AABA Chicago has signed onto an amicus brief filed by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a district court’s preliminary injunction order regarding Executive Order 14160.

As stated in the brief: “The plain text of the Fourteenth Amendment and longstanding historical precedent should lead to the inevitable conclusion that EO 14160 is patently unconstitutional.”

AABA joins NAPABA in stating that the Trump administration’s legal arguments distort the holding of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 case that established the principle that people born in the United States were citizens even if their parents were not citizens.

Please see the attached PDF for our March 2025 newsletter, which has information on upcoming events, including an April 9 event about birthright citizenship and our annual awards ceremony on May 7.

Please see the attached PDF for our February 2025 newsletter, which has information on upcoming events, recent events, and job announcements. 

We encourage our members to read Portrait Project 2.0 and ask our members to contribute to the Project by participating in their latest research survey that focuses on the experiences of lawyers of all backgrounds who have worked in law firms. Please note that completing this survey may take between 20-30 minutes.

Also, don't forget to renew your AABA membership for 2025 here if you have not done so. We also look forward to having new members join us. Please note that National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) affiliate memberships are no longer activated via an AABA Chicago Affiliate Code. AABA Chicago members should now automatically receive free NAPABA affiliate memberships. When renewing your NAPABA affiliate membership, please be sure to select "AABA Greater Chicago" as your primary affiliate. Should you have any questions, please contact chicago.aaba@gmail.com.

AABA congratulates AABA Chicago Honorary Board Member Sonni Williams on her swearing-in on February 11, 2025 at the Will County Courthouse by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Kay O'Brien!

Hon. Sonni Choi Williams was appointed as a Circuit Judge in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, Third Subcircuit to fill the vacancy created by the election of Judge John C. Anderson to the Third District Appellate Court.

Hon. Williams' appointment is a testament to her exceptional leadership, outstanding contributions to the legal community, and continued dedication to public service and the fair and equitable administration of justice.

"I believe Sonni Williams’ professional and personal experiences make her uniquely qualified for the judiciary. Ms. Williams has over 25 years of experience in municipal law, having served as city attorney for Lockport and Peoria, covering virtually every area of the law, including civil, criminal and appellate litigation,” said Justice O’Brien in a statement. “In addition, Ms. Williams has always been personally committed to improving the legal community through her involvement with the Illinois State Bar Association, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and numerous legal foundations. She will serve the citizens of Will County with distinction in this new role.”

Ms. Williams has been the City Attorney for the city of Lockport since 2017, serving as chief legal officer and representing the city in all cases before the federal and state courts and administrative agencies. From 2000 to 2017 she served as an attorney for the city of Peoria where she supervised the legal department staff attorneys, paralegals and administrative assistants in providing timely professional responses and legal advice, among other duties. She currently serves as President of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA).

From the Supreme Court's announcement:

Ms. Williams earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa and earned her Juris Doctor from the Northern Illinois University College of Law.

In addition to being the first woman of color to serve as President of the ISBA, Ms. Williams' professional affiliations include the Will County Bar Association, the Will County Women's Bar Association, and the Will County Black Lawyers Association. She is a board member of the Korean American Bar Association of Chicago and an honorary board member of the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago. Since 2012 she has served as Hearing Chair for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, and she was previously a Commissioner of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and a Commissioner of the Illinois Supreme Court Special Committee on Professionalism.

Her awards include receiving the 2020 Alumna of the Year Award from the Northern Illinois University College of Law and the 2015 ISBA Diversity Leadership Award for her long standing, continuing and exceptional commitment to the critical importance of diversity within the Illinois legal community, its judiciary and within the Illinois State Bar Association.

Thanks to all the Chicago attorneys who met up at NAPABA 2024!  We had about 100 attorneys attend this year's annual National Asian Pacific American Bar Association convention in Seattle and were thrilled at seeing all the energy that you brought.

Congratulations also to the Chicago attorneys who spoke on panels:  James ("Jimmy") Oh, Alan Tse, Stephen Lee, Phong Nguyen, Vic Ramos, Sohil Shah, Vaishali Rao, and Dean Vikram Amar.

Thanks from Belle Katubig (second vice president), Stephen Lee (first vice president), Huy Nguyen (president), and Sang Lee (past president)!

The Asian American Bar Association (AABA) of Greater Chicago congratulates AABA Board Member Sonni Choi Williams on her recent election as the next Third Vice President of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). Once sworn in, Sonni will be the first female lawyer of color, first Asian American, and first Korean American elected to this position. AABA commends Sonni for her long history of leadership and dedication to the Asian American community and the legal community. We look forward in anticipation to the future of the ISBA and the Illinois legal community under Sonni's leadership.

