On June 8 and 9, I had the privilege of attending the Fourth Annual California Regional Conference of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) at Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites in San Diego. 

Founded in 1988, NAPABA is the only national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students all across the country.  NAPABA advocates for the legal needs and interests of the APA community.

  The conference was entitled, “Diversity in Justice – Empowerment in the Community.”  There were approximately 120 attendees, including judges, other public and elected officials, attorneys and law students.

The conference featured 12 panels, including a plenary session that spoke to the overall theme of the conference, “The Path to Diversity.” Other panels included “The Judicial Appointment Process,” “Does the Glass Ceiling Need Polishing? Legal Impediments to Gender Equality,” “A Balancing Act: How to Achieve a Work/Life Balance,” “What Keeps General Counsel Awake at Night,” “The Path to Partnership – Making Partner,” and “A Question of Life or Death, Closing Argument in a Capital Case.” 

The conference kicked off on June 8 with the annual SCAPAL (Southwest Center for Asian Pacific American Law) Golf Tournament. There was a welcome reception and awards ceremony following the golf tournament. To finish off the day, shuttles took conference attendees to the Gaslamp District of Downtown San Diego for some off campus networking and libations. 

The real meat of the conference occurred on June 9, when all of the panels were presented. I had the privilege of serving as a moderator and panelist for the panel entitled, “Losing Ground: Retention of APIAs in the Law.” This panel featured additional KABA board members Ekwan Rhow and Paul S. Park, along with our KABA colleague from NorCal, Jae Yi. Our panel focused on the question of whether or not retention of APIA attorneys in the law is an issue. We shared our collective and individual experiences as attorneys at large firms, small firms, and as in-house counsel. At the end of our discussion, we proposed one solution to the serious issue of retention  APIA attorneys: good mentoring. Our take-home message was thus that we all need mentoring, and we all need to be mentors to those younger than us, but we must be pro-active about both aspects of it.

The conference concluded with a networking cocktail reception and dinner. The keynote speaker was Associate Justice Ming W. Chin of the California Supreme Court, who is no stranger to NAPABA or the APA community, including our own KABA. (Justice Chin recently was the keynote speaker at KABA’s 27th annual installation and scholarship awards dinner this past May.) In his usual good-natured way, Justice Chin gave an inspiring speech that included lessons from his upbringing as an APA, his career as an attorney, and then judge. I remember clearly his oft-spoken words to those aspiring to become a judge, our numbers of which are staggeringly low (and which point was driven home at the conference by the number of panels involving the issue of APAs and the judiciary): “To be a good judge, one must first become a good lawyer.” Justice Chin’s personal philosophy is best summarized by his concept of “constant improvement,” which instills upon each of us that the responsibility for making our families, communities, and the world around us better today than yesterday.