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Minami Tamaki LLP was proud to sponsor the 44th anniversary gala of API Legal Outreach (APILO) last Friday at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center. For over four decades, APILO has provided direct legal and social services to low-income, marginalized communities in the areas of immigration, family law, housing rights, domestic violence protection, senior and disability rights, and anti-human trafficking.

Minette Kwok, Partner of our Immigration Practice Group, and Lisa Mak, Associate in our Consumer and Employee Rights Group, currently serve on the APILO Board. Lisa also chaired the anniversary gala this year.

This year’s gala theme, “Strength in Community,” reflected our communities’ collective accomplishments, resilience, and solidarity as we continue to advocate for social justice.

Don Tamaki, Partner of our Business and Nonprofit Counseling Group, was the featured keynote speaker at this year’s gala. In his remarks, Don recounted the experience of his family, along with about 120,000 Americans and immigrants of Japanese ancestry, being incarcerated in camps during World War II without due process.

Don drew parallels between that historical civil liberties disaster and the racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies of the current administration. Don also made an inspirational call to action, urging the audience to not only support organizations like APILO, but to get involved with issues that impact our communities.

This year’s gala honorees were the Youth Leadership Institute, the Filipino Advocates for Justice, and attorneys Raymond Pascual and Elisa Shieh for their service at the APILO pro bono clinics. The APILO Youth Advisory Council also presented emotional remarks at the gala, calling for an end to gun violence and racial inequalities in our justice system.

Family separation, racial discrimination and the protection of youth will be addressed in the 44^th anniversary fundraising benefit for Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, a nonprofit organization that provides legal and social services and advocates on behalf of vulnerable community members in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This year’s dinner event, called “Strength in Community,” is expected to draw more than 200 attendees on Friday, Oct. 4, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Mission Bay Conference Center.

Minami Tamaki LLP Partner Donald K. Tamaki will deliver the event keynote address.

“We are starting to witness history repeat itself,” said Tamaki. “Immigration policies of the current Administration strike an alarming resemblance to the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. “For Japanese American families in particular, including my own, the President’s invocation of ‘national security’ to justify the vilification of immigrants, refugees and Muslims, his curtailment of fundamental freedoms, and his efforts to cause ‘alternative’ facts to prevail over the real ones, are all too familiar to our community, which likewise was targeted 77 years ago and ended up incarcerated for no good reason.”

In collaboration with community partners, API Legal Outreach last year served 2,900 low-income clients who were faced with critical life and safety issue such as eviction, deportation, elder abuse, domestic violence, and human trafficking.

“We must move towards a just and fair society for the protection of immigrants, women, seniors and youth,” said Dean Ito-Taylor, API Legal Outreach’s executive director. “The strength of communities of color is more powerful than the racist policies that have been implemented to divide us. With all of our communities working together and making our voices heard, there is hope for change.”

Those to be honored at this year’s event are Filipino Advocates for Justice whose policies promote social and economic justice; attorneys Raymond Pascual and Elisa Shieh of the Asian American Bar Association who volunteer at API Legal Outreach pro bono clinics; and Youth Leadership Institute for their program that builds leadership in grantmaking among youth.

“To be a young person today is to be in constant peril due to the epidemic of mass shootings in our schools and neighborhoods,” said Jean Pham, outreach coordinator with API Legal Outreach’s Youth Advisory Council, which will announce a Call to Action at the event. “We are committed to fixing the issue at its root by using our platform to raise consciousness among youth about the cycle of violence.”

Mimi Kwan, VP Community Engagement at ABC7 (KGO-TV), emcees the event, which will include a performance by local Sunny and The Black Pack. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell has selected Minami Tamaki LLP as one of California’s Top Ranked Law Firms. Only 222 law firms in California – out of nearly 43,000 considered – received this recognition. Only 32 firms in San Francisco made the list.

Our firm achieved this recognition by having at least a third of our practicing attorneys achieve the AV Preeminent rating, the the highest rating in legal ability and ethical standards. The AV Preeminent is a significant rating accomplishment, a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank her or him at the highest level of professional excellence.

California’s Top Ranked Law Firms will be published as a standalone magazine and distributed statewide with The Wall Street Journal and The Recorder, as well as The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, and The National Law Journal, on May 31, 2013. The publication will also be featured on law.com throughout the year.

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell is an authoritative resource for information on the worldwide legal profession. With a history spanning more than 140 years, the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Network is powered by a database of over one million lawyers and law firms in over 160 countries. The network is used to find local attorneys, confirm their credentials and select firms that provide services for their personal and professional legal needs.