? SALT sponsors teacher break-in programs, mentor proThat’s the theory behind the Society of American grams, law school diversity conferences, and other teacher Law Teachers’ BA to JD pipeline program. At conferences conferences, while writing amicus briefs on such high-proheld throughout the U.S., organizers train pre-law advisfile Supreme Court cases as Fisher and Schuette v. Coalition ers, law school admissions counselors, legal educators, and to Defend Affirmative Action. SALT members also write lawyers on how best to prepare students for law school. This white papers on ABA accreditation standards. ranges from running well-developed pre-law programs to The BA to JD pipeline programs will likely grow, helping students according to craft better law co-president elect school applications.

Olympia Duhart, For 40 years professor of law SALT has worked and director of to bring diverse and the Lawyering disenfra nchised Skills and Values —OLYMPIA DUHART communities into Program at the law academia and Shepard Broad the law profession in order to foster greater social justice in Law Center at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. the United States.

Duhart, who delivered opening remarks at the BA to JD Last October, it took its third Bachelor of Arts (BA) to pipeline program in Houston, lauds the program for proJuris Doctor (JD) pipeline program to Texas, which is the viding advisers with tools to help students better market epicenter of diversity issues. Immigration reform will have their skill sets and experiences. a huge impact on the state bordering Mexico, and the state “In the law school application process, there is a huge continues to respond to Fisher v. the University of Texas, a emphasis put on standardized test scores. In order to Supreme Court case that revisited affirmative action legality address that, we gave some advisers some practical tips on in higher education admission. how to deal with the LSAT. We, at SALT, do not believe Held at the University of Houston, the BA to JD prothe LSAT is a valid indicator of a student’s potential sucgram ranged from a talk on recent changes in student loan cess,” says Duhart, who shares the presidency with Ruben repayment plans to an LSAT training session for students Garcia, professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las

by Princeton Review Foundation Executive Director Jay Vegas’ William S. Boyd School of Law. Rosner to a discussion on the prospective Fisher fallout.

“But schools rely heavily on the test. So we try to help “Its utility and value are obvious on its face,” says advisers help students leverage a holistic application through Michael Olivas, William B. Bates Distinguished Chair emphasizing their diverse backgrounds in mission statements. of Law Director at University of Houston, the BA to JD If you have a female candidate who was a basketball player pipeline program coordinator. Olivas is also a lifetime SALT for instance, that applicant could emphasize her leadership

“WE, AT SALT, DO NOT BELIEVE THE LSAT IS A VALID INDICATOR OF A STUDENT’S POTENTIAL SUCCESS.”

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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ability, time management skills…use those types of things as a selling point in applications. They can demonstrate how those qualities can translate successfully into law.”

In 2013, the organization also hosted pipeline programs at the University of Santa Clara and American University in Washington D.C. The pipeline programs differ to best serve the communities in which they are held. The University of Puerto Rico hosted a SALT co-sponsored BA to JD pipeline program, conducted in Spanish, in December 2013. Along with helping both advisers and students navigate the path to law school, the University of Puerto Rico program will address the merits and drawbacks of long-term, pre-law programs at undergraduate higher education institutions.

“I think the BA to JD pipeline program is getting a lot of traction. There is a declining application pool for JD programs and students are cautious because law school is so expensive,” says Duhart. “I would love to see the pipeline programs continue to grow. They energize me. A lot of what we do as professors is lost in theory. But this is real practical help. The pre-law advisers really like what we’re doing.”

Gardina, professor of law at Vermont Law School. Although Gardina feels the Santa Clara program was successful due to the “conversations” that took place, SALT has not determined how to measure the effectiveness of its programs.

“Every pipeline program struggles with the metric. You don’t know if you’re successful with the goal, which is diversifying the profession. Our BA to JD pipeline program is relatively new,” says Gardina. “I couldn’t really tell you if it’s been successful. Many of the students that attend it are still very early in their academic process.”

The one-day program in Houston also gave pre-law advisers and others in the law academic apparatus exposure to undergraduate pre-law programs in the region.

The pre-law programs, which can last from weeks to months, are critical assets to students who want to attend law school, says Olivas, who previously held a pre-law program at UH. Such programs expose students to law school curriculum, in some cases providing academic credit, allow them to interact with lawyers and walk them through the nuts and bolts of the application process, such as standardized test taking. That experience can prove immensely valuable in the long run for students, added Olivas. So the SALT BA to JD pipeline programs teach academic law professors and administrators the direct, hands-on skills needed to improve an underrepresented student’s candidacy, along with offering longer term vision for institutionally embedding law school preparation.

