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California (San Francisco) Regional Governor
Bijal V. Vakil
White & Case LLP
3000 El Camino Real
5 Palo Alto Square, 9th Floor
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: (650) 213-0303
Fax: (650) 213-8158
Email: bvakil@whitecase.com
Bijal V. Vakil is an intellectual property partner in White & Case LLP’s Palo Alto office. His practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, strategic counseling, and technology licensing. He has represented clients in intellectual property cases in numerous district courts, the International Trade Commission, and before the Federal Circuit. Mr. Vakil's litigated patent cases have involved a variety of technologies, including plasma television, digital and analog integrated circuits, semiconductor manufacturing, software, computer systems, consumer electronics, and telecommunications. Mr. Vakil handles significant matters for Fortune 500 clients to Silicon Valley start-ups. He also represents clients in patent negotiations and licensing.
Companies around the world frequently call upon Mr. Vakil to assist with overall intellectual property strategy and litigation in the United States. He has also been asked to initiate global strategies relating to intellectual property.
Mr. Vakil is very active in community, charitable, and civic organizations. He has been named among the "40 Under 40 People to Watch in 2008" by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. He also serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Superior Court of Santa Clara and also served on the State Bar Committee on Federal Courts (2005-2008).
He also works on pro bono matters, including submitting an amicus brief to the California Supreme Court on behalf of the successful parties in the consolidated Marriage Cases.
Mr. Vakil served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and to the Honorable James N. Barr of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Mr. Vakil is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of the State of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, all of the United States district courts in California.
Mr. Vakil is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of the State of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and all of the United States district courts in California.
He frequently speaks on legal topics of interest to the community.
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California (Los Angeles) Regional Governor
Ekwan E. Rhow
Bird Marella Boxer Wolpert Nessim Drooks & Lincenberg
1875 Century Park East, 23rd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: (310) 201 2100
Fax: (310) 201-2110
Email: eer@birdmarella.com
Ekwan E. Rhow is a partner at Bird Marella. A 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School, Ekwan litigates and tries complex business disputes. His regular clients include prominent Hollywood financiers and production companies, Fortune 500 companies (both public and private), South Korean conglomerates, hedge funds and regional banks. Because his clients come from a wide range of industries (including the technology, banking, entertainment, healthcare and manufacturing sectors), his litigation experience is varied and includes contracts, securities, intellectual property, real estate and other commercial matters. As lead counsel, Ekwan has tried over twenty cases to final verdict or award. He has been named a “Southern California Super Lawyer” by Los Angeles Magazine since 2004 and one of the nation’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. He is an appointee to the State Bar of California’s Commission on Access to Justice and a board member and a past President of the Korean American Bar Association. In 2003, he was selected by the federal judges of the Central District of California to serve as one of its 33 lawyer representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference.
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California (Orange County/San Diego) Regional Governor
Jenny J. Yoo
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
501 W. Broadway, Suite 1100
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: (619) 544-3192
Fax: (619) 236-1995
Email: jenny.j.yoo@gmail.com
Jenny J. Yoo, a graduate of Brown University and Georgetown University Law Center, represents companies in complex business litigation. She is the Immediate Past-President and a Founder of the Korean American Bar Association of San Diego. She is also the Treasurer of Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego, and a Founding Member of the Korean American Coalition of San Diego.
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California (Sacramento) and Nevada Regional Governor
Danette "Dee" C. Brown
CA Department of Insurance
300 Capitol Mall, Suite 1700
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 320-6712
Fax: (916) 324-1883
Email: brownd@insurance.ca.gov
Danette “Dee” Brown is a Senior Staff Counsel at the California Department of Insurance. As an enforcement attorney, she has prosecuted over 500 licensing matters against insurance corporations and individuals. Her work also includes regulatory enforcement and prosecution of out-of-state, international, and offshore insurance corporations, as well as Mexican auto, Canadian auto, and surplus lines insurance companies, agents and brokers. She also litigates employment matters before the State Personnel Board, and is the California Department of Insurance disabilities advisory chair.
Ms. Brown is Immediate Past President of the Asian Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento (ABAS). She is a supervising attorney for the ABAS Legal Clinic for My Sister’s House, a domestic violence shelter for battered Asian Pacific Islander women and children in Sacramento. In 2008, she was appointed by Sacramento’s mayor to serve as a commissioner on the City of Sacramento Community Racial Profiling Commission. She was also elected as President-Elect of the Marhalika Lions Club, an affiliate of Lions Club International. In early 2009, Ms. Brown was appointed by the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento to serve as a temporary judge in small claims and traffic court.
Ms. Brown received her J.D. from the University of Northern California, Lorenzo Patiño School of Law, and a B.S. from the University of California, Davis, with a double major in Civil Engineering and Materials Science.
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Central Regional Governor
Sumbal Mahmud
Consultant
Phone:
USA (612) 743-9997 /
Netherlands 00 31 6 44 874 328 /
Spain 00 34 692 186 185
Email: sumbal.mahmud@senate.mn
Sumbal Mahmud is consultant and frequently lectures and teaches seminars internationally. She was most recently on staff at the Minnesota Senate and before that was the Executive Director of a non-profit organization in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to that she was Associate Corporate Counsel for Best Buy and President of NAPABA-MN. Ms. Mahmud has work experience at the United Nations, the Public Defenders office, as a law clerk, and as an Associate attorney at Heins Mills & Olson, P.L.C. She received her B.A. cum laude and with honors from Hamline University in 2000, and her J.D. in 2003 from the University of Minnesota Law School.
