Congratulations to Richard Pio Roda from Meyers Nave who has been elected President of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California.

Congratulations to Xavier Jay Alvarez who has been named a partner at Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geler Rudman & Robbins LLP.

Congratulations to G.A. Finch, a partner at Michael Best & Friedrich, who was honored by Chicago United as a Business Leader of Color for 2005.

Benjamin Lo has moved from Ungaretti & Harris to Shefsky & Froelich as a partner in litigation and employment.

Congratulations are extended to Leslie C. Overton who became a partner at Jones Day in Washington.

Congratulations to George Yee who was elected to the partnership at Townsend and Townsend and Crew in Palo Alto, California.

Congratulations to Hang Nina Nguyen and Hung Tran who were awarded the Seventh Annual Clients’ Security Board’s William J. LeDoux Award.

Congratulations are in order for Eunice Kim Chapon who is now a partner at Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.

Sherry Yee Mulloy is now with the Professional Liability Group at Peabody & Arnold LLP.

Jose M. de Lasa has joined the firm of Baker & McKenzie as a partner in healthcare and corporate governance from his position as general counsel at Abbott Laboratories.

The DePaul University College of Law Latino Law Student Association has awarded the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award to Cook County Circuit Judge Raymond A. Figueroa. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Warren Huang in Houston, Texas, who was named a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.

John Y. Lee has moved from McGuire Woods LLP to Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP.

Congratulations to Eva Paterson who was honored at the National Bar Association’s 17 th Annual Wiley Branton Awards Luncheon.

Congratulations to Pedro J. Rivera who was selected as one of 2005’s PA Lawyers on the Fast Track and was honored at a dinner held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Congratulations are extended to Edward Davis who moved from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP to the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP as a partner in the Corporate Practice Group.

Lydia Gonzalez has become a member of the firm of Beveridge & Diamond in their Austin, Texas office from her position as deputy director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Congratulations to corporate attorneys Beatriz Azcuy-Diaz ( Miami) and Soo-Jin Shim ( New York) who have been elected to the partnership at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

Roderick A. Palmore, general counsel and secretary of the Sara Lee Corporation, has received the Equal Justice Works Scales of Justice Award for his work in improving diversity.

The Association of Corporate Counsel has awarded the 2005 Excellence in Corporate Practice Award to Gloria Santona, general counsel at McDonald’s Corporation, who has worked on a program to educate children about the legal profession.

Ricardo Meza is now the Midwest Regional Counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and comes from the Utreras Law Offices.

Demetrius E. Carney, previously from Wildman Harrold Allen & Dixon, is now a partner at Perkins Coie.

Farhad K. Patel has moved from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to Chapman and Cutler as a partner in corporate finance.

Now serving on the 1 st District Committee on Character and Fitness is Aurora N. Abella-Austriaco from Peck, Bloom, Austriaco & Mitchell, appointed by the State of Illinois Supreme Court.

Congratulations to Ivan K. Fong and Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., recipients of the 2006 Justice in Action Award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Jorge Gutierrez and Bert Diaz have joined Akerman Senterfitt in Orlando, Florida, as partners (transactions) in the new global practice group.

Congratulations are extended to Chiu-Ti Jansen who is now a partner (corporate) at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae in New York.

Sailesh K. Patel is also given our congratulations as a new partner in intellectual property at Schiff Hardin in Chicago.

Tin-Chuen Yeung has left Bell, Boyd & Lloyd with others to found Everest Intellectual Property Law Group.

Congratulations to Charleston C.K. Wang who won an appeal in a Third Preference Employment Benefit Case involving a specialty ethnic Chef to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) of USCIS.

Congratulations to Lan Hoang who has been promoted to director of Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C.

Anthony Acevedo deserves congratulations for his promotion (counsel, corporate) at Dewey Ballantine in New York.

At Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, S. Raj Chatterjee (litigation), Jaclyn Liu (corporate),and Peter J. Yim (patents) have all been elected as partners.

Congratulations to Dale Minami (Personal Injury), Don Tamaki (Corporate), Brad Yamauchi (Employment), Minette Kwok (Immigration), Jack Lee (Employment), and Lynda Won-Chung (Immigration) from Minami, Lew & Tamaki LLP who were all named as Northern California “Super Lawyers” for 2005 by Law & Politics.

A key court decision was won by Jack W. Lee, John Ota and Sonia Merida from Minami, Lew & Tamaki LLP in a class action wage and hour lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Brad Yamauchi and Matthew Siroka,also from Minami, Lew & Tamaki LLP, had a success on the civil rights front in Braun, et al. v. County of San Mateo.

Congratulations to Jack W. Lee, a newly selected member (October 2005) of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.

Congratulations to John H. Chun, now partner at Preston Gates & Ellis LLP in Seattle, who in 2005 was listed as a “Super Lawyer” in Washington Law & Politics and in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list.

Congratulations are extended to Joan Haratani from Morgan Lewis who was named by the Daily Journal as one of the “Top 75 Women Litigators” in California.

Ted Lieu deserves congratulations for being elected to the California State Assembly for the 53 rd District of California.

Congratulations to My Chi To who is now a partner Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.

Congratulations are in order for Garrett Wong, appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the San Francisco County Superior Court.

Alphonso David with Lambda Legal in New York works on public interest cases and fights for LGBT rights, taking cases in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Adrienne Nelson who was appointed by Governor Kulongoski of Oregon to the Multnomah County Circuit Court, making her the only African American woman on the bench in Oregon and only the second to have been appointed.

Congratulations to LaDale K. George who was named a partner (health care) at Foley & Lardner in Chicago.

Coming from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of enforcement as a branch chief, Asheesh Goel is now a partner with the litigation practice at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago.

Condolences are extended to the family of Delbert Wong who passed at age 85 and was the first Chinese American judge in the continental U.S.

Back to current Commission Reporter

Have some good, bad, happy or sad news you’d like to share with minority lawyers and others interested in diversity issues? E-mail any announcements or other news (personal or professional) to the Commission on Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the Profession at yamates@staff.abanet.org– of course, the Commission reserves the right to edit or refuse publication of any submission.