Courtney Fong Candidate for Vice President for Finance and Development Endorse Candidate

Personal Statement

NAPABA is a thriving and growing organization. My primary goal as Vice President of Finance and Development is to position the organization in a way that allows its members to increase their capacity to make a maximum impact in their professional and personal lives. This would include strengthening NAPABA’s financial position so that programs, events and initiatives can be funded for many years to come. I would evaluate our internal and external relationships to ensure each is fully developed. We need to keep and improve NAPABA’s funding through its sponsorships, dues and other sources of revenue.

Now that NAPABA is entering its 30th year, we face the challenges of a large organization that now spreads across multiple generations. Our trailblazers have made a way for us so we must embrace every opportunity to promote NAPABA members and the community we serve. This generational difficulty can be addressed by leaning in to the experience of our founders, mobilizing our core members, and getting new lawyers involved immediately. Together we can make a maximum impact.

I am uniquely qualified for this position in three ways. First, I am the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of an investment firm. My finance background lends well to this position as well as the in-house connections that my role provides. Second, I currently serve as co-chair of NAPABA’s Investment Committee. This operational committee ensures that NAPABA’s finances are being invested according to the Investment Policy Statement. I already have deep knowledge of NAPABA’s finances and the challenges of managing the money for our organization. Finally, I am qualified for this position because I am a board member of the NAPABA Law Foundation. The Vice President of Finance and Development is automatically given a board seat with NLF. Because of my current NLF Board membership I will be fully up to speed from day one and understand the challenge of fundraising and deploying funds that serve our community through fellowships, internships, and scholarships.

We have been fortunate to have many great leaders serve NAPABA in formal roles. I hope to continue this tradition as we look to celebrate 30 great years of NAPABA.

Candidate Bio

Courtney Fong is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Castle Creek Arbitrage LLC in Chicago and holds other senior roles at CC ARB Global Limited in London. Courtney is an Adjunct Professor of Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law where he developed and teaches a course on Hedge Funds and Regulatory Compliance.

Courtney is the co-chair of NAPABA’s Investments and Corporate Transactions Committees and serves on the Board of the NAPABA Law Foundation. He is the Second Vice President of AABA Chicago, the immediate past president of CABA Chicago, a former board member of FALA Chicago, and a lifetime member of the National Filipino American Lawyers Association #NFALAFamily.

In 2015, Courtney was appointed to a 3-year term to the ABA Standing Committee on CLE; he serves on its Co-Sponsorship and Diversity Waiver subcommittees. He also sits on the ABA Board of Governors Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund Committee and was named a Fellow by the ABA Section of Business Law for an unprecedented third year in a row.Courtney is a regular speaker on in-house counsel issues and diversity matters and was recently featured in a TEDx Talk. In 2016, Courtney was recognized as Top General Counsel by First Chair and a Mandarin Leader by Mandarin Communications Group while receiving the Presidential Achievement Award by CABA Chicago.

Courtney is a graduate of Northwestern University and received his JD and MBA from IIT Chicago- Kent College of Law.

Endorsements

*All work or organizational affiliations disclosed are for identification and disclosures purposes only, and do not constitute endorsements by those institutions.