MAKING CONTACT
Ethnic Bar Associations: More Than Just Good Food
By SANDI CAIN
Fabio Cabezas and Joe Chairez are colleagues at the Costa Mesa office of Baker & Hostetler LLP. But that’s not all they have in common.
Cabezas, a senior associate at the firm, is president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County; Chairez is president of the upstart Celtic Bar Association.
“We may be the only pair of ethnic bar association execs working at the same firm at the same time,” Chairez said.
But that doesn’t make them competitors. In fact, Chairez also sits on the board of the Hispanic Bar Association.
The Hispanic Bar was the first ethnic bar association in OC, while the two-year-old Celtic Bar is a new affiliate of the Orange County Bar Association. They aren’t alone when it comes to an ethnic focus in the legal profession. Such groups have proliferated as more members of minority and immigrant groups have entered the practice of law.
Japanese-American Bar Association board member Kevin Takeuchi said his group couldn’t find any other ethnic groups besides the Hispanic Bar when they started in 1990.
Now they are plentiful.
They range in size from the 35-member Japanese American Bar Association to the 500-plus Italian American Lawyers Association. And they range in longevity from the 28-year-old Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association to newcomers such as the Celtic Bar.
Regardless of their ethnicity, they share common goals: to advance professional growth within their ranks, to offer educational opportunities to members and to provide a social outlet for like-minded professionals. Few endorse political candidates, but all support member nominations to the bench or to other appointed offices.
Some offer community outreach, particularly for more recent immigrant groups. Most fund scholarships for budding lawyers and all have student members.
They also like to have fun.
“Sometimes people come to meetings dressed in kilts,” Chairez said of Celtic Bar members. “We’ve had a bagpipe player at some meetings, too.”
The group, which attracts 30 to 40 people to its monthly meetings at Muldoon’s across from Newport Beach’s Fashion Island mall, boasts a membership of more than 200.
Celtic Bar member Bill McDonald and piper Andy Scott: group has 200 members (photo).
Prominent OC attorney Wylie Aitken of Aitken, Aitken & Cohn and retired Orange County Superior Court Judge William McDonald are among its members. Aitken’s son, Darren, and Chairez began the group while attending a meeting in Aruba.
Next month, members from the Los Angeles-based Irish-American Bar Assoc-iation will come to Newport Beach for a joint meeting.
Such cross-cultural meetings are common.
In March, the Irish-American Bar will meet with the Italian American Lawyers Association for an annual event called “Gaelic and Garlic” that has become a tradition in downtown Los Angeles.
“Every meeting is a celebration,” the Italian American organization’s Web site proclaims.
Judy Cannavo, a sole practitioner in Long Beach and the current president of the organization, said fun is a key component for the 500 or so members.
“When people come the first time, they feel welcome and it’s not stressful,” she said. “You don’t hear (office) war stories at our meetings.”
At another annual event, the Italians get together with the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association for Marco Polo night.
That event stemmed from a friendly argument over who invented pasta,the Chinese or the Italians, Cannavo said.
Now it features a trivia quiz on Marco Polo and alternates between Italian and Chinese restaurants. Last year, the Orange County Japanese American Bar Association joined in the fun.
The Irish-American Bar also hosts a night at the races and the annual Daniel O’Connell Award Dinner,named in honor of an Irish statesman,to recognize the contributions of prominent Irish-Americans, while the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County hosts an annual barbecue for area judges.
“It’s a chance for our members to get to know the judges,” Cabezas said.
Good food helps draw members to association programs.
The Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, the oldest Asian bar association in California,even bills its annual installation dinner as “No Rubber Chicken” night.
Wendy Chang, the group’s president, said regular meetings are held at the Empress Pavilion in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.
“People come to eat. The meeting is secondary,” she joked.
Chang declined to provide membership numbers, but said the 28-year-old organization is an active one, with as many as five programs each month.
Many of the groups also conduct programs that count toward the profession’s mandatory continuing legal education credits.
Some of those feature high-profile speakers.
The Italian-Americans last fall held a “Night with the Supremes,” featuring six of the seven California Supreme Court justices. They’ve also featured Erin Brockovich, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.
