Announcements
NEW! APABA-DC's Fall 2011 Newsletter, available here
2012 Membership Drive: Become a member or renew your membership today. New member applications at New Members. Renewal forms at Renewing Members.
Thank you to those who attended our 2011 Installation and Awards Dinner and those who sponsored tables and/or ads. .
NAPABA 2012 Washington DC
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President: Rudhir Patel is a Principal at Fish & Richardson, PC where his practice emphasizes patent litigation in fields such as consumer electronics, computer hardware, industrial machines, and integrated circuits. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, Rudhir served as a law clerk to Judge Andre M. Davis of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. He graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and with a J.D. from the University of Maryland. Rudhir remains active in local and national bar associations, having served as President of the South Asian Bar Association, DC Chapter (2004-05) and on the Executive Board of the North American South Asian Bar Association, as Chair of the National Convention (2004-05). Rudhir also currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Children's Law Center. |
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President-Elect: Christopher Y. Chan is an associate in the Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical Practice Group of Finnegan Henderson. Mr. Chan focuses his practice on preparing and prosecuting patent applications as well as on patent litigation before U.S. district courts. Chris grew up in New Jersey and attended Duke University majoring in Biology and Psychology and minoring in Chemistry. After 3 years of business consulting, he finished a project in India and returned to the United States to enroll in Case Western Reserve School of Law. Chris is admitted to practice in California and the District of Columbia and formerly served as AEF’s President and Treasurer. |
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Immediate Past President: David Hsu is an Assistant Director in the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to joining the federal government, Mr. Hsu was an associate with the law firms of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California, and Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson in New York City, where his practice focused on corporate and securities transactions. Mr. Hsu received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was Chair of the Pacific Islander Asian and Native American Law Student Association (PANA) and a Symposium Editor on the Yale Law Journal. Mr. Hsu received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in Economics. |
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Vice President for Communications: Mia Haessly is an associate at Miller and Chevalier, where she focuses her practice on white collar defense, civil litigation, and government investigation matters. Mia maintains an active pro bono practice, including work with the Mid Atlantic Innocence Project. Mia attended law school at the University of Wisconsin, where she served as an articles editor for the Wisconsin Law Review and a board member of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. |
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Vice President for Community Affairs: Helen Y. Lee is an associate in the Global Banking Group at the law firm of Paul Hastings. Helen’s practice encompasses both securities and regulatory matters involving banks and other financial institutions. Helen was born and raised in New York City, where she received her B.A. in Politics, cum laude, from New York University in 2004. She received her J.D. in 2008 from The George Washington University Law School. Helen is conversant in Cantonese and Mandarin, and is a member of the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey bars. |
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Vice President for Education: Keo Chea works as an Adjudicator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, where she adjudicates civil rights discrimination complaints filed by farmers against the USDA. Previously, Ms. Chea served as Counsel for the House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity from 2009-2010. Before coming to Washington D.C., Ms. Chea worked at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, California as a Shartsis Friese Public Interest Law Fellow where she represented minority, low-income clients in public benefits administrative law hearings. Keo Chea performed her undergraduate studies at University of California, Davis, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Public Service in 2001. Ms. Chea received her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2006. |
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Vice President for Membership: X. Blake Sparrow is a litigation associate in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s Washington, DC office. Prior to joining Simpson Thacher, Blake was a law clerk to the Honorable Gerald Bruce Lee of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He attended Amherst College and graduated from the Howard University School of Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Howard Law Journal. Blake is a native Washingtonian, and he currently serves on the Alumni Association Board of the St. Albans School, his alma mater. |
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Vice President for Programs: Lana Jeng is a Counsel at the Board of Veteran's Appeals, Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to joining the federal government, she clerked for Judge Eric Johnson of the Montgomery County Circuit Court, 6th Judicial Circuit of Maryland. She recieved her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Boston University, where she majored in political science. |
