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MELAW Social Hour

MELAW — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:00:02 +0000

Join your MELAW friends and meet new members at the no-host Social Hour!

When: September 22, 2009, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Tig Asian, 614 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA (between Cherry St. & Yesler Way)

The restaurant is offering special discounts to us, including extending their happy hour. In addition to socializing and networking, you will learn about MELAW’s upcoming plans and provide input on MELAW activities. The board is also setting up committees and you will be able to sign up for those, if you would like to get more involved with our group.

Please RSVP and we look forward to seeing you there!

MELAW in the News

MELAW — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:41:32 +0000

The September issue of the WSBA Bar News contains an article entitled MELAW: The Birth of a New MBA, written by MELAW President Aneelah Afzali. The article discusses how MELAW started, developed, and its progress to date.

You can read the entire article here on our website – Check it out!

Member of the Joint Committee: Law Firm Diversity

MELAW — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:19:52 +0000

The MBA Joint Committee on Law Firm Diversity (“Joint Committee”) released a Law Firm Diversity Report last year, which evaluated the top 50 law firms in Washington on diversity issues. Because MELAW was not yet in existence, it was not a member of the Joint Committee. This year, MELAW is a member and, with the other members of the Joint Committee, is helping revise the questionnaire and improve the process for the Law Firm Diversity Report. The Joint Committee anticipates sending questionnaires to law firms by the end of this year. For more information, please contact Aneelah.

Coalition Sponsor of WA Families Standing Together

MELAW — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:18:12 +0000

As you may be aware, the domestic partnership expansion law (“everything but marriage” with respect to state rights for same-sex domestic partners), which was passed by the Washington Legislature and signed by the Governor, is going to be put to a vote this fall as Referendum 71. The Washington Families Standing Together coalition is organizing voters to approve the referendum. The MBAs, including MELAW, have been asked to become organizational sponsors of Washington Families Standing Together. At present, there are over 150 organizational sponsors. You can see the full list here (note that it is not just LGBT organizations that are sponsors). Along with other MBAs, such as the South Asian Bar Association of Washington and Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, MELAW will sign on as an organizational sponsor. For more info, contact Damon.

Meeting with WSBA about Demographic Form

MELAW — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:04:50 +0000

On August 27, 2009, MELAW President Aneelah Afzali met with Gail Stone, Director of Justice and Diversity Initiative at the Washington State Bar Association (“WSBA”). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss MELAW’s efforts to modify the demographic form used by the WSBA to collect statistical data on lawyers in Washington State. Currently, the form does not include an option for Middle Easterners. Gail Stone agreed to discuss the issue with the WSBA and work on editing the forms. Another topic of discussion was the language options available on the Lawyer Directory used by the WSBA. That directory identifies “Farsi/Persian” separate from “Persian” as a language option. Aneelah discussed the potential confusion in having these two separate categories, both of which refer to the same language. The WSBA will correct the confusion by having one category entitled “Persian” (along with categories for other languages such as Arabic).

MELAW thanks Gail Stone and the WSBA for their time and responsiveness to MELAW’s concerns.

MBA Meeting with Senators

MELAW — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:08:54 +0000

On August 24, 2009, MELAW Vice President for Community Outreach, Damon Shadid, attended a meeting with Senator Maria Cantwell’s staff to discuss how the Minority Bar Associations of Washington (“MBAs”) could aid the Senator’s office in improving diversity in the federal judiciary. Members of 12 of the MBAs attended the meeting, and the discussion focused on ideas to help the Senator utilize the knowledge and expertise of the MBAs in making judicial selections. The group discussed short term collaboration in helping select candidates for the judicial vacancy in the Eastern District of Washington, as well as long term plans for assisting in the judicial selection process.

The meeting with Senator Cantwell’s office followed an earlier meeting between the MBAs and the staff of Senator Patty Murray, who is similarly interested in utilizing the MBAs to improve diversity in the federal judiciary.

MELAW thanks Senator Cantwell, Senator Murray, and the MBAs for planning and participating in these constructive planning sessions. This will hopefully be the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the MBAs and the Senators. For more information, please contact Damon.

Booth at Arab Festival

MELAW — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:21:07 +0000

MELAW participated in this year’s Arab Festival, which was held on August 1 and 2, 2009. The Festival, a biannual event held at Seattle Center as part of the Safeco Insurance Festal Series, showcases and celebrates Arab culture and provides information and education about the Arab world and the Arab community in the Northwest. With two stages, dozens of performers, three rooms featuring workshops and lectures, dozens of vendors and booths, including several food booths and a coffee shop, and children’s activities, the Festival was a success. MELAW had a booth on both days, with volunteers providing information about MELAW and recruiting new members. For more information, please contact Manal.

