APABA, a 501(c)(6) organization, is the oldest and largest association of Asian Pacific American attorneys in the Washington, DC area. Founded in 1981, APABA is an affiliate chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. This blog is the product of efforts by the APABA Executive Board. It will provide updates on APABA activities and serve as a forum for feedback. APABA encourages its members to post their thoughts as comments to this blog.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Government Attorneys Forum of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area (“APABA-DC”)

and the

Korean American Coalition, Washington DC Chapter (“KAC-DC”)

JOINT NETWORKING HAPPY HOUR
on

Wednesday, April 4, 2007, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

at

Panache
1725 Desales St., NW
Washington, DC
202-293-7760

Directions: Panache is located on Desales St., next to the ABC News bureau. Desales St. connects Connecticut and 17th Street and is located between L Street and M Street. Closest Metro stations are Dupont Circle and Farragut North.

Happy Hour
Specials:
Happy Hour House Wines $4
Happy Hour Beer (Import) $5
Happy Hour Beer (Domestic) $4
House Martini’s—Cosmo, Sour Apple, Infused Vodka
All Rail drinks $5

Questions: If you have any questions or if you are interested in becoming involved with the APABA-DC Government Attorneys Forum, please contact David Hsu at governmentforum@apaba-dc.org. For more information about APABA-DC, visit http://www.apaba-dc.org/.

Mission Statement of the APABA-DC Government Attorneys Forum: The purpose of the Government Attorneys Forum of APABA-DC is to encourage and support APA attorneys at all levels of the federal and local governments, cultivate an understanding of the issues facing APA government attorneys, promote the value of public service, increase the representation of APA attorneys in all branches of government, and further their advancement, by providing substantive legal programming, career advice seminars, and social and networking opportunities.

About KAC-DC: The Korean American Coalition (KAC) is a non-profit, non-partisan, community advocacy organization. Established in 1983, KAC's mission is to facilitate the Korean American community's participation in civic, legislative, and community affairs, encouraging the community to contribute to and become an integral part of American society.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Speed Networking

APABA-DC
Practicing Attorney Resource Program


You’ve heard it before – it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know. And here in the D.C. metro area, it couldn’t be truer. But have you ever been to a traditional networking event, like a conference, and left without making a single new connection because everyone seemed to gravitate towards those they already knew, including you?

Welcome to the world of Speed Networking, the new urban trend where you are guaranteed to meet several new people you wouldn’t otherwise meet without the awkward small talk.

Come join APABA-DC members and meet one another for the first time – there are likely to be people in the room who would make promising contacts and friends. Participants will also learn useful tips on how to be a more effective networker.

When: Thursday, April 26, 2007
6:30pm – 8:30pm

Location: Wiley Rein LLP
1776 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006

Closest metro stops are Farragut West on the blue and orange lines and Farragut North on the red line

http://www.wileyrein.com/about.cfm?sp=contact&office_ID=2#metro

(Refreshments and hors d'oeuvres will be provided. There is no charge for the event.)

Contact: Please RSVP to Leah Frazier at par@apaba-dc.org by April 23, 2007.

Please also help us make the event as beneficial as possible by letting us know what you would like to gain from the networking experience when you RSVP.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007


Breaking Common Barriers:
Fourth Tuesdays Brown Bag Roundtable Discussions

Sponsored by:

  • Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia , Diversity Forum and Initiative on the Retention and Advancement of Women;
  • Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington DC Area, Women’s Forum;
  • Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia; and
  • the Greater Washington Area Chapter, Women Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association

Please join us for a brown bag lunch where women attorneys from diverse backgrounds and with diverse experiences tackle topics that affect advancement and retention for minority women in today’s law firms.

Each roundtable luncheon will focus on a different area or issue, such as: mentorship, business development, cultural standards that may serve as barriers and more. We will come together to find practical solutions to the everyday issues we face as women practicing law.

Each “Fourth Tuesday” lunch in March, April, May and June will be facilitated by a law firm partner who has her experience and insight to share. These luncheons are intended to be a discussion, so after an introduction and a few words from the Fourth Tuesday speaker on day’s topic, participation will be encouraged.

