Board of Governors
Halim Dhanidina graduated from Pomona College in 1994 with a B.A. in International Relations and from the UCLA School of Law in 1997. While in Law School, Halim served on the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association’s Board as a Co-Chair and Social Chair and on the Asian Pacific American Law Journal Board as a Managing Editor. As a law student, he clerked at the Los Angeles County Public Defender and the Federal Public Defender. He is currently a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County assigned to the Hardcore Gang Division. As a Deputy District Attorney, he has handled 45 felony trials, 18 of them for murder. Halim was recognized as the Deputy District Attorney of the month for November 2002 and was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the LA County Board of Supervisors for his work on victims’ rights in 2007. Additionally, Halim has been an adjunct professor in the paralegal program at West LA College and frequently volunteers as a guest judge for the trial advocacy programs at Southwestern and Loyola Law Schools.
Derek Ishikawa is currently a joint degree J.D./M.P.P. student at UCLA, with an emphasis on economic development. Derek currently works for the California Department of Real Estate, reviewing and pleading criminal history cases, performing research and hearing preparation. Prior to coming to UCLA, Derek worked as a Management Aide for the City of Torrance and as a California Senate Fellow in Sacramento, CA. More recently, Derek was a summer associate at a national labor and employment firm and externed for United States District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson.
Stephanie C. Lai is an associate in the Los Angeles office of Arias, Ozzello & Gignac. She handles class actions, transactional matters and general civil litigation. She graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelors of Science. Her major emphasis was Organismic Biology Evolution and Ecology with a Concentration in Marine Biology and minor in English Literature. She earned her Juris Doctor with a concentration in Intellectual Property at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. In law school, she led the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association for two years, participated in Moot Court, and studied as a visiting student at Temple University Japan in Tokyo. During law school, she held various clerkships ranging from environmental law at the California Department of Water Resources to international intellectual property at Hiraki and Associates.
Kasie Lee is a Deputy Public Defender at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. She is currently assigned to the Pomona Juvenile Court. Prior to becoming a public defender, she served as a staff attorney for the Asian/Pacific Islander Unit of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. She graduated from USC School of Law in 2003. During law school, she worked for Litt & Associates (now Litt, Estuar, Harrison & Kitson, LLP), a Los Angeles-based law firm focused on civil rights litigation. She also served as a student law clerk for the Honorable Robert M. Takasugi of the United States District Court, Central District of California. She is a past recipient of the KABA, SCCLA, OCAABA scholarships and the Los Angeles County Pro Bono Award. Throughout law school, she served as a student representative for APABA, and was involved in APABA’s Law Student, Newsletter, and Asian Concerns committees. She is a current board member of the Asian American Public Defenders Association.
Richard Y. Lee is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Mr. Lee is currently assigned to the National Security Section and prosecutes federal crimes in the areas of counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, national security, and export controls. From 2001 to 2006, Mr. Lee was assigned to the Santa Ana branch office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office where he prosecuted the full range of federal criminal violations including child exploitation, immigration, narcotics, public corruption, identity theft, and organized crime. While in the Santa Ana branch office, Mr. Lee was the point of contact for all federal crimes against children in Orange County and prosecuted the first defendant to go to trial in the United States under a recently passed law criminalizing international sex tourism. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Lee was an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky, and Walker LLP, specializing in employment matters. Mr. Lee is a graduate of the University of Southern California Law School where he was president of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association and was co-chair of the Southern California Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. While in law school, Mr. Lee received the National Student Service Award presented by the National Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. Mr. Lee received his B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. In addition, Mr. Lee currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Orange County Korean American Bar Association.
Cynthia Loo is a judicial officer with the Los Angeles County Superior Court. She is currently assigned to the Eastlake Juvenile Courthouse where she continues to hear juvenile criminal matters. Following her graduation from the University of Southern California Law Center in 1990, Ms. Loo worked for nearly a decade representing children in child abuse and neglect juvenile dependency matters. She has been a volunteer adjunct professor for two and a half years at the People’s College of Law, where she has taught criminal procedure and “Children in the Legal System.” She has also taught Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Social Welfare Laws, Juvenile Law, and Criminal Procedure at Abraham Lincoln School of Law, California State University Northridge, and University of West Los Angeles, respectively. Cynthia was appointed a Superior Court Referee in 2001. She is the recipient of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Bar Association’s 2004 and 2006 Juvenile Court Judge of the Year award.
Paul S. Park is the Acting President of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. In addition to managing the Foundation’s legal matters and business transactions, he oversees the day-to-day operations of the Foundation, including all educational programs, fundraising and communications initiatives, as well as the ongoing construction of the National Chavez Center. Prior to joining the Foundation, Paul worked as an associate at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, on transactional matters such as secured lending transactions, equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, as well as civil and criminal litigation matters. He graduated from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as an editor for the UCLA Law Review, and holds a BA in History from Cornell University. Paul is the 2008 President-Elect for the Korean American Bar Association.
Arnold V. Pamplona is an associate in McDermott Will & Emery LLP’s Los Angeles Office. Arnold is a member of the Health Department. Arnold counsels health care providers and affiliated entities regarding administrative appeals, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement regulations, federal and state securities laws, and laws governing health care fraud and abuse. He has significant experience advising clients in all aspects of hospital and pharmacy changes of ownership, including licensure and Medicare/Medicaid provider enrollment. Arnold also has extensive experience in representing health care providers in all aspects of civil and administrative litigation. Arnold is a member of the Firm’s Pro Bono committee, focusing on immigration matters for children under the Firm’s Kids First Initiative. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Governors for the Philippine American Bar Association of Los Angeles.
