The MNAPABA Executive Board is proud to announce that the following law students were honored at this year's Annual Gala as recipients of the Terry M. Louie Founder's Scholarship:

• Christopher Nam- University of Minnesota Law School (Class of 2025), summer internship with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (Metro Housing Division)

• Alfonso Gunaratnam- University of St. Thomas School of Law (Class of 2024), summer internship with Judge Diane Bratvold, Minnesota Court of Appeals

The Terry M. Louie Founder's Scholarship honors the legacy of Terry Louie, a founding member of MNAPABA and the organization's first president. Mr. Louie was an indomitable spirit, who along with a handful of like-minded APA attorneys, saw the need to band together and organize as an affinity bar organization.

The MNAPABA Executive Board is proud to announce that the following members were honored at this year's Annual Gala for their achievements and contributions to the community:

• The Honorable Keala C. Ede (Minnesota Fourth Judicial District) - Trailblazer Award
• Alexander J. Kim (Greenberg Traurig, LLP) - Leadership Award
• Valerie Narcy (Hall Law, P.A.) - Member of the Year Award
• Saraswati Singh (Ramsey County Attorney's Office) - Trailblazer Award

[ST. PAUL, MN] — On July 24, 2023, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan announced the appointment of Judge Keala Ede to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Judge Ede is the first Asian Pacific Islander to be appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Before Judge Ede’s appointment, he was a District Court Judge in the Fourth Judicial District, an Assistant Federal Defender, an Assistant Attorney General with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, and an Assistant Public Defender in both American Samoa and Orange County, California. He is also a member of several community organizations, including the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association, and the Fourth Judicial District Court’s Equal Justice Committee.

Please join us in congratulating Judge Ede and celebrating this momentous accomplishment.

Dearest Members, Officers, Supporters  and Sponsors of MNAPABA,

I want to thank everyone for keeping this organization alive and thriving.  I was there when the membership numbered less than 10!  I know my husband Terry, the first MNAPABA President is looking down and smiling at all of the stellar professionals who now make up your impressive and vibrant membership. He wanted mostly to not only form this organization, but he wanted to ensure that law students would fulfill the future of MNAPABA. How well you have done! How bright the future looks because of you. Many of you I have known since you were law students. Many are now counting on you to keep MNAPABA growing.

Thank you for inviting me to the lovely Gala where officially was announced the name change of the internship program to the Terry M. Louie Founder’s Scholarship. This distinguished honor will be a gift in perpetuity from you to establish something no other can give: a fine legacy for a well deserving man, Terry Louie, MNAPABA’s first President. Your outgoing President, Mayura Noordyke, is to be commended for helming the ship so well during what for all of us has been a very trying few years. Well done and Brava, Madame President. I have often referred to the incoming President and President Elect as the dynamic duo!. Knowing about your backgrounds and from what your peers say, MNAPABA will pass to new leadership in tact, ready to keep thriving. President Chris Jison and President Elect Nicole Dailo, you now follow some hard working and inspiring individuals. I am sure you realize that. What you may not yet know is that you have the potential to surpass anything from the past and continue to help MNAPABA reach new heights. My husband would have been your biggest supporter. I gladly share in that now and encourage you to call on me for anything.

It is very humbling to realize that I am also thanking all of you on behalf of the most humble man I ever met. Terry never was the type to be interested in recognition. He would rather have been the one behind the scenes, visualizing a grand plan and working very hard to make it a reality for others. From his pro bono work, to professional and mentoring relationships, Terry was a giver. So thank you for giving him the greatest gift possible.

Finally, I want to especially recognize Evan Tsai for organizing the memorial in September, so that Terry was also honored in a professional celebration of his life. How very kind. It was a beautiful day, a gathering of about 70+ people, coming and going, many giving touching tributes to Terry, a delicious meal (that Terry would have really appreciated!), it was a delight and I thank you. Kudos to Stephanie Chen, kindly helping to get out the word as VP of Communications.  Since Terry died during the pandemic, and since I had never organized a Celebration of Life before that, I was glad that you, Evan, chose an outdoor venue after the worst of the COVID pandemic had subsided.  Evan, I applaud you for thinking ahead that way, giving time and space to the event in the hopes that more people would get a chance to honor Terry. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Evan.