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Treasurer: Annette Kwok is an associate at Roberts Mlotkowski Safran & Cole P.C. Ms. Kwok focuses her practice in patent law, which includes counseling clients on a wide variety of patent procurement and enforcement issues, as well as intellectual property strategy and licensing issues. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Kwok was a synthetic organic chemist with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute. She is a named inventor on five patents in the area of pharmaceuticals. Ms. Kwok received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and her J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center. Ms. Kwok grew up in Hong Kong and is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. |
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Secretary:Stephanie Yu serves as Counsel to the Environmental Appeals Board at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and assists the four-judge Board in preparing final Agency decisions in administrative enforcement actions and permit appeals. Since 2008, Stephanie has served on the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area, as the Government Attorneys Forum Co-Chair, Newsletter Editor, and Secretary. She is also a co-chair of the Media/Public Relations Committee for the 2012 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Convention. In July 2011, Stephanie commenced a three-year term as a Dartmouth College Alumni Council representative for the Dartmouth Asian Pacific American Alumni Association. Stephanie earned a J.D., with honors, from the George Washington University Law School and an A.B. in Geography, with honors, from Dartmouth College. |
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Newsletter Editor: Edmund H. Chiang joined the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2008 through the Attorney Honors Program. He issues appellate decisions in federal sector employment discrimination cases and occasionally presents case updates to attorneys on emerging legal issues and trends. Before joining the Commission, Mr. Chiang served as a law clerk to Judge Kathianne Knaup Crane of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in Economics and a Certificate in East Asian Studies. He received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Washington University Global Studies Law Review. |
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Government Attorneys Forum Co-Chair: Smeeta Ramarathnam specializes in a wide portfolio of financial reform and securities law issues. She currently serves as the chief of staff to the Honorable Luis A. Aguilar, one of five Commissioners of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Her job responsibilities include, among many others, negotiating on policy matters, participating in meetings on a wide-ranging number of securities policy issues, and managing the Office of Commissioner Aguilar. Prior to her appointment to Commissioner Aguilar’s staff, Smeeta has served in a number of other capacities at the Commission, including as counsel to former Commissioner Roel Campos, and as an attorney in the Legal Policy Group of the Office of the General Counsel and in the Division of Investment Management. Prior to joining the Commission, Smeeta worked for several years in an investment management practice of a large international law firm. Smeeta was also a law clerk for the Honorable Deborah Chasanow of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, and received her JD and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University. |
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Government Attorneys Forum Co-Chair: Ziyang D. Fan is the Assistant General Counsel for East Asia, Eurasia, and South Asia at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. Prior to joining the federal government, Mr. Fan was an associate in the Beijing office of Shearman & Sterling LLP practicing in the areas of corporation and securities laws. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Brenda J. Hollar at the U.S. Virgin Islands Superior Court. Mr. Fan received his law degree from the George Washington University Law School and his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin -- Madison, where he double-majored in Political Science and Economics |
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In-House Committee Co-Chair: Ada Loo is Counsel of Global Trade Controls for The Boeing Company. A native of Georgia, Ada attended Emory University and later worked for a member of the U.S. Congress, both in Georgia and in Washington, D.C. In the summer of 1999, while attending American University’s Washington College of Law, Ada received an AEF summer fellowship. In conjunction with her service on the AEF board, she previously served as the pro bono General Counsel for OCA National. |
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In-House Committee Co-Chair: Ankur Shah is the Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property at Freddie Mac in McLean, Virginia. In that role, he is responsible for IP portfolio development, patent prosecution, licensing and litigation as well as copyright, trademark and trade secret matters. He joined Freddie Mac in 2005 as its first in-house IP counsel. While in private practice, he was an attorney in the Washington, DC office of Foley & Lardner where his practice included counseling a wide range of public and private companies on patents, licensing and other intellectual property matters. He received his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, while serving on the publication staff of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal. He also earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, with Honors, from the Pennsylvania State University. |
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Nominations Committee Co-Chair: Rosy Lor |
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Nominations Committee Co-Chair: Sue Yun Ahn |