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Northeast Regional Governors
Jeffrey D. Hsi
Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP
111 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02199
Phone: (617) 517-5569
Fax: (888) 325-9692
Email: jhsi@eapdlaw.com
Jeffrey is a Partner and Chair of the Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP Intellectual Property Department, and serves on the Firm's Boston Office Teamwork and Diversity Strategic Committee. He is Past-President of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts (AALAM) and served seven years on their Executive Board, serves on the NAPABA committee on Regional Conferences, and was a Co-Chair of the NAPABA 2009 National Convention Host Planning Committee. His practice emphasizes corporate counseling, formation and execution of intellectual property strategy, technology transfer, and patent prosecution and opinion work, particularly in chemistry, biotechnology, and medical devices. Jeffrey earned his B.A. from Kalamazoo College, his M.S. from Indiana University, his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law. He is on the Board of Trustees of Kalamazoo College.
Jin Y. Hwang
Verizon Wireless
100 Southgate Parkway
Morristown, NJ 07960
Phone: (973) 656-7058
Fax: (973) 656-7420
Email: jin.hwang@verizonwireless.com
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Southeast Regional Governor
William J. Simonitsch
K&L Gates LLP
Wachovia Financial Center
200 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 3900
Miami, FL 33131
Phone: (305) 539-3336
Fax: (305) 358-7095
Email: bill.simonitsch@klgates.com
William Simonitsch practices in the area of commercial litigation, with a focus on creditors’ and debtors’ rights, construction, and employment law in the Miami office of K&L Gates LLP. He represents private and public companies in a wide-variety of commercial disputes. Mr. Simonitsch regularly represents lenders, creditors, debtors, and third parties in commercial bankruptcy matters, foreclosures, workouts, and state court liquidations. Mr. Simonitsch also represents construction clients regarding contract disputes, lien foreclosures, delay claims, and retainage issues. Mr. Simonitsch has provided clients with employment law counseling and training, and defended clients in discrimination and wage and hour lawsuits. Prior to private practice, Mr. Simonitsch was in-house counsel for Ryder System, Inc., a Fortune 500 transportation and logistics company.
Mr. Simonitsch co-founded the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida and served two terms as its president. He is the former legal director of the Asian American Federation of Florida, Inc. and was appointed to Miami-Dade County’s Asian American Advisory Board. Mr. Simonitsch also served two terms on the board of the Bankruptcy Bar Association for the Southern District of Florida.
He received his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif. He received his M.A. and B.A. in International Affairs from Florida State University, focusing on Pacific Rim studies.
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Northwest Regional Governor
David M. Louie
Roeca Louie & Hiraoka
841 Bishop Street, Suite 900
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: (808) 538-7500
Fax: (808) 521-9648
Email: dlouie@rlhlaw.com
David M. Louie is the managing partner of Roeca Louie & Hiraoka in Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended Occidental College (A.B. 1973 cum laude) and Boalt Hall, University of California (J.D. 1977). Mr. Louie served as the President, Vice-President and Director of the Hawaii State Bar Association (1995-2001), has been Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer and a Director of the Hawaii Defense Lawyers Association (1993 to Present) and a Lawyer Representative for the Ninth Circuit (2006-2008). He has been President, Treasurer and Director of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), Hawaii Chapter (1995 to Present), Chairman of the State of Hawaii Aloha Tower Development Corporation (1999-2005) and Vice Chair of the Hawaii Supreme Court Special Committee on Judicial Performance (1999 to Present). He is a member of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel, the Defense Research Institute and the American Bar Association.
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Southwest Regional Governor
George C. Chen
Bryan Cave LLP
One Renaissance Square
Two North Central Ave., Suite 2200
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone: (602) 364-7367
Fax: (602) 364-7070
Email: george.chen@bryancave.com
George Chen is a partner at Bryan Cave LLP. He works with long-term clients to develop, protect, enforce, defend, license, and commercialize intellectual property and other business assets. His practice includes litigation, licensing, counseling, and prosecution of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, Internet, cybersquatting, and other intellectual property matters. Mr. Chen's recent engagements include: (1) representing an electronics company in lawsuits involving utility patent, design patent, and trade dress infringement and unfair competition; (2) representing a real estate developer in a lawsuit involving service mark infringement and dilution and also Internet cybersquatting; (3) representing a software company in a lawsuit involving copyright infringement and breach of contract; (4) preparing and prosecuting patent, trademark, and copyright applications for a consumer electronics company, a semiconductor company, an analog integrated circuit design company, and several Internet software companies; (5) evaluating and planning strategies for domestic and foreign patent and trademark portfolios for a consumer products company; (6) creating a patent licensing program for an Internet-based company; and (7) conducting intellectual property due diligence for the acquisition of an automated meter reading company and for the securitization of a loan for an electronics company.
Mr. Chen was appointed to the Arizona Governor's Asian-American Advisory Council from 2005-08 to meet quarterly with Governor Janet Napolitano; he has been a board member of the Arizona Asian American Bar Association (AAABA) from 2002-present; and he was the vice president of AAABA from 2004-05 and the president of AAABA from 2005-06. During these years and before, was instrumental in raising funds for a $100,000.00 endowment for scholarships for Asian Pacific American law students in Arizona. Mr. Chen was named one of the Best Lawyers Under 40 by NAPABA in 2005 and by bizAZ in 2003. He also was named an AB Top Lawyer in intellectual property law in 2008 and 2009 by the Arizona Business Magazine. Mr. Chen volunteers on a regular basis at the Arizona Community Legal Services’ Volunteer Lawyers Program, and is a regular lecturer on a variety of intellectual property topics.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Chen graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in electrical engineering and worked as an engineer for Motorola, Inc. Mr. Chen also has an M.S. in electrical engineering and is an inventor of four United States Patents.
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