The people at the event who know me well let me know that my trying to be solemn and quiet gave way to something more like "tears of a clown.” That is my MO all right: have fun so the nerves and the tears keep at bay. I am glad it was not a solemn event, but one full of love and laughter. Terry and I lived our lives that way. His laughter was in my mind when some of the humorous memories were shared. This was a tremendous tribute; no tears, only laughs. I hope that those of you who had a chance to meet or come to know Terry will keep his memory and his great laugh alive in your heart. That makes for the best tribute of all, a lasting one. As the motto for The Wounded Warrior Organization states: The Greatest Casualty is Being Forgotten. Terry, may your memory be a blessing, forever.

Thank you, MNAPABA. Thank you for everything. 

Linda Marie Louie

Grateful wife of my beloved husband Terry

MNAPABA awards a $1,000 summer law scholarship to law students or recent law graduates who will, through a summer internship with a governmental or nonprofit organization, serve underserved communities. Preference will be given to those directly serving Minnesota and/or Asian Pacific American communities.

This scholarship has been renamed as the Terry M. Louie Founder's Scholarship in honor of the legacy of Terry Louie, a founding member of MNAPABA and the organization's first president. Mr. Louie was an indomitable spirit who, along with a handful of like-minded APA attorneys, saw the need to band together and organize as an affinity bar organization. That organization has flourished to what MNAPABA is now, and we are forever grateful for Terry's contributions and influence.

To access the application, please click here. All applications must be submitted to mnapaba@gmail.com.

MNAPABA stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and condemns the senseless ongoing violence and aggression. To that extent, we have identified several organizations that are providing aid to the people of Ukraine, and encourage members to donate to their cause:

Mercy Corps: Mercy Corps is on the ground in Ukraine, Romania, and Poland, providing funding to local organizations and working to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs in the region.

UNHCR: UNHCR is on the ground providing emergency shelter and lifesaving aid, including food, shelter, medicine, and clean water.

International Rescue Committee: Donations will help provide food, medical care, and emergency services to families whose lives are shattered by conflict in countries.

United Help Ukraine: United Help Ukraine receives and distributes donations, food, and medical supplies to Ukrainian internally displaced people, people of Ukraine affected by Russia's invasion, and families of wounded or killed.

UNICEF: UNICEF is delivering lifesaving programs for affected children and families in eastern Ukraine, including prepositioning health, hygiene, and emergency education supplies, trucking safe water, supporting mobile child protection teams, and working with municipalities to ensure immediate help for children and families.

MNAPABA leadership is seeking input from members regarding events and programming. Please take a minute today to answer this membership survey. 

The Eighth Circuit has appointed MNAPABA member Kesha Tanabe to the federal bankruptcy bench for the District of Minnesota. Judge Tanabe's 14-year term on the bench will commence on January 7, 2022. She will become the first Asian American woman on the federal bench in Minnesota. 

MNAPABA congratulates Judge Tanabe, a seasoned bankruptcy attorney and trustee in Minneapolis, on the historic appointment. The Eighth Circuit's appointment represents a first for an Asian American on the bankruptcy bench in the District of Minnesota and the Eighth Circuit, and she is the second Asian American ever appointed to the federal bench in Minnesota (after Magistrate Judge Tony Leung). 

While MNAPABA naturally celebrates another first among its members, Judge Tanabe's appointment comes after many years of experience in her field. Judge Tanabe has excelled in diverse forums—making partner in “big law” and also opening her own thriving solo practice. She represented the State of New York as a public servant in tobacco litigation and up until her appointment, made it a priority to take on pro bono matters assisting businesses in the Twin Cities, including those recently plagued by the economic realities of the pandemic and those affected by the protests of the summer of 2020. 

MNAPABA supported Judge Tanabe's appointment with an endorsement which read in part, "we are proud to endorse her application and hopeful that, while her appointment would make history in at least one sense, the public and community will find themselves with a fair new judge of excellent temperament, agile docket management skills, and the will to represent Minnesota and the Eighth Circuit as a service-minded member of the judiciary on a Court with a sterling reputation for the same."