ABA - Commission on Racial & Ethnic Diversity

Honorable Arthur Louis Burnett, Sr. Honorable Arthur Louis Burnett, Sr. was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia March 15, 1935. After graduating as the valedictorian of his high school class, he attended Howard University where he graduated summa cum laude and New York University Law School for his J.D. According to Judge Burnett, “ New York University Law School was not his first choice, the state of Virginia would not admit him to attend the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville, Virginia and there were no law schools for ‘ Negros Only’”. With potential litigation pending, the Commonwealth of Virginia agreed to pay for his education to attend New York University School of Law. Judge Burnett began his career as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in June 1958. While there he earned the Attorney General's Sustained Superior Performance Award. He left in April 1965 to become an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, a position he held for almost four years. He went on to become the first Legal Advisor, a position now described as General Counsel, for the Metropolitan Police Department. On June 26, 1969, Judge Burnett was appointed as one of the first two United States Magistrates for the District of Columbia and the first African American to serve as a Magistrate Judge in the United States. In 1975, he became Assistant General Counsel at the United States Civil Service Commission where he helped to develop the Reorganization Plans and the legislation creating the Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. He was one of the principal attorneys advising the Civil Service Commission members and President Jimmy Carter on government reorganization, civil service reforms and proposed legislation, and all federal government personnel issues. He returned to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as a Magistrate Judge in January 1980. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in November 1987 where he served until his retirement in October 1998. He took Senior Judge status the same year. Since retirement, Judge Burnett has been teaching as an adjunct law professor at two law schools and working with several civic, community and professional organizations to address the crisis of drug use and abuse in minority communities. Since August 1, 2004 he has been on sabbatical leave from the Superior Court serving as the National Executive Director, National African American Drug Policy Coalition. He has agreed to serve in this position for a period of at least two (2) years. During all of this illustrious legal career, Judge Burnett has always reached out and given back. As an United States Magistrate Judge and as a Superior Court Judge it is estimated that he has mentored over 2,000 law student judicial interns. In addition, his speeches to minority high school, college and law school audiences are too numerous to attempt to quantify. His efforts to bring diversity to our profession has always been hands on. Judge Burnett served as Chair of the ABA Judicial Division's National Conference of Special Court Judges 1974 - 1975. He is a former president of the National Council of United States Magistrate Judges; the District of Columbia chapter of the Federal Bar Association; and the Prettyman-Leventhal American Inn of Court. He is the recipient of the ABA National Conference of Special Court Judges' Franklin N. Flascher Judicial Award as the Outstanding Special Court Judge in 1985; the Federal Bar Association's President's Award; the National Bar Association's President's Award; in 2004 the National Bar Association’s Judicial Council Raymond Pace Alexander Award for Lifetime Contributions to Judicial Advocacy; also in 2004 the National Bar Association’s highest award, the C. Francis Stradford Award; the National Conference of State Trial Judges Award as one of its Outstanding Judges in 1999, and the Ollie May Cooper Award of the Washington Bar Association.
