Top Photo: Kaa Bao Yang (left) and Donald K. Tamaki (middle) of Minami Tamaki LLP with Bao Vang, President/CEO of Hmong American Partnership.
Minami Tamaki LLP participated in the 19th Hmong National Development Conference, held April 19-21, 2019, in San Jose. Associate Kaa Bao Yang in our Personal Injury practice served on the conference planning committee and Partner Don Tamaki was the conference keynote on April 20.
The conference is a biennial gathering organized by Hmong National Development, Inc., a national nonprofit founded in 1993 as a national policy advocacy organization for the Hmong American community. For the past 20 years, the organization has provided Hmong nonprofits capacity building and technical assistance tools, advocated in Washington D.C. for legislation which impacts the Hmong community, and cultivated leadership in youth through internship programs and youth empowerment programming models.
“As a member of the Impact Award and Entertainment Subcommittees, I had the pleasure of introducing two of the Impact Award Winners during the conference banquet on Saturday evening,” said Kaa Bao, “Leesai Yang, Deputy Sheriff with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department and Director of East Bay Asian Youth Center, and Neng Thao, a graduate of Harvard and world traveler, videographer, and blogger in English, Hmong and Spanish with about 45,000 Facebook followers.”
In his keynote, Don spoke about the #StopRepeatingHistory campaign and efforts to educate the public on the dangers of unchecked presidential power, drawing parallels between the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the current administration’s policies targeting minority groups based on race or religion.
“Don delivered a powerful keynote speech,” said Kaa Bao. “Everyone loved it and Don was quite a celebrity. There was a very long line after his speech to shake his hand and take pictures with him. Our Minami Tamaki tote bags became quite popular afterwards!”
Kaa Bao also had the opportunity to meet a number of inspiring women, including Elizabeth Yang, the founder of Hmong Women Take on the World, and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Kashoua Kristy Yang, the first Hmong American judge elected without appointment and the first Hmong American female judge in the nation.
Kaa Bao Yang is Minami Tamaki’s first Hmong American attorney. As one of the few bilingual Hmong attorneys in California, she aspires to provide the best support and legal services to the Hmong community and to all of our firm’s clients.
She was born in a refugee camp in northern Thailand and immigrated to the United States, where her family resettled in St. Paul, Minnesota. The fifth of eleven children and the first in her family to graduate from college and graduate school, she earned her B.A. in Sociology of Law, Criminology, and Deviance with honors, as well as a minor in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Kaa Bao graduated with honors from Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco.