APABA-DC Board of Directors 2010-2011
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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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President-Elect: Rudhir Patel is an Associate 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). |
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Immediate Past President: Tacie Yoon is an associate in the Insurance and Bankruptcy Groups in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, DC office. Tacie devotes most of her time to representing insurers in asbestos-related bankruptcy litigation. Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, Tacie practiced for many years as a litigator. She has substantial experience representing franchisors in litigation arising from their franchise relationships. Those disputes typically involved contract-based claims, trademark enforcement claims under the Lanham Act, vicarious liability claims, and tortious interference claims. Tacie also counseled franchisors regarding the intricacies of laws that applied to the franchisors’ gift card programs. Tacie’s commercial litigation experience also includes representation of mortgage lenders in consumer class actions involving alleged breaches of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. |
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Vice President for Communications: Mia Haessly is an associate at Miller and Chevalier, where she focuses her practice on civil litigation, white collar defense, and government investigation matters. 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: 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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Vice President for Education: Anh-Thu “Anh” P. Mai-Windle is a Senior Litigation Counsel with the Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, she supports the hiring, training, development, and supervision of attorneys, and litigates numerous immigration cases before the various circuit courts of appeal, the United States Supreme Court, and many United States district courts. Her portfolio includes national security, visa, class action, and criminal cases. She previously served as a judicial law clerk and attorney advisor in the Executive Office for Immigration Review after joining the Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honor Program. Among her various professional, philanthropic, and community activities, she serves as the chair of the Department of Justice Asian Pacific American Employees Association and is a member of the Library of Congress Asian Division Friends Society. Her prior experience includes work as a mediator with the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center and as an editor and assistant publications director for a West Publishing affiliate. |
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Vice President for Membership: 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. |
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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 received 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 in the Intellectual Property group at Baker & Hostetler, LLP. 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. In addition, she is also experienced in preparing validity, infringement, freedom-to-operate and patentability opinions. |
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Secretary: Sara A. Bakker practices securities regulation at the Corporate Financing Department of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In this capacity, she reviews registration statements and underwriting documents for initial and secondary public offerings. Prior to joining FINRA, she clerked for the Honorable Michele D. Hotten, Associate Judge for the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland. |
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Newsletter Editor: 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. From August 2010 through January 2011, she is on detail to U.S. EPA’s Office of Regional Counsel in Seattle, focusing on Clean Water Act permitting, enforcement and regulatory matters. Prior to joining U.S. EPA, Ms. Yu was an Attorney-Advisor at the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court, and the Anheuser-Busch/Frank Horton fellow at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. Ms. Yu 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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Government Attorneys Forum Co-Chair: Christina Brito |
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Government Attorneys Forum Co-Chair: Frances Chang is a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of International Affairs, selected through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. Ms. Chang has also served an appointment as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, during which she prosecuted misdemeanor offenders in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. Prior to her legal career, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the northwestern province of Gansu, People’s Republic of China, and as an assistant editor of a foreign policy magazine in Washington, DC. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Ms. Chang received her B.A. in Government from Harvard College, and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. |
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In-House Committee Co-Chair: Benjamin Roca is Senior Counsel for Intellectual Property at Northrop Grumman where he provides counsel on the management of corporate intellectual property rights in government contracts as well as negotiating licensing and strategic alliance agreements with industry on key intellectual property assets, currently valued at several billion dollars. Prior to his current position at Northrop, he worked six years as Associate Patent Counsel at Johns Hopkins University-APL drafting several patent applications which he also did while an associate at the law firm of Darby & Darby in NYC. Mr. Roca started his career at the USPTO as the first US Patent Examiner in the field of Computer Science. Mr. Roca received his B.S degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park (Univ. Honors) and his J.D. from Catholic University. |
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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. |
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Nominations Committee Co-Chair: A registered patent lawyer, Phong Nguyen focuses his practice on all aspects of intellectual property law. Mr. Nguyen is experienced in prosecuting patents for semiconductors, medical devices, oil field equipment, polymers, automotive, mechanical, chemical, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology inventions. Additionally, he is active in PCT patent practice, patent infringement, patent prosecution appeals, patentability opinions and searches, patent validity and clearance opinions, due diligence and patent litigation. |
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Nominations Committee Co-Chair: Peter S. Ohr is a Deputy Assistant General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board in the Division of Operations-Management in Washington, D.C.. In his current position, he assists the General Counsel direct the work of the 32 NLRB Regional Offices throughout the United States. He is licensed to practice in the District of Columbia and the Federal District Court and State of Hawaii. Peter is a member of the D.C. Court of Appeals Committee on Admission, a past member of the State of Hawaii Board of Bar Examiners and a former ABA Government Fellow. He is on the board of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Education Fund, having served as its president in 2006-2007. Peter earned his BA from the University of California-Riverside, JD from Pepperdine School of Law, and MBA from Hawaii Pacific University. |
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Partners Forum Co-Chair: Lei Mei is the managing partner and a co-founder of Mei & Mark LLP, an IP and Litigation boutique law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously, Mr. Mei was a patent attorney at Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP, specializing in patent prosecution and litigation. Mr. Mei is an internationally recognized patent lawyer and author of an upcoming Oxford University Press book titled "How to Conduct Business in China: An Intellectual Property Perspective." Mr. Mei received his J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Duke Law School. He also holds two M.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Physics from Florida Atlantic University, and a B.S. degree in Physics from Jilin University, China. |
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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: Taron Murakami is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Seyfarth Shaw, LLP. She counsels and represents employers in single-plaintiff and multi-plaintiff litigation regarding all facets of employment law. Taron is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center where she was active in the Family Advocacy Clinic, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in American Studies and Political Science. Taron is a past president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund and serves on the National Advisory Council to the Asian American Justice Center. |
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Women’s Forum Co-Chair: Tessie Abraham serves as counsel to Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE) handling health care, financial services and judiciary issues. Born in Canada, Tessie was raised in California and attended the University of Waterloo where she earned a B.A. in political science. She later graduated from the University of San Diego’s School of Law and moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue public policy. |
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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 and prepares hearing materials by drafting opening statements, questions, and memoranda. Mariel also analyzes legislation, works with constituents and advocacy groups, drafts speeches, and is a liaison to the Livable Communities Task Force. 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 including health care, and also staffed that Member at Homeland Security Committee hearings. Further, Mariel 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. |
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AEF President (ex officio): Ada Loo is a senior associate in the Washington, DC office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, where her practice focuses on a wide range of international trade regulations and agreements. 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, DC. 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, Ada is also the pro bono General Counsel for the Organization of Chinese Americans. |
APABA-DC Assistant Vice Presidents 2010-2011
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Assistant Vice President for Communications: Vacant |
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Assistant Vice President for Community Affairs: Jane Yi |
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Assistant Vice President for Education: Eunice Chung |
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Assistant Vice President for Membership: Helen Y. Lee is an associate in the Global Banking Practice at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. Helen’s practice focuses primarily on bank regulatory matters and her experience has included assisting both foreign and domestic banking organizations with a broad range of issues involving federal and state banking laws and regulators. She was born and raised in New York City, where she received her B.A. in Politics, cum laude, from New York University in 2004. Helen received her J.D. in 2008 from The George Washington University Law School. She 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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Assistant Vice President for Programs: Jennifer Hwa |
