Earl Adams, Jr., formerly with Hogan & Hartson, is now an associate with Shipley & Horne, P.A. in Maryland.

Trung D. Tu from McEwen Gisvold LLP in Portland, Oregon, will be running for election for Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge in the Oregon May primary election.

Congratulations to Charlene L. Usher and her woman and minority-owned law firm, Usher Law Group, who is hosting a scholarship fundraising dinner celebrating achievement and diversity and their 5 th year anniversary on June 15, 2006.

Congratulations to the new executive director of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, Venu Gupta, who was previously the director of diversity education and outreach at Northwestern University School of Law.

Richard T. Choi, a new partner at Jorden Burt LLP in Washington D.C., leads the firm’s Mutual Funds & Investment Adviser Industry Group.

Sim Seo has moved from the South Korean law firm of Kim & Chang, to the Washington office of Baker & McKenzie, where she is a partner in the tax practice group.

Congratulations to Anita J. Ponder of Gardner, Carton & Douglas, who received the Leadership Award from the Chicago Commission on Human Relations during a March ceremony honoring women’s contributions to human relations and Women’s History Month.

Amy Cheng (franchise and distribution) deserves a note of congratulations for being named a partner at the Chicago office of DLA Piper, Rudnick, Gray, Cary.

Returning to Jenner & Block as partner is Gabriel A. Fuentes, who spent the last five years as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago and had previously worked with the firm from 1994-2001.

Congratulations to Commissioner Connye Harper who has just been appointed to a two year term as a Michigan State Bar Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates

Previously with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Sandhya Mehta has joined the mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property groups as of counsel for Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz in the firm’s Washington office.

Bich-Nga H. Nguyen has joined the Wills and Estates Department of Kaye Scholer LLP in New York.

Congratulations to Sharon Barner of Foley & Lardner in Chicago who has been named head of the firm’s Intellectual Property Department.

 Louis Wakatsuki has joined Faegre & Benson’s Frankfurt, Germany office as special counsel, arriving from the Frankfurt office of the German law firm Heussen, formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers Veltins.

The former head of the Korea practice at Dorsey & Whitney, Chang Joo Kim, is now a partner of the Korea practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in the firm’s New York office.

Previously a partner at Hartman & Craven in New York, Anthony T. Yeh has joined Wiggin & Dana’s real estate, environmental and land use department as partner in the firm’s Stamford, Connecticut office.

Congratulations to Hon. E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. who has been nominated to serve as Second Vice President of the Chicago Bar Association, putting him in line to become president. He is the first judge to be nominated to that position and will become the first judge to serve as Chicago Bar Association president.

Congratulations to Aurora Abella-Austriaco who has been appointed by the Chicago Bar Association Board of Managers to serve as one of its two delegates to the ABA House of Delegates.

Asker A. Saeed has joined the firm of Robinson & Cole in their Hartford office.

Congratulations to Amy Lin Meyerson who received the Edwin Archer Randolph Diversity Award from the Lawyers Collaborative for Diversity.

Sang-yul Lee, previously a senior associate at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, is now a partner of the labor and employment practice group of Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago. Also joining the Chicago Seyfarth Shaw office is Karen Harris.

Congratulations to Hon. R. Eugene Pincham who received the Earl Burrus Dickerson Award from the Chicago Bar Association.

The New York office of White & Case has a new partner in their financial restructuring and insolvency practice, Sandeep Qusba, who was previously a partner at O’Melveny & Myers.

Congratulations to Mona E. Dajani (real estate), Robert L. Fernandez (commercial financing) and Chunlin Leonhard (litigation and business regulation) who have been elected as partners at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago.

Claudio R. Chavez is now a partner of the real estate practice of Katten Muchin Rosenman in Los Angeles, previously a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

Congratulations to Shilpi Gupta (corporate law) who is a new partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in the Chicago office.

Li-Chung Daniel Ho from Jenner & Block and Brian A. Garcia from Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione have joined Leydig, Voit and Mayer.

Manu K. Bhardwaj has joined Butler, Rubin, Saltarelli & Boyd from Michael W. Coffield & Associates.

Congratulations to Lloyd Hara who was elected to the Port of Seattle Commission, making him the first Asian American on the Commission in its 94 year history.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges has a new partner in their New York office, Eric Huang.

Willard K. Tom, named one of “The Best Lawyers in America 2006” for antitrust law, recently testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission regarding exclusionary practices.

Congratulations to Mary Yu who became the first person of color to receive the Judge of the Year award (founded in 1996) by the Washington chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).

Benjamin T. Lo has joined the Kellogg Company’s Legal Department as Counsel for Employment and Labor.

Now with Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo is Nimesh Patel,who has joined the Corporate Diversity practice.

Condolences are extended to Richard Negrin and his wife, Karen,on the loss of their daughter, Abigail.

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.