“Mentorship – What it Means and What it Can Do For You”
Kimberly Tan Majure, Partner, Miller & Chevalier LLP Tuesday, March 27, 2007

“Five Tips to Achieve Law Firm Success”
Christina Guerola Sarchio, Partner, Howrey LLP
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

“Business Development & the Minority Lawyer”
Grace E. Speights, Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

“Diversity Backlash – Why it is Happening and How to Counter It”
Holly E. Loiseau, Partner, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

All programs will be from:
12:30-1:30 pm at
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP
1300 I St. , NW
Washington, DC 20037


***Registration is limited to 30 participants for each program, so please register early!***
$5 Members of Sponsoring Organizations; $10 All Others
Please RSVP at http://www.wbadc.org/


APABA-DC Women’s Forum
Affordable Housing:
Why it Matters to the APA Community and the Legal Tools Available

By Saleela Salahuddin,
APABA-DC Women’s Forum Member

The APABA-DC Women’s Forum hosted a panel discussion on “Preserving Affordable Housing: Why it Matters to the APA Community and the Legal Tools Available” on Wednesday, March 14, 2006, at the law offices of Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Washington, D.C. About 20 participants attended the event. The panelists included:

· Lisa Hasegawa, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD);

· Richard C. Eisen, principal at the law firm of Eisen & Rome, P.C., which focuses on housing and real estate and premise liability;

· Christopher J. Anderson, Manager of Single Family Housing Programs in the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs; and

· Kyrus L. Freeman, an attorney with the law firm of Holland & Knight, LLP, who serves as the Chair of the Land Use Committee of the D.C. Bar’s Real Estate, Housing and Land Use Section.

Rosy Lor, Co-Chair of the Women’s Forum and moderator of the event, began the discussion with eye-opening statistics regarding the cost of housing in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and its dramatic increase over the past five years. Explaining that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development describes affordable housing as a situation where a person spends no more than 30% of his or her annual income on housing, she noted that HUD estimates some 12 million people in the United States spend more than 50% of their income on housing.[1] The local non-profit So Others Might Eat reports that possibly more than 20% of the population in D.C., some 580,000 people, does not have stable affordable housing.[2]

Ms. Hasegawa observed that there is a lack of data about affordable housing for Asian Americans. Especially among more recent immigrant communities, there is also a “tension between affordability against language ability.” As an illustration, she noted that there are established language resources in the affordable housing arena for Spanish and Chinese immigrant communities, but a lack of similar resources in other languages, such as Cambodian and Urdu. She described situations where Cambodian immigrants have been sent rent increase notices in the mail that were in Chinese because that was the only Asian language material on hand. Examples such as these underscore the need, she said, for more people with much-needed linguistic and cultural skills to get involved with organizations such as National CAPACD (www.nationalcapacd.org), whose mission it is to serve the housing and community development needs of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities nationwide.

Mr. Eisen, who has been practicing affordable housing law in the District for more than 35 years, described the local affordable housing scene as a network of lawyers, architects, developers, and advocacy groups. He said that the role for the lawyer in advocating for tenants is one in which the interests of tenant groups have to be balanced against the interests of the local government, as well as real estate developers. Mr. Eisen said that there are many ways to work as a lawyer in the affordable housing area. He spoke of success stories in dealing with non-profit real estate developers who specialize in rehabilitating vacant, boarded-up buildings and renovating them for affordable housing rentals. Two local non-profits that do this are Manna, Inc. (www.mannadc.org) and East of the River Community Development Corporation (www.ercdc.org).

Mr. Anderson spoke about zoning issues in Montgomery County, Maryland, which in 1974 enacted the country’s first mandatory inclusionary zoning law—also referred to as the Moderately Price Dwelling Unit (MPDU) Program. Inclusionary zoning, Mr. Anderson explained, occurs when a local government grants a developer the permission to build extra housing units in a residentially zoned area so long as those units are designated and priced to be affordable. In addition to creating more affordable housing, this policy has lead to Montgomery County being “ethnically and economically diverse,” especially in communities developed since 1974. Mr. Anderson noted, however, that Montgomery County is quickly getting “built out” because one-third of the county is an agricultural reserve and will never be developed. Furthermore, there is an ever-increasing demand for housing across the board, not just affordable housing. In 2006, for example, there were only 400 affordable housing units produced, but there was a wait list of 1,600 people for those units. He also said there are language barriers to providing affordable housing education to non-English and non-Spanish speakers. He noted that providing housing education to Asian Americans is one area that needs particular attention.