“There are some schools that can incorporate pre-law programs into their curriculum. SALT is part of the multiplying effect that is creating more of those pre-law programs,” says Olivas. “Before Olympia Duhart, Michael Olivas, and Jackie Gardina are law professors who organize SALT. university officials put on these pre-law At the University of Santa Clara program held in May programs, they need to know what the successful ingredients 2013, attorneys from Microsoft discussed the immeasurfor programs are. That’s what these conferences teach.” D&B able value of a heterogeneous attorney counsel. Diverse attorneys bring multicultural competency that enables them Brian Dabbs is a freelance writer and editor based in to understand and respond to the needs of diverse domestic Washington, D.C. and international clients, says outgoing co-president Jackie MCCA.COM

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

45

DIVERSITY NEWS

BY JINA LEE

ADAPTING TO A CHANGING LEGAL LANDSCAPE: GENERATION Y ATTORNEYS THE LAW FIRM IS ONE OF THE LAST BAS TIONS OF THE TRADITIONAL WORK PLACE, and arguably diametrically opposed to many

46

of Generation Y’s values and work habits. Legal practice has enjoyed a rich tradition, valuing a clear hierarchical structure and the notion of “paying one’s dues,” while the Generation Y workforce emphasizes innovation, individualized goals and ambitions, and flexible work schedules.

Generation Y attorneys are often criticized for entitled attitudes and “lazy” work ethics. The truth is, however, Generation Y employees are passionate and require job fulfillment. Unlike their Baby Boomer, and even Generation X predecessors, they should be approached and managed differently in order to reach their full potential.

Gen Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, comprises a rapidly increasing percentage of both the law firm workforce and client base. Gen Y employees are social, interactive, and value diversity. In fact, Gen Y is the most ethnically diverse generation to date. For most Gen Y attorneys, one in three classmates has been of a different racial, cultural, or ethnic background. Women now comprise a larger part of the Gen Y attorney population than men. These lawyers are collaborative and more accepting of non-traditional methods of problem solving and analysis than attorneys of prior generations. However, they are also quicker to question the establishment, demand personalized work schedules, and challenge the traditional criteria for measuring success and achievement. So what is a Baby Boomer boss to do? As law firms become more dependent on recruiting a younger workforce, the proper assimilation of Gen Y attorneys is of paramount importance.

STRUCTURED TRAINING

While Gen Y attorneys love to take charge and determine the unique “flavor” of their legal careers, it is indisputable that they also crave structure, discipline, and training at the most basic level. Gen Y attorneys are extremely sophisticated when it comes to technology and social media networking. As a result, managers of Gen Y attorneys tend to be highly impressed with their lightning-speed research capabilities and general technological ability. However, many managers neglect to consider that the high-tech savvy of this generation often masks their lack of practical skills in other important areas. For example, Gen Y attorneys lack experience in the art of old-fashioned communication, practical knowhow, and the discipline of elegant brief-writing. Thus, an excellent place to start assimilating Gen Y attorneys into more traditional law firm settings is to focus on providing the requisite structure, training, and feedback that Gen Y attorneys crave and need to succeed.

FOR MOST GEN Y ATTORNEYS, ONE IN THREE CLASSMATES HAS BEEN OF A DIFFERENT RACIAL, CULTURAL, OR ETHNIC BACKGROUND.

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CONVENIENCE AND FLEXIBILITY

Millennial attorneys are more likely to reject the traditional work-life schedules offered by law firms than lawyers of prior generations. Female attorneys with children in particular feel they are entitled to flexible schedules, as do their male counterparts, who are increasingly taking on greater child care responsibilities. Gen Y attorneys do not necessarily expect to work fewer hours or expend less effort than their Generation X or Baby Boomer counterparts, but managers would do well to consider that Gen Y attorneys seek convenience and flexibility regarding their schedules. This may involve the desire to telecommute, or to work a schedule less conventional than what has historically been the norm at most law firms.