Diversity Stakeholders Gathering

MELAW — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:14:49 +0000

The WSBA has extended invitations to the leaders of the MBAs, including MELAW, to participate in a gathering to discuss the structure of the bar with respect to diversity. By way of background, the WSBA Board of Governor’s Diversity Committee hosted a gathering on July 17, 2009, to discuss how diversity should be structured within the bar and how to communicate, cooperate and coordinate the diversity efforts of the committees within the WSBA. Representatives from the BOG’s Diversity Committee, WSBA’s Committee for Diversity, the Young Lawyer’s Diversity Committee, the Washington Leadership Institute, the Board of Governors and WSBA’s President-Elect Sal Mungia and President-Elect-Elect Steve Toole were at the gathering. Attendees felt that the MBAs would contribute in a meaningful way to the ongoing discussion, which led to the decision to hold a second gathering. That second gathering will be on September 18, 2009, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Summit Law Group. MELAW board members will attend and participate. For more information, please contact Aneelah.

ACLU Amicus Brief

MELAW — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:00:18 +0000

MELAW — along with the other MBAs — has been asked to sign on to an amicus brief that will be filed by the ACLU in a case pending before the WA Court of Appeals. Information about the amicus brief is below. Please let us know if you have thoughts one way or the other on whether MELAW should sign the amicus brief. If you’d like more information or would like to see the amicus brief when it’s ready, please let us know. We value your input!

This is a medical malpractice case that went to trial in Spokane County. A new trial was granted after the trial court ruled that jurors had repeatedly made racist remarks about the plaintiffs’ attorney’s Japanese name. The court found there was a doubt about whether these remarks improperly caused a defense verdict. The issue on appeal is whether racially derogatory remarks by jurors about a litigant’s attorney constitute jury misconduct justifying a new trial.

The case is pending in Division Three of the Court of Appeals and the parties’ briefs have been filed. No oral argument date has been set but it will likely be in September, possibly making amicus briefs due in early August. WSBA will be filing an amicus brief in the case. The ACLU is also planning to file an amicus brief and is inviting all the organizations receiving this email to join the brief. We hope to have an outline ready in June. In the meantime, the issues we plan to cover are the legal standard for granting a new trial when racist juror comments are made about a litigant’s attorney, and the history of legal rules that have been developed to remedy and prevent legal proceedings being tainted by racism (including a discussion of incidents that have occurred, giving rise to the need for such legal rules).

Seattle Iranian Festival

MELAW — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:06:36 +0000

MELAW had a booth at this past weekend’s IACA Iranian Festival at Seattle Center. Thanks Polly Peshtaz, Nima Seyedali, Manal Boulos, and Nilly Park for helping staff MELAW’s booth!

Statewide Diversity Conference

MELAW — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:03:43 +0000

MELAW co-sponsored the third annual Statewide Diversity Conference on Friday, June 12 at Seattle University. The conference was a success, as was the panel MELAW put on regarding Judicial Appointments. Our VP of Community Outreach, Damon Shadid, moderated the panel, and the panelists consisted of Richard Mitchell and Judge Edsonya Charles.

Membership Retreat

MELAW — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:56:23 +0000

Thanks to all of you who made it to our First Annual Membership Retreat on Saturday, June 6, and thanks to our sponsors: Stokes Lawrence, P.S.; Lotus Law Group, PLLC, and Cherry Street Coffee House. We had a good turnout and a great discussion about a few different things, including the scope of our group’s political activities – conversations we will continue throughout the years. We also voted in our official 2009-2010 board, and the election results are as follows:

President: Aneelah Afzali
General VP: Sahar Fathi
VP of Events: Nilly Park
VP of Membership: Polly Peshtaz
VP of Community Outreach: Damon Shadid
VP of Mentorship: Laura Haddad
VP of Fundraising: Thomas Donovan
Secretary: Manal Boulos
Treasurer: Nima Seyedali
Web Developer: Daniel McIntosh

Congratulations to the board, and welcome to new board members Laura Haddad and Thomas Donovan!

To date, MELAW’s Advisory Board members include Judge Mary Yu, Susan Amini (Amini Law Firm), Kelly Noonan (Stokes Lawrence), Rita Zawaideh (Caravan-Serai, Inc.), and Ramsey Al-Salam (Perkins Coie). Thank you! If you have a candidate that you think would make a good addition to our Advisory Board, please let us know.

For those of you who missed out on the membership retreat, we look forward to seeing you at a future MELAW event.