The Ninth Annual Dale Minami Public Interest Fellowship Dinner was held on January 29, 2016, at Canton Seafood in San Francisco.

This year’s Fellowship Dinner honored Alumna of the Year Linda Tam (Boalt ’00) of the East Bay Community Law Center (Boalt ‘95) and featured a keynote by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge My-Le Jacqueline Duong.

The 2016 Dale Minami Public Interest Fellow was awarded to Yanin Senachai (Boalt ‘12).

Yanin is a staff attorney at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles Impact Litigation Unit.  Yanin started at Advancing Justice – LA as a Skadden Fellow with a project focusing on combating wage theft and labor exploitation of Thai and other Asian undocumented low-wage workers.

Yanin represents low wage workers in administrative individual and group claims and settlement negotiations for unpaid wages, retaliation and employment discrimination. She also represents workers in civil claims for human trafficking and labor law violations as well as helping these workers petition for immigration relief.

Yanin has successfully represented Asian and Latino restaurant workers in mediation to settle claims for employment discrimination, wage and hour violations and retaliation. She has also represented Indonesian and Filipino victims of human trafficking in civil litigation in state and federal court.

Yanin got her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she won the 2012 Francine Diaz Memorial Award, the Jim Fahey Safe Homes Fellowship for Women and the Berkeley Law Foundation Phoenix Fellowship for her commitment to social justice.  While at Berkeley Law, Yanin also participated in Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, Domestic Violence Practicum and East Bay Community Law Center’s Neighborhood Justice Clinic. Moreover, she served as the auction co-chair in the Berkeley Law Foundation, co-chair in the National Lawyers Guild, and the symposium editor of the Asian American Law Journal.

Since 2008, the Dale Minami Public Interest Fellowship and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, have hosted this event to bring together students, alumni, and friends to celebrate and honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the Asian Pacific Islander community. Vina Ha (‘09), Bryan Springmeyer (‘10) and Eunice Koo (‘09) are the board members whose leadership guides this Fellowship.

Each year, law firms, businesses, and friends of APALSA underwrite the Fellowship Dinner. All proceeds from the dinner go toward the endowment and funding of the Dale Minami Public Interest Fellowship, which provides critical support to individuals who pursue legal careers in the public interest. Minami Fellows are selected for their diverse backgrounds, record of exceptional academic and professional accomplishment, leadership in community service, and commitment to social justice and public interest work.

The 2016 Dale Minami Fellowship Dinner was co-chaired by Evangeline Phang, Cynthia Huynh, Yesol Han, and Peggy P. Ni — mentored by Fellowship co-founders and mentors Bryan Springmeyer and Vina Ha.

Learn more at http://DMFellowship.org.