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HAVING GROWN UP IN A HIGHLY TECHNOLOGICAL AGE, GEN Y ATTORNEYS REQUIRE CONSTANT STIMULATION, INCLUDING REGULAR ONLINE COMMUNICATION, CONSISTENT FEEDBACK, AND POSITIVE AFFIRMATION FOR A JOB WELL DONE. 47

THE BIG PICTURE

Gen Y attorneys are ambitious and driven, but they define and measure success in radically different ways than previous generations. They are motivated by job fulfillment but have unique perspectives about what this entails. As a result, Gen Y attorneys may be more likely to reject—or be less than enthusiastic about—work that they perceive as less meaningful. Thus, managers should always provide the “big picture” to Gen Y attorneys when they are assigned piecemeal or tedious tasks. Gen Y attorneys may also tend to seek out more pro bono work than other attorneys, in order to satisfy their need to make a difference. Having grown up in a highly technological age, Gen Y attorneys require constant stimulation, including regular online communication, consistent feedback, and positive affirmation for a job well done. Furthermore, Gen Y attorneys are more likely to be engaged and fully develop as lawyers when the path to success is clearly defined and their progress is monitored by encouraging mentors. D&B Jina Lee is an associate at the law firm of Michelman & Robinson LLP. She is a member of the firm’s Commercial and Business Litigation Department. Michelman & Robinson has offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Sacramento, and New York. Lee may be reached at 714.557.7990 or by email at jlee@mrllp.com MCCA.COM

Jina Lee is an associate who has observed a changing legal landscape over the past few years.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

IN CLOSING...

Wendy Shiba is a retired corporate attorney and business executive who is the immediate past president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).

Q 48

Why did you decide to become president of NAPABA? Why is it important to become involved in voluntary bar associations?

When I retired from my “day job,” I knew that staying engaged with my community and profession would be important for me, but I didn’t know the precise activities that would fill my plate. Several NAPABA friends approached me about running for office and the idea took hold. I became involved with NAPABA during the second year of its now 25-year existence, but the challenges of being general counsel of a public company better suited me to shaping my involvement around work on committees and ad hoc projects, serving as a mentor to younger members, and speaking at conferences and conventions. My retirement opened the door to the possibility of the NAPABA presidency that had never been within my field of imagination. I saw it as an opportunity to be fully engaged with an outstanding organization that has meant so much to me during my career.

I’ve been involved with voluntary bar associations throughout my entire career, both mainstream associations and bar associations of color. That involvement provides a two-way street of

DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

She served as an executive officer for three NYSE-listed companies and was a tenured associate professor of law at Temple University School of Law. She also worked in private practice and is active with numerous nonprofit organizations. She will receive two major awards in 2014: the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award in February and Corporate Counsel Women of Color’s Diamond Award in October.

opportunities to grow as a professional and to contribute back to the profession and to nurture the professional development of law students and younger lawyers.

What are you most proud of during your tenure?

It would be impossible to name a single item, but I have a short list. As president-elect, I served as chair of our 2012 National Convention in Washington, D.C. Working with a phenomenal host committee from the greater D.C. area, we delivered a convention for the ages that culminated with a conversation with Justice Sonia Sotomayor during our gala installation dinner.

During my presidency in the 2012-2013 bar year, we more than doubled our attendance for our Annual Lobby Day, when members from across the country convene in Washington, D.C. to engage in firsthand advocacy on the Hill on a range of policy issues that

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impact the Asian Pacific American community. We also focused on strengthening our relationships with sister diverse bar associations, primarily through our work with the Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC). The CBAC members together with the American Bar Association designed and implemented the inaugural Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy (CBLA) to grow and nurture the pipeline of diverse bar leaders, and we are already hard at work planning the next CBLA. Finally, I like to believe that my background in corporate governance with public companies and major nonprofit organizations has helped to strengthen NAPABA’s governance and build a high-performing Board of Governors.

While you were president, the sitting presidents of all four national bar associations of color (HNBA, NBA, NNABA, and NAPABA) were in-house attorneys.

The role is traditionally held by attorneys in private practice. Why do you think inhouse attorneys are embracing the role?

As I mentioned, it’s tough to hold office in a national bar association when your day job is to represent the legal interests of a major corporation where, the higher up you are in the food chain, the job is virtually 24/7. That’s true to a certain extent for all successful attorneys, yet law firms seem better able to appreciate the value add of their members being involved with voluntary bar associations. Many in-house attorneys began their careers in private practice and brought with them a solid foundation of bar association involvement when they transitioned to in-house positions. In-house practice today is as sophisticated and demanding as ever, especially as law departments are challenged to perform with excellence at lower costs. So it is natural for inhouse attorneys to see the benefits of bar association involvement, especially in the areas of building networks for sharing best practices and professional development through substantive programming. As

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for taking on leadership roles, the in-house attorneys who have ascended to the presidencies of the national bar associations of color—Peter Reyes of the HNBA, John Page of the NBA, and Mary Smith of NNABA—are natural-born leaders who brought to their presidencies a wealth of expertise from their in-house experience in areas that serve a bar association well. These include, to mention just a few, organizational dynamics, strategic planning, corporate governance, budget development, and financial acumen.