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Partners Forum Co-Chair: Goutam Patnaik is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group of Pepper Hamilton LLP, resident in the Washington office. Mr. Patnaik concentrates his practice on intellectual property and commercial matters, including patent, trademark and copyright disputes. Mr. Patnaik has extensive experience with Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission, as well as District Court litigation. He has litigated matters involving a variety of industries and technologies, including sucralose manufacturing, wireless conference calling devices, NOR and NAND flash memory devices, online medical monitoring systems, interactive online lottery products and wireless technology. His transactional experience includes negotiating and drafting licensing agreements for the development, use and maintenance of software applications in the banking and insurance industries, as well numerous patent licenses and other IP-related agreements. Prior to joining Pepper Hamilton, Mr. Patnaik was a partner with Bingham McCutchen in Washington, D.C. He received his B.S. in 1994 from the University of Virginia, and his J.D. in 1998, from the George Mason University School of Law. |
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Partners Forum Co-Chair: Ken Wu graduated from Washington University School of Law where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Global Studies Law Review. During law school, Mr. Wu interned for EEOC Vice Chair Paul Igasaki. Ken specializes in representation of federal and private sector employees in discrimination cases at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and state and federal courts. Ken is from Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University where he majored in Molecular Biology and minored in Art History. At Northwestern, Ken was a board member on the Asian American Advisory Board, which was instrumental in establishing an Asian American Studies at the school. |
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PAR Co-Chair: Cathy Chen is an attorney in the Intellectual Property practice group at Dickstein Shapiro LLP where she focuses her practice on patent litigation before U.S. district courts and the Federal Circuit and on preparing and prosecuting patent applications before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Prior to her current position at Dickstein Shapiro, she was a senior software engineer at Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems & Solutions and a computer scientist at General Electric Global Research. Ms. Chen received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law, her M.S. in Computer and Systems Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. |
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PAR Co-Chair: Lucy Grace Noyola is an associate at Crowell & Moring, where she focuses her practice on intellectual property and other complex litigation matters, such as antitrust and consumer class actions. Lucy Grace is also actively involved in pro bono work and has represented clients in landlord-tenant disputes and wage-hour cases. She served as Crowell & Moring’s first loaned associate with the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. As a Legal Aid attorney, she represented low-income tenants in eviction proceedings in D.C. Superior Court and in administrative hearings before the D.C. Housing Authority. Lucy Grace is a member of her firm’s Diversity Council and is also a member of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Rice University and a J.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. |
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Women’s Forum Co-Chair: Born in India and raised in Texas, Priya Nair received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University, with Honors in the Liberal Arts. Priya received her Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University School of Law. After law school, she attended Georgetown University Law Center, from which she received an LL.M. in Taxation. Currently, Priya is a Tax Law Editor at the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. |
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Women’s Forum Co-Chair: Mariel Lim is Legislative Counsel to Congressman Albio Sires (NJ-13). She staffs the Member at Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearings. Her policy portfolio primarily includes issues relating to transportation, education, elections, labor, and women’s issues. Previously, she worked for another Member of Congress on similar legislative issues, and has acted as a liaison to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), New Democrat Coalition, and Congressional Progressive Caucus. Last year, Mariel was Co-chair to APABA-DC’s Women’s Forum, President of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association (CAPASA) and Community Service Chair for the Women’s Congressional Staff Association (WCSA). She currently serves as Community Service Chair to WCSA. Mariel graduated from Valparaiso University School of Law, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Binghamton University |
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AEF President (ex officio): Nguyen Vu is an Associate in the Washington, DC office of Bingham McCutchen LLP, where his practice includes representing wireless and wireline carriers before the Federal Communications Commission and state utilities commissions in a wide variety of regulatory and rulemaking proceedings. Nguyen also advises communications carriers, banks, venture capitalists, private equity and other investment companies on the regulatory aspects of mergers, acquisitions and other corporate transactions as well as financing and debt arrangements. Nguyen also serves on the board of the Vietnamese American Bar Association of the Greater Washington D.C. Area, and is a Co-Chair of the Membership and Marketing Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association. |