Mr. Freeman noted that in response to the development boom seen in the District over the past few years, combined with the decrease in affordable housing, the D.C. government in May 2006 adopted inclusionary zoning. The inclusionary zoning law would apply to developments of 10 housing units or more. However, this law will only become effective once the zoning commission adopts a map of where the zoning will apply and the mayor adopts a process to determine which families can live where. One of the requirements of the adopted zoning measures will be for developers to offer affordable housing units in the same way that “market rate” units are offered: they need to be distributed throughout a development (not just on the ground floor of a high-rise condominium, for example) and look the same on the interior as other units. Mr. Freeman explained that one potential long-term issue is if developers plead economic hardship in constructing affordable housing units at a particular site and build them on land they own elsewhere (which is allowed under the inclusionary zoning law). This situation would have the potential of contradicting one of the goals of inclusionary zoning, which is to promote economically and culturally diverse communities, if the affordable units built by a developer is concentrated in one area.

The panel discussion succeeded in providing participants with a basic understanding of this important topic faced by the Asian American community and insight on how attorneys can help in the mission to preserve affordable housing.

For the attorney hoping to address affordable housing in the District and surrounding metropolitan areas, Mr. Freeman and the other panelists recommended doing the following:

· Working for a federal or local government agency with an affordable housing focus
· Working for or volunteering with a non-profit real estate developer
· Developing a fair housing/pro bono practice within a private law firm
· Working with a non-profit such as the National Housing Law Project (www.nhlp.org), which
provides legal assistance, advocacy advice, and housing expertise
· Serving on a Board of Directors of an organization with an affordable housing focus and
applying legal and urban planning skills
· Working on committees focused on affordable housing through local bar associations
· Becoming a landlord of affordable housing units


[1] See http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/affordablehousing/index.cfm
[2] See http://www.some.org/inv_adv_housing.html.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Your Career as a Battlefield: Career Advancement and Development


APABA-DC’s Practicing Attorney Resource committee held an event on career advancement and development, titled “Your Career as a Battlefield,” on February 27, 2007, at the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP. Our speaker, Eileen Levitt, the founder and President of The HR Team, a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm, gave an informative talk and provided useful tips and suggestions for advancing our careers. Over 35 APABA-DC members and friends attended the event.

To motivate us to take action with respect to our careers, Ms. Levitt stressed the difference between “how” and “want.” Specifically, she noted that we may know how to advance our careers but we need to want to take action. The action we take should be sustained and continued. In that regard, Ms. Levitt recommended that we take slow and gradual changes and that we be comfortable with the changes.

Ms. Levitt then gave some specific tips for advancing our career. First, Ms. Levitt discussed the importance of presentation. She stressed that we should look confident. Much of what is “confidence” is in our head. If we think we are confident, we will believe it and become confident. She recommended that we stand confidently and smile. In addition, Ms. Levitt noted that, when delegating people often seek too much approval by saying, for example, “Will you do this, is that okay?” Ms. Levitt recommended instead saying, for example, “Our department was given this responsibility; I think you would be good at it, please do it.”

Second, Ms. Levitt recommended keeping track of our accomplishments in a “brag book.” Our brag books should contain specific examples that we can use to tell stories about what we accomplished. Ms. Levitt also mentioned that we should be comfortable asking for thank you notes and that we should keep those thank you notes. In return, we should write thank you notes, as people will appreciate them and be more likely to remember us.

Third, Ms. Levitt challenged us to think about five people within our organizations with influence and five people outside our organizations with influence. She suggested that we consider contacting those people and inviting them to lunch. She also stressed the importance of getting involved with committees. We may meet people at networking events or at work, but, in order to be memorable, we must do something on a regular basis.
Fourth, Mr. Levitt suggested that we should give specific examples of our accomplishments during our reviews. She noted that people often speak generally during reviews. It is much better to be more concrete. She said that our “brag books” will help us prepare and to remember the specifics.

Special thanks goes to Hrishi Karthikeyan and Kathy Ng for hosting the event at their firm, and to Covington & Burling LLP’s Diversity Committee for providing food and drinks. Thank you also to the PAR Committee volunteers for organizing and managing the event.