The Hispanic Bar’s upcoming installation dinner and scholarship fund-raiser will feature retired California Supreme Court Justice John A. Arguelles; the mistress of ceremonies will be Sylvia Lopez of Channel 9 KCAL news.
Some groups plan other educational events.
Asian-American Bar members mentor law school students, the Japanese American Bar operates trial practice workshops and the Chinese American group provides low-cost continuing legal education programs for its members, many of whom are sole practitioners.
Continuing education credits also can be earned through tours.
The Hispanic American Bar’s Cabezas said the group recently gained about 40 new members who wanted to take part in next month’s educational trip to Cuba. Celtic Bar members will visit Ireland in the fall.
Each association is proud to support its members for judgeships or nominations to appointed positions. Some of them have a pretty good track record,especially for past presidents.
“Our past three presidents have become judges,” said Lei Lei Wang Ekvall, president of the Orange County Asian-American Bar Association.
The most recent of those was Kirk Nakamura, who was named to the Orange County Superior Court.
Mexican American Bar Association past president Carlos Moreno of Los Angeles now serves on the state Supreme Court.
And Tammy Chung Ryu, past president of the Korean American Bar Association in Los Angeles last year was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court. The Lomita resident is the first Korean-American woman to be named to a trial court or appellate court in California.
Other OC appointees include Celtic Bar members Cormac Carney and James DiCesare who were appointed to the Orange County Superior Court in 2002.
Ethnic organizations also take pride in their support of next-generation attorneys. Each organization provides some sort of scholarship assistance to ethnic law students. In addition, several work with area charities.
The Hispanic Bar Association provides scholarships to Latino law students through the Wallace R. Davis Memorial Scholarship Fund, named for one of the first Latino attorneys in OC. The Asian-American group has a separate fund-raising foundation that awards three to five scholarships each year.
Wang Ekvall said Chapman University has been particularly generous in its contributions to the Asian-American Bar Association’s scholarship fund.
The Irish American Bar sponsors four Irish law students as interns in federal and state courts each summer as well as a scholarship for a student at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Charitable contributions are numerous. Among them is the Chinese American Lawyers’ yearly food basket program that provides a week’s worth of food to as many as 250 families during the winter holidays.
“It’s the project I hold dearest to my heart,” said Chang, the organization’s president.
Meanwhile, the Celtic Bar is staging its first St. Patrick’s Day charity golf tournament at Pelican Hill Golf Club in March to benefit the Public Law Center.
Ethnic Bar Associations Active in OC
Orange County Asian American
Bar Association
Founded: early 1990s
Membership: 100
President: Lei Lei Wang Ekvall, partner at Albert Weiland & Golden LLP, Costa Mesa
Web site: www.ocaaba.org
Celtic Bar Association of Orange County
Founded: 2001
Membership: 220
President: Joe Chairez, partner at the Costa Mesa office of Baker & Hostetler LLP
Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County
Founded: 1978
Membership: 150
President: Fabio Cabezas, senior associate at the Costa Mesa office of Baker & Hostetler LLP
Web site: www.ochba.org
Orange County Japanese American Lawyers Association
Founded: circa 1990
Membership: 30 to 40
President: John Yasuda, a sole practitioner in Santa Ana
Vietnamese American Bar Association
Founded: circa 1987
Membership: 200
President: Lan Nguyen, acting executive director of Legal Assistance for Vietnamese Asylum Seekers, a columnist for Nguoi Viet Daily News and a commentator on Little Saigon Radio.
Los Angeles-based bar associations with OC members:
Irish-American Bar Association
Founded: 1980
Membership: 400
President: Tom Beck, senior partner and founder of Thon Beck Vanni Phillipi & Nutt in Pasadena
Italian American Lawyers Association
Founded: 1978
Membership: 500
President: Judy Cannavo, a sole practitioner in Long Beach
Web site: www.iala.lawzone.com
Korean American Bar Association of Southern California
Founded: 1980
Membership: 500
President: Jay J. Chung, senior associate with Lim Ruger & Kim LLP in Los Angeles
Web site: www.kabasocal.org
Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association
Founded: 1975
Membership: would not disclose
President: Wendy Chang, an associate at Baker, Keener & Nahra in Santa Monica
Web site: www.sccla.org
,Sandi Cain