Chicago, IL – Soon Chung Park. Hyun Jung Grant (Kim). Suncha Kim. Yong Ae Yue. Xiaojie Tan. Daoyou Feng. Delaina Ashley Yaun. Paul Andre Michels. We mourn their loss and mourn with their families and friends. Read some of their stories here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/us/atlanta-shooting-victims.html. 

In response to the Atlanta Spa shootings and to the surge of hate and xenophobia directed towards Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) in the past year, AABA Chicago joins others across the Chicagoland area and the nation to denounce these acts of hate. For the past year, AABA has communicated with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, in partnership with our sister Asian bar associations in the Chicago area, to advocate for the APA community and report on acts of hate directed against APA groups and individuals. Like many, we had hoped that the violence against APAs stoked by former President Trump and others formerly in power would subside with President Biden and Vice President Harris in the White House. Instead, we recognize that both white supremacy and misogyny are entrenched in American institutions and the collective consciousness, continuing to produce hate-fueled violence targeting communities of color and women. AABA Chicago is committed to continuing to advocate for the APA community, as well as working in solidarity with our BIPOC, female, LGBTQ+, immigrant and other marginalized members of our country.

Now, we breathe and turn to the murders of six Asian American women. Their deaths have struck us and the broader Asian American community deeply. Our trauma is real. These women are us. They are our moms, daughters, and sisters.

We live in a country that has a long history of exotifying, fetishizing, and objectifying APA women. APA women have often been portrayed as submissive and compliant “china dolls” or shrewd and lustful “dragon ladies.” While these images may seem contradictory, they both serve as projections of white male fantasies. APA women and our allies have fought and continue to fight to dismantle these gendered racial stereotypes in a white-male-dominated society. In the legal profession, the intersection of gender, race, and oppression are felt as those in power too often judge APA women as either too passive to lead or too shrewd to trust.

This mass murderer’s words and actions are the ultimate objectification of APA women. These women served as objects for his pleasure and objects for his hate at the same time. We are not dealing well with coded speculation that would place blame on the victims for their murders. We are not dealing well with this man’s claims that he was struggling with sexual addiction, that he targeted those spas to eliminate his temptation, and that he was not motivated by the race of his victims. We are not dealing well with the attempts to show how he is different from the rest of our society—this white, Christian man who was battling his demons, whom we can persecute and condemn as an “evil” while we relegate his victims to the roles of unlucky, tragic minor characters in his life story. Another mass murderer. Women who were in the wrong profession at the wrong place at the wrong time. This happens in America.

While we believe that the arc of history bends towards justice, and the fight for antiracism and gender equity slowly moves forward, moments like this are truly awful and shake us to the core. We live in a society where a white, Christian man can dehumanize a group of APA women to such an extent that he can claim that race had nothing to do with him killing them. More disturbingly, we as a society have the audacity to entertain such notions. Too often our first response to deeply traumatic events is to otherize the perpetrators and victims so that we can avoid looking internally at the systemic racism and misogyny that create the conditions for hate-filled violence.

The Atlanta Spa shootings as well as the coverage of the incidents compel us to recognize the urgency of the need to work together to dismantle our country’s interlocking systems of oppression. For now, we ask that you give those of us who need to mourn, process, and heal the time and space to do so. Soon enough, all of us will rise, and we ask that you join us.

AABA was founded on the belief that a professional bar association could serve not only the interests of its members, but also the community from which its members have come. Our mission includes promoting the professional growth of our members; mentoring law students and new lawyers, providing services to our local community; fostering the exchange of ideas and information among our members and community leaders; partnering with other minority organizations on common matters of concern; and offering policy recommendations on legal, social, political, and economic interests significant to our community. 

To learn more about AABA, visit www.aabachicago.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram (@aabachicago).

Congratulations to Judge Sanjay Tailor on his appointment to Full Circuit Judge of Cook County and new Acting Presiding Judge of the County Division. Judge Tailor's appointment is a historic first in Illinois as he is now the state's first Asian American presiding judge.

Tonight's reception featured wonderful remarks from Justice Mary Jane Theis, Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Judge Anjana Hansen, Judge Rena Van Tine, and Judge Sanjay Tailor himself.

Thank you to all 250+ guests for attending tonight's reception, and to the Asian American Judges Association of Illinois (AAJA), the Chinese American Bar Association of Greater Chicago (CABA), the Filipino American Lawyers Association of Chicago (FALA), the Japanese American Bar Association - Chicago Committee (JABA), the Korean American Bar Association of Chicago (KABA), and the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago (SABA) for co-sponsoring this event!

Former AABA Chicago president Gary Zhao was interviewed by ABC 7 Chicago regarding his support of President Biden's executive order condemning the wave of racism towards Asian-Americans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that “In our meetings and discussions, we noticed many incidences of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.”

See more at: https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/YMhfCyP2v3h7yqBXIZQyFd?domain=abc7chicago.com/