Hema Patel is an associate with the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP. Ms. Patel is a graduate of the University of Southern California where she graduated with a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science with honors and a minor in Psychology. She received her J.D. degree from Northwestern Law School in 2005. Following her graduation from law school, Ms. Patel clerked for Judge Thomas G. Nelson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She currently serves as the Secretary of the South Asian Bar Association (SABA) of Southern California.
Jason Pu is the president and founder of jd8 Records (www.jd8records.com), an independent music company that supports the best rising APA musical artists. jd8 Records’ mission is to leverage the social influence of a collective of APA artists across musical genres to galvanize our diverse APA communities and inspire a greater sense of identity and belonging among younger APA community members. Prior to founding jd8 Records, Jason practiced business law for five years in the areas of corporate and commercial finance, secured transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate/securities and general business transactions. He received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Stanford University in 1995 and his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 1999. While at UCLA, Jason served as a member of APABA’s founding Board of Governors as a student representative and as Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Law Students Association. He also volunteered frequently at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and was a NAPIL/VISTA*Americorps Summer Legal Fellow at Public Counsel. At Stanford, he helped to found several student organizations, including the Concerned Students for Asian American Studies, which mobilized students, faculty, and staff to obtain an Asian American Studies program at Stanford. Jason also remains active in the community through community organizations such as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the Organization of Chinese Americans – Greater Los Angeles chapter and Visual Communications.
Byron Shibata graduated from UCLA with a double major in History and East Asian studies and from the University of Hawaii law school. He has worked several years in Japan, most recently as an assistant professor in the law department of a private university, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate students. Recently, he practiced as an Air Force Judge Advocate officer for almost five years, where his practice areas included criminal (military) law, government claims and government contracting. He currently works for the Federal Aviation Administration in Hawthorne.
Michelle Sugihara is an associate at Luce Forward where her practice primarily focuses on representing and advising residential developers on Department of Real Estate matters, including forming homeowners’ associations and preparing governing and sales documents, easement agreements, subsidy agreements, disclosures, and project handbooks. Additionally, Ms. Sugihara provides pro bono legal services to Public Counsel’s Homelessness Prevention Law Project, providing advice and counsel to homeless clients and representing them at Homeless Court. Ms. Sugihara also serves on the Board of Governors of the Japanese American Bar Association, as Scholarship Committee Co-Chair for the Japanese American Bar Association Educational Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County.
Edmond Sung graduated from USC Law School in May of 2007 and was recently admitted to the State Bar of California. While in law school, Ed served as External Vice President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA). He was also a Legal Writing Fellow, a Hale Moot Court participant, an extern for the Honorable Kenji Machida, and a summer associate at a national litigation firm, where he worked on antitrust, intellectual property, commercial litigation, and insurance cases. Ed is the recipient of the Lee Gum Low Presidential Scholarship for leadership and the Doculogic Scholastic Scholarship for academic achievement. For the past two years, Ed served as APABA’s Law Student Representative and last year he was also co-chair of the Social Committee. Ed graduated from UCLA with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Political Science.
Judy Suwatanapongched is a second year law student at USC Gould School of Law. She received her B.A. in Political Science and Sociology at Northwestern University in 2005. As an undergraduate, Judy was actively involved in the Asian and Asian-American community on campus and served as president of Thai Club. Before coming to law school, Judy taught Thai Classical Dance at the Thai Cultural and Fine Arts Institute in Chicago and at various universities throughout Illinois. She has always had an active interest in the Asian Pacific American community and hopes to contribute to representing its specific needs and concerns in Los Angeles. Judy is also the Internal Vice President of USC’s Asian Pacific American Law Student Association.
Hoyt Sze is a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, where he practices in the areas of white collar criminal litigation, health care fraud and abuse, and other government investigations. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Sze was a deputy federal public defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender. From 1995 to 2001, Mr. Sze was an associate at Latham & Watkins, specializing in health care matters. Mr. Sze previously served as co-chair of the community services committee of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, and in 2001, received the AABA Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Sze is a graduate of Cornell Law School, where he was president of the Asian American Law Students Association. Currently, Mr. Sze serves on the Executive Advisory Council of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.
Albert Valencia is an associate at Proskauer Rose LLP where he practices real estate law representing commercial banks and fund investors in construction lending, mezzanine lending, structured finance, and purchase and sale transactions. His pro bono experience includes representing a non-profit in financing affordable housing developments. Albert is a member of the Philippine American Bar Association and the Real Estate Section of the Los Angeles County Bar. He received his B.A. in economics and rhetoric from UC Berkeley, and prior to attending law school worked as a business consultant for Arthur Andersen LLP and Deloitte Consulting, and helped start two companies. Albert received his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where he was Managing Editor for the Asian Pacific American Law Journal, served as a board member for the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association, and regularly worked for Public Counsel and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, including coordinating the fifth year commemoration of the hate crime slaying of Joseph Ileto.
Mia F. Yamamoto, a 1971 graduate of the UCLA School of Law, is in solo practice specializing in criminal defense. She is a former Deputy Public Defender for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. She is currently the co-chair of the Multicultural Bar Alliance. She has served as president of JABA and co-chair of the Asian Concerns Committee.
Deborah Yim is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. She was formerly an associate at Reed Smith LLP, where she practiced commercial and financial services litigation. She obtained her B.A. from UC Berkeley in 1998 and her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 2001, where she served as an Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Pacific American Law Journal and Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association. While in law school, Deborah also received the SCCLA presidential scholarship and externed for the Hon. Arthur L. Alarcón of the Ninth Circuit of Appeals and with the State Bar of California. She has sat on the LACBA Judicial Elections Evaluations Committee and currently sits on the LACBA Diversity Committee and the State Bar Committee on Federal Courts. In addition, she serves as Pasadena’s representative on the State Public Affairs Committee of the Junior Leagues of California.
