Dear Friends & Members:

In this Newsletter issue, our second of the year, I want to provide you with highlights of this year’s activities, events, and initiatives, each of which has contributed to making 2006 a momentous year for our Association. Due to the hard work and dedication of our Board of Directors, as well as numerous members and volunteers, our Association approaches the conclusion of this year stronger than ever, both fiscally and spiritually. We approach 2007 with a renewed commitment to our central mission—the promotion of diversity in the legal profession—and with heightened optimism that the coming year will bring us closer to the realization of our long-term goals as an Association.

Noche de Gala
On June 8th, we celebrated our annual Noche de Gala fundraiser at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. The event was well-attended and featured a keynote address by Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. At the Gala, the Association presented awards to our Latino Attorney of the Year, John Trasviña, who was recently named President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), as well as our Latina Attorney of the Year, Marina Pineda-Kamariotis, an attorney in private practice who specializes in immigration law. As in years past, the net proceeds of our Noche de Gala benefited the Bay Area Latino Lawyers Scholarship Fund, a non-profit association that provides law student scholarships to Latino/a law students who are pursuing public interest work in our community.

The following are this year’s scholarship recipients:
- Fernanda Bustamante: (University of San Francisco School of Law) She worked at the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, where she assisted individuals seeking asylum.
- Cassandra Lopez: (University of California, Davis School of Law) She worked at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, where she worked with Latino communities in Delano, CA to battle environmental racism, specifically the placement of dairies and other high-pollutant industries in Latino communities.
- Christina Alicia Varner: (New College School of Law) She worked at the International Institute of the East Bay in their Deportation Defense Clinic.
- Meredith Ellen Wallis: (University of California, Davis School of Law) With a joint award with the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) Public Interest Fellowship. She worked at the Transgender Legal Center, where she: (1) provided legal services to help transgender immigrants secure and maintain a legal immigration status and (2) conducted outreach to the immigrant transgender community through clinics and workshops about gender identity.
- Angela Hollowel- Fuentes: (Boalt Hall School of Law) Received a Scholarship for her Bar- Preparation course upon her graduation. Over the summer she worked at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. She demonstrated a steadfast commitment and incredible passion in working for social justice.

Summer Associates Reception
Following the success of Noche de Gala, the Association hosted its annual Latino/a Summer Associate Reception. This year’s event took place at Tres Agaves, a popular Mexican restaurant in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Several dozen law students attended this year’s event, which was made possible due to the generous sponsorship of Farella Braun & Martel LLP.

HNBA Convention
Without a doubt, the culmination of this year was the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Convention in San Francisco, which our Association hosted as the HNBA’s local affiliate. From August 30 – September 2nd, we had the honor of welcoming Latino and Latina leaders from across the United States to our beautiful city for an unparalleled networking and educational experience. This year’s convention was particularly meaningful to our Association for a couple of reasons. First, the Convention marked a homecoming for the HNBA, which evolved into a national organization from its local birth as La Raza Lawyers in 1971. Second, on this 35th anniversary of the HNBA’s founding, we learned that our General Counsel, Victor Marquez, was selected to serve as President of the HNBA commencing in the fall of 2007. As the host affiliate for the Convention, our chapter stands to benefit considerably from the fundraising success of this event. Victor Marquez, who served as the HNBA’s Convention Chair, deserves our appreciation for his leadership in making the event an unparalleled success. Below, he provides additional details concerning this year’s Convention.

Minority Bar Coalition Unity Reception
On October 19th, we proudly joined with other local minority bar associations, at the annual Minority Bar Coalition Unity Reception, to honor individuals from each of our communities who have contributed to diversity in our profession. Our Association presented an award to the Honorable Suzanne Ramos Bolanos, the first Latina Superior Court Judge in San Francisco, in recognition of her past service to the Association, as well as her importance as a pioneer and role model to all of us.

New Initiatives
Since September, we have embarked upon a number of new initiatives designed to build upon the energy and success of the Convention. First, we have formed a Strategic Planning Committee, led by Oliver Gutierrez and Celina Ramirez, which will examine, with input from our membership, our goals as an Association and seek recommendations on how best to achieve them. Second, we have created a Law Student Committee, which is currently led by Michael Soto and Sandra Ambrocio of U.C. Hastings Law School. The Committee consists of student representatives from several Bay Area law schools. In combination with a recent amendment to our Bylaws, which empowers the Board’s President to appoint two law students to serve on the Board of Directors, we hope that these measures will foster improved communication with local law student groups and will draw added attention to the concerns of our future leaders. Third, we have invested in modernizing and updating our membership roster. Because of this investment, we anticipate that next year we will be better able to provide our membership with improved news and updates regarding our upcoming events and initiatives.

As the above highlights illustrate, in 2006 we not only honored our traditions as an Association, but thanks to the hard work and support of countless individuals, were able to make significant progress in ensuring the continued financial health, vitality, and professionalism of our organization. I know that the newly elected Board, ably led by incoming President Oliver Gutierrez, will continue to honor the legacy of those pioneers who first formed La Raza Lawyers 35 years ago, by building upon the successes of this year in ways that will inspire all of us to expand our involvement in the Association.

In closing, I want to thank you for the honor of serving all of you as Board President during this exciting year. My contributions have been small compared to the contributions of so many, but I am truly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with all of you in strengthening our Association.

Muchisimas Gracias,
Edward Torpoco
President
Board of Directors