Honorary Board
Isaiah Anderson is a law clerk in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to his clerkship, Isaiah worked as an associate in the Litigation Department at Proskauer Rose LLP. As part of the firm’s Appellate, Intellectual Property Litigation, and Commercial Litigation practice groups, he represented clients in high-stakes contractual disputes in state and federal courts and arbitration. Additionally, he maintained a diverse pro bono practice ranging from amicus briefs in support of equal voting rights to appeals for indigent clients seeking government benefits. Isaiah earned his J.D. from New York University, where he was a Senior Executive Editor of the New York University Law Review and worked with the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law in advocating for racial and economic justice. He also interned for Phillips Black, a nonprofit habeas corpus law practice. At each step of his career, Isaiah has benefited from mentors offering invaluable advice and opportunities. Like the affinity groups that aided Isaiah in law school and at his prior firm, AABA provides a professional network of people invested in helping each other gain the tools and relationships they need to succeed. As part of the Honorary Board, Isaiah strives to advance the opportunities for connection, collaboration, and community between practicing and future attorneys. |
Avanti Bakane is a partner at Gordon, Rees, Scully, Mansukhani, LLP. Barred in California and Illinois, and with GRSM’s offices in all 50 states, Avanti’s consumer class action practice has a national reach. As a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) and co-chair of the firm’s Consumer Financial Services group, Avanti leads a team across the country representing Fortune 50 and small businesses alike. Known for assertive litigation tactics, recouping their clients’ fees, and presenting a strong front against contentious opposing counsels, Avanti and her team do not shy away from high stakes litigation.
Serving as co-chair of the firm’s South Asian Affinity Group and member of its Diversity Committee, Avanti dedicates her time outside of the office to the community. She served as a past NAPABA Advisory Board member and member of Leading India's Future Today's (LIFT) Board of Governors. Avanti is a past President of strong NAPABA affiliate SABA Chicago and volunteers with several non-profit organizations to provide opportunities for underprivileged youth, end gender violence, and find homes for rescue dogs. |
Sam Chae serves as Associate General Counsel for Public Safety at the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General. He has extensive litigation experience from his previous service as an assistant state’s attorney with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, where he handled a wide range of complex felony cases in the Felony Trial Division of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau. He also served as Assistant General Counsel for the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education and practiced insurance and professional liability defense at Cunningham, Meyer & Vedrine. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Loyola University Chicago and his J.D. from DePaul University. |
Ann Chen is in-house counsel at Zip, a leading fintech company in the Buy Now, Pay Later sector, where she supports the company’s mission to expand financial inclusion for underestimated consumers. She partners closely with business leaders across a broad range of legal areas, including sales and marketing, AI and product development, human resources, intellectual property, and litigation. Ann brings extensive senior in-house experience advising global organizations across the financial services, healthcare, and consumer goods industries. Her practice spans complex litigation, intellectual property, commercial contracting, marketing, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and labor and employment. She is a recognized inclusive leader, having previously led the DEI program for the legal department of a Fortune 100 company and having been selected as a Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). Ann earned her BA from Yale University and her JD from the University of Michigan Law School. She clerked for U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan of the Southern District of Florida, now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She has been recognized by The National Law Journal as one of Chicago’s “Top 40 Under 40 Rising Stars” and is a recipient of the Asian American Bar Association’s In-House Counsel Leadership Award and the Chicago Bar Association Vanguard Award |
Tron Fu is a Partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton who represents clients in patent, trademark, copyright infringement, and trade secrets litigation across a wide range of industries and technologies. As a former entrepreneur who founded an internet service company and a software company, Tron uses his first-hand understanding of his clients’ business needs to develop and execute successful IP protection and litigation strategies. As an experienced trial counsel, Tron has obtained numerous high-value verdicts and favorable settlements for his clients. Tron also advises established companies and startup clients through all aspects of their patent portfolios from concept to enforcement, including patentability and landscape study, patent and trademark prosecution, freedom to operate opinions, licensing, and litigation. Tron is fluent in Chinese and has extensive experience with disputes involving Chinese companies. Tron received his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law (cum laude), his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and his B.S. in Computer Science from the Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
Judge Young B. Kim is a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois and has served on the bench for the Eastern Division (Chicago) since 2010. He was born in South Korea and his family emigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Loyola University School of Law in Chicago. Before taking the bench, he served as an Assistant Cook County Public Defender, lawclerk to District Judge Charles R. Norgle, Sr. of the Northern District of Illinois, an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and an Administrative Judge for the EEOC. As a federal judge he particularly enjoys presiding over citizenship naturalization ceremonies in the ceremonial courtroom where he himself was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1986. |
Samera Syeda Ludwig is a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP where she focuses her practice on labor and employment. For more than 20 years, she has represented employers in both state and federal courts and in administrative proceedings throughout the country. As an experienced litigator, Samera counsels and represents businesses on matters involving employee discipline, employee claims of discrimination, and harassment and retaliation and conducts internal investigations. Samera has an active pro bono practice partnering with the National Immigrant Justice Center assisting individuals in obtaining asylum, U visas and other relief. Samera also sits on the Board of the Chicago High School For The Arts. Samera received her B.A. with Honors from Wesleyan University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.
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Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer served as a Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago from October 1, 1991, to 1998. She served as Presiding Magistrate Judge from 1996 until 1998. On July 31, 1997, Judge Pallmeyer was nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton. She was confirmed by the Senate on October 21, 1998, and received her commission on October 22, 1998. On July 1, 2019, Judge Pallmeyer became Chief Judge of the Northern District of Illinois, making her the first woman to head the federal court in Chicago in its 200-year history. Judge Pallmeyer was born in Tokyo and grew up in St. Louis. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Valparaiso University in 1976 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979. Before taking the bench, Judge Pallmeyer was a law clerk to Rosalie E. Wahl, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, from 1979 to 1980. Judge Pallmeyer was in private practice in commercial litigation in Chicago, Illinois from 1980 to 1985 at the law firm of Hopkins & Sutter (later acquired by Foley & Lardner). Judge Pallmeyer then served as an administrative law judge on the Illinois Human Rights Commission from 1985 to 1991. During her more than two decades on the federal bench, Judge Pallmeyer has presided over several significant cases. She presided over the six-month corruption trial of former Illinois Governor George Ryan, whom she sentenced in 2006 to six-and-a-half years in prison. Another was the trial of the man who helped plot the murder of Heather Mack’s mother in Bali, whom she sentenced to nine years in prison. Judge Pallmeyer serves as the Seventh Circuit’s District Judge Representative to the United States Judicial Conference. She is an honorary fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Since 2006, Judge Pallmeyer has served on the faculty for the annual ALI-CLE program, Current Developments in Employment Law, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Judge Pallmeyer is past President of the Lawyers Club of Chicago and past President of the Richard Linn American Inn of Courts. In addition to being a member of the Honorary Board of the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago, she is an active member of the Chicago Bar Association, the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, and the American Bar Association. |
Vic Ramos is assistant general counsel at Sikich. He has also worked at Sargent & Lundy and was a Chicago Leadership Circle Fellow. |
Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago 321 S Plymouth Court |
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