Jose C. Feliciano José C. Feliciano was born in Yauco, Puerto Rico. He graduated from John Carroll University with his Bachelor of Arts degree, before earning his law degree at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and his MBA from Cleveland State University. José began his career practicing poverty law as a staff attorney with the Cleveland Legal Aid Society. He became a Cuyahoga County Public Defender, defending criminal matters that ranged from grand theft to murder. In 1980, he became the City of Cleveland’s Chief Prosecuting Attorney. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan appointed him a White House Fellow. Currently, he is a Senior Trial Attorney and Partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP. José was elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1995 and is a Life Member of the Judicial Conference, Eighth Judicial District, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Law. He is a former member of the ABA Board of Governors, former Chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and former ABA representative to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, where he participated in drafting the Uniform Mediation Act. He is also a Past President of the Cleveland Bar Association, where he created a minority counsel task force to address the issues of minorities in the professsion. José has served on the Boards of the Cleveland Ballet, the Cleveland Children’s Museum, United Way Services, the Cleveland Scholarship Program, the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, and the National Conference of Christians & Jews. Mr. Feliciano is former Chairman of the Hispanic Leadership Development Program and founder of the Hispanic Community Forum, for which he also served as President. He was also a founder of the Ohio Hispanic Bar Association and served as its Vice President. Mr. Feliciano was recently selected as Hispanic of the Year by the Nueves Horizontes Newspaper. He received the Federal Bar Association Boots Fisher Civic Achievement Award, as well as the Hispanic Political Action Committee Civic Award for his dedication to professional development and service to numerous nonprofit charitable organizations. Throughout, José has been one of the bar’s most vocal proponents for greater racial and ethnic diversity. As Section Chair, he aggressively recruited minorities and women as members and helped them attain positions of leadership; many of the Section of Dispute Resolution’s current minority leaders attribute their involvement in the Section to José’s mentoring. As Chair of the Section’s Nominating Committee, he once, in the middle of a meeting, canceled it and challenged committee members to reach out to identify new leaders from traditionally underrepresented groups before he would reconvene the meeting.
Emanuel B. Halper Emanuel B. Halper grew up in New York City. He graduated from the City University of New York with honors and Columbia University Law School. Nevertheless, he couldn’t find a job as a lawyer for two years. He wasn’t the only one with his background having a hard time finding a job. For Jewish law graduates of the 1950s, employment opportunities with prestigious New York law firms were limited. He persevered. Eventually, Manny became a real estate developer and a founding partner, and later senior partner, with Zissu Berman Halper & Gumbinger. There, he built up a commercial real estate practice, specializing in shopping center, office and industrial leases, ground leases, financing transactions, and development contracts. Currently, Manny is the President of American Development & Consulting Corporation. Throughout his career, Manny has been involved in bar activities. He has long been an active member of the ABA Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section and formerly served on the Section’s Council, as well as on various Section committees, including its Diversity Committee. Manny has taught at New York University’s Real Estate Institute, the University of Wisconsin’s Graduate School of Business and other educational institutions. Currently, he is a Special Professor of Law at Hofstra University Law School. He has authored three books and numerous articles on various aspects of real estate law. He is a recipient of New York University’s award for teaching excellence and Hofstra University Law School’s Dean’s List Award. Before becoming a lawyer and for a long time after that, he was a professional dance lawyer and ballroom dance instructor. In 1999, Manny launched a collaborative effort with the local minority bar groups in New York City and developed the Community Minority Outreach Program, a 14-week program that teaches minority lawyers the practical aspects of commercial real estate law. This is not a remedial real property class but rather a series of practical lessons to give minority lawyers exposure to and mentoring in this area of practice that they might otherwise never receive. Manny developed the curriculum, found financial support, and, by calling on his friends, enlisted attorneys to join him in donating time and sharing wisdom and experiences as teacher/mentors. No fee is charged for participation but minority lawyers who participate are encouraged to use this education to give something back to their communities through pro bono work using the training they have received. Through Manny’s efforts in developing the Community Minority Outreach Program, the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section has “forged relationships with a number of ethnic and minority bar associations in the City of New York . . .” wrote one nominator. “Just as importantly, his efforts challenged the Section to expand the program . . .” Indeed, the Minority Outreach Program has proven so successful that it has expanded both geographically -- into cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C. -- and substantively, into residential real estate and probate and trust law.