Why is it important to have in-house attorneys join as members of NAPABA and other bar associations?

NAPABA’s In-House Counsel (IHC) Committee is among our most active and is co-chaired by two prominent general counsels.

Throughout the year, the IHC Committee provides invaluable networking for its members via its formal mentoring program and informal mentoring that occurs in countless ways on professional development questions, job referrals, and outside counsel referrals.

IHC members are in high demand to speak at our regional conferences and affiliate programs, and the committee plans a track of CLE programs for each annual convention that are among the most well attended. Mindful of their key role as clients who can help shape and influence the path of diversity and inclusion in our profession, IHC members serve as guest speakers for law firm diversity and inclusion programs. They also participate at each annual convention in our Pitch Program that provides law firm attorneys the opportunity to meet one-on-one with IHC attorneys, and our Prospective Partners Program that provides senior associates the opportunity to receive feedback and coaching from a panel of IHC attorneys aimed at enhancing their successful conversion to partnership.

What’s your next project or undertaking?

As NAPABA’s immediate past president, I have a final year of serving on our Board of Governors. I plan to remain involved with several projects for NAPABA and the American Bar Association, especially the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy, which we inaugurated during my term as president of NAPABA. I also will continue to accept speaking engagements in the areas of corporate governance, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, and women’s leadership, and to remain active in the nonprofit arena. Beyond that, my husband hopes that I will find some time for golf and travel.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®

49

MOVERS & SHAKERS

50

COMPILED BY JOSHUA H. SHIELDS

GREG NIXON

KENT K. MATSUMOTO

LORI GARRETT

GEORGE CHEN

Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer CH2M HILL

Vice President, General Counsel, & Corporate Secretary Glatfelter

Managing Director BarkerGilmore

President-Elect National Asian Pacific American Bar Association

CH2M HILL, a Fortune 500 global full-service consulting, design, construction, and operations firm, has announced that Gregory S. Nixon joined the firm as senior vice president and chief legal officer. Nixon is responsible for overseeing a global legal team and risk management professionals who provide legal, insurance, and compliance support for the company. Nixon joins CH2M HILL from DynCorp International Inc., a multibillion-dollar global logistics, aviation, and operations company, where he served as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. Before DynCorp International Inc., Nixon worked for McKinsey.

He holds a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Tuskegee University.

Kent K. Matsumoto was promoted to vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Glatfelter, a global manufacturer of specialty papers and fiberbased engineered materials. He brings 28 years of diverse and global corporate, legal, and trade association experience to his assignment.

He joined Glatfelter in June 2012 as assistant general counsel and quickly assumed the role as chief compliance officer as well as various assistant secretarial responsibilities. Prior to working at Glatfelter, Matsumoto worked at Wolters Kluwer, Mayne Pharma, Alpharma, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

He earned his B.A. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Lori Garrett has joined BarkerGilmore, a New York-based executive search firm focused on corporate board, general counsel, and compliance positions, as managing director and will co-chair its women and diversity initiative. She will head its Atlanta, Georgia office.

Garrett will manage executive search assignments nationwide for board of director, senior legal counsel, and compliance officers.

She previously worked at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, where she managed several key programs.

Garrett is a graduate of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, where she was a member of the Hale Moot Court Honors Program, and Spelman College, where she received degrees in Spanish and psychology and graduated magna cum laude.

Bryan Cave Partner George Chen is the president-elect of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association for the fiscal year 2013-2014. In 2014-2015, he will serve as president and will be sworn into office in November 2014 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In 2015-2016, he will serve as immediate past president and will be sworn into office in November 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Chen has been a member of NAPABA since 1999, holding various positions within the national organization including treasurer, vice president for programs and operations, and Southwest regional governor. Chen received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.S.E.E. and J.D. from Arizona State University. He is the coinventor of four patents.

Please send your submissions to our Movers & Shakers feature to joshshields@mcca.com Please include a high-resolution photo (300 dpi or greater), along with an electronic version of the applicable announcement.

DIVERSIT Y & THE BARÂŽ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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