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January 27, 2025 Feature Article

NAPABA President’s Award

Edgar Chen
Nancy P. Lee, Priya Purandare, and Wendy C. Shiba.

Nancy P. Lee, Priya Purandare, and Wendy C. Shiba.

Each year at its annual conference, the President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) honors individuals or entities who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community.

In 2024, the NAPABA President’s Award was presented to Past Presidents Nancy P. Lee and Wendy C.  Shiba and current Executive Director Priya Purandare—three pioneering women leaders of NAPABA whose transformative work has significantly impacted the AANHPI legal profession over the last four decades.

The NAPABA President’s Award is one of the most high-profile accolades bestowed at their Convention and past recipients have included ABA Medal recipient Dale Minami, ABA Spirit of Excellence winner Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court, and organizations such as The Asian American Foundation, which was founded in part as a response to the scourge of pandemic-related anti-Asian hate.

In 2024, at NAPABA’s Convention held in Seattle–which set an all-time attendance record of over 3,400 participants–NAPABA's Immediate Past President Anna Mercado Clark singled out these three exceptional members of the NAPABA community for recognition for their legendary service to the bar.

The President’s Award winners “have left an indelible mark not just on me but our organization and the profession as well,” said Clark. “Each worked to advance and mentor women in the profession and have created a more inclusive NAPABA.”  These three women have helped lead the organization at various times in its history, but, according to Clark, have never been stuck in any particular moment.

Rather, they were selected precisely because they combined a sense of institutional history and memory which informs and guides the vision for NAPABA’s future, but does not constrain it.  For Clark, Lee and Shiba have been particularly strong role models who helped shape her own Presidency: “I continued to rely on Nancy and Wendy for their expertise in governance, and admired how long after they stepped down from their presidencies, they continue to make meaningful contributions to NAPABA.”  With respect to Purandare, Clark noted, “I was so fortunate to have Priya in my corner every day–she has been instrumental in supporting my tenure, our Board, NAPABA, and the communities we represent.”

The selection of Lee, Purandare, and Shiba demonstrates that service to an affinity bar is a valuable form of service to the communities that their members represent.

At the NAPABA Convention in Seattle, all three sat down for a heartfelt conversation to discuss what the NAPABA President’s Award means to them. “Receiving this award with ... women that I consider mentors, that have seen me grow over the past 15 years with this organization is particularly meaningful,” said Purandare of her fellow recipients. “I can’t recall a time where three women were honored at the same time with the President’s Award.”

The exponential growth of the AANHPI legal community and of NAPABA “has been so exciting and gratifying,” observed Shiba, who noted the expansion has reverberations beyond NAPABA. “We also have an important message to impart externally and we've been working to build NAPABA’s impact in the policy positions taken by the American Bar Association that are critical to the AANHPI community.” Purandare agreed, crediting Shiba for identifying NAPABA as a “force multiplier” both within the AANHPI community and beyond.

"I’m hopeful about the future for NAPABA,” said Lee, “I have seen so many folks over the years who have made such great contributions to the organization, who are so passionate about helping our communities and who are very courageous at stepping outside of what otherwise is the status quo in order to bring about needed change in an effort to advance our communities.”

You can watch the video of their conversation here.

Nancy P. Lee

Nancy P. Lee served as the 6th President of NAPABA from 1994 through 1995 (and only the second woman President); and as the 4th President of the NAPABA Law Foundation.  An experienced nonprofit, corporate and business transactional attorney, Nancy was integral in formative years of NAPABA, helping to lead the strategic vision and planning for this organization and its foundation. Nancy was a shareholder and Of Counsel at three of Sacramento, California’s preeminent law firms and a fixture in the Sacramento legal community, perennially recognized for her corporate, governance, and nonprofit expertise on behalf of a wide range of clients.  Nancy is a NAPABA Trailblazer awardee and a former Board Chair of Asian Americans Advancing Justice |AAJC. 

Priya Purandare

Priya Purandare is the longest-tenured staff member in NAPABA history.  She has dedicated over 15 years of service across three tours of duty with the organization.  Priya began her career as the first full time staff person for the NAPABA Law Foundation, and then returned as the Convention manager and helped transform NAPABA’s annual meeting from a volunteer driven model to one planned and operated by professional staff. After a brief stint as Executive Director of the National Association of Women Judges, Priya returned to NAPABA as Executive Director in 2020.  During her tenure, she has transformed and led NAPABA by expanding programs, diversifying funding sources, doubling its budget and reserves, and growing its membership—now representative of 80,000 AANHPI legal professionals. A nationally recognized voice for the AANHPI legal community, she has overseen NAPABA’s role in advising two presidential administrations on judicial nominations, hate crimes, and other critical issues of importance to our community.

Wendy C. Shiba

Wendy Shiba served as NAPABA’s 24th President of NAPABA from 2012 through 2013. Wendy was a Big Law corporate attorney, and general counsel of a Fortune 500 company at a time when neither women nor Asian Americans were well represented in C-suite ranks. Wendy was even a fulltime law professor at Temple University School of Law.  Although retired as a corporate executive, Wendy continues to serve as NAPABA's delegate to the ABA's House of Delegates, is the Chair of the Select Committee of the House of Delegates, Chair of the ABA's DEI Center, and Vice Chair of the Committee on Rights of Women of the Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice; and of course was a co-founder of the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy, which continues to make a sustainable impact in building a pipeline of bar leaders across affinity bars. Among her many accolades, Wendy is a NAPABA Trailblazer awardee, and is a recipient of the ABA’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award in 2022 and the ABA’s Spirit of Excellence Award in 2014.

Edgar Chen

Special Policy Advisor, NAPABA

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