Karen K. Narasaki Karen K. Narasaki is a Seattle native. As a high school student, she was a National Merit Scholar. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and Order of the Coif from the UCLA School of Law. After a clerkship for Judge Harry Pregerson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Los Angeles, she joined Perkins Coie in Seattle, practicing corporate law. After six years, she left Seattle to become the Washington, D.C. representative for the Japanese American Citizens League, the nation's oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization. Currently, she serves as President and Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), where she has become widely recognized as one of the nation's most effective advocates for Asian Pacific Americans and other minority group members. Recognizing that only through affirmative action efforts was she given opportunities, Karen continues to advocate for such programs. She led NAPALC’s efforts to include Asian Pacific American voices in support of affirmative action in the nationwide debate surrounding Grutter v. Bollinger. Karen has advocated for diversity at the highest levels including her leading role in the confirmation of Bill Lann Lee as the first Asian American Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She has written and spoken widely on issues of diversity in the legal profession and in corporate America. She has led a coalition pushing for diversity in the media and has worked with ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX to create programs to improve the inclusion and depiction of Asian Americans and other minorities. Karen serves as Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation’s oldest and most effective civil rights coalitions. She also serves on the Board of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Independent Sector. A leading advocate on immigrant rights, she is Vice President of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and Chairs the Rights Working Group, a coalition of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and immigrant rights groups working to address the erosion of basic rights after 9/ll. She also chairs the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition. A nationally recognized expert on immigrant rights, voting rights, affirmative action and civil rights, Karen has appeared on ABC and CBS News, the Fox News Channel, the Jim Lehrer Newshour, Hardball with Chris Mathews, America with Dennis Wholey, and numerous National Public Radio shows, including Talk of the Nation and Powerpoint. Karen is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2001 Washingtonian Magazine 100 Most Powerful Women; A Magazine’s Award for one of 100 Most Influential Asian Americans of the Decade; the 1994 NAPABA Trailblazer Award; the 2003 Congressional Black Caucus Chair’s Award; and the 2004 Greater Sacramento Urban League Ruth Standish Baldwin Award.
Honorable Raymond S. Uno Honorable Raymond S. Uno was born in Ogden, Utah but spent his childhood in California. During World War II, he was interned for over three years in the Heart Mountain Concentration Camp in Wyoming. After serving four years in the U.S. Army in the Military Intelligence Service, he returned to Utah to rejoin his widowed mother. He earned his undergraduate, Law, and Masters in Social Work degrees from the University of Utah. Judge Uno began his career as a Referee in the Juvenile Courts, where he was the first minority to hold such a position. He went on to become the first minority Deputy County Attorney and the third minority Assistant Attorney General before going into private practice as a name partner with Madsen, Uno, Cummings & Harris, and eventually as a solo practitioner. In 1976, he became the first minority judge in Utah when he became a Salt Lake City Court Judge and the first minority presiding judge of a court. In 1985, he was the first minority elected to the Utah District Court, sitting on the Third Judicial District Court until his retirement. Impressive as these “firsts” are, it would be a mistake to think that that is the extent of Judge Uno’s accomplishments. For while his career is marked by being first in so many instances, by his actions he clearly did not intend to be the last. He has been a driving force in encouraging minority children in Utah to pursue careers in the law. He has been at the forefront in encouraging the Utah State Bar to take proactive steps to create the ways and means for minority lawyers to succeed in Utah. He developed minority leadership groups to meet with the Governor of Utah and other state, county and municipal officials to lobby for greater diversity among their legal and support staff. Through Judge Uno’s efforts, a significant change resulted where a number of governmental agencies and large firms started the process of diversifying their legal staffs. Judge Uno also co-founded and served as the first president of the Utah Minority Bar Association. There, he united the different ethnic groups into one minority bar association and showed the community at large the need for diversity. Judge Uno chaired the Utah State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and served as National President of the Japanese American Citizens League. He serves on numerous boards and other committees, including the Utah Minority Bar Association; the Alliance for Unity; and the University of Utah Alumni Association Emeritus Board. Judge Uno inspires by example. As one nominator told us, he “has demonstrated to the present generation of minority lawyers that not only is it possible to succeed, but that once having achieved an elevated status, it is the responsibility of the minority attorney to then be supportive of others who share the same dream as well as the communities from which we come.”

Spirit of Excellence Awards

The winners for the year 2005 are...