Daniel Sakaguchi 

 Candidate for President-Elect

  Endorse Candidate

Personal Statement

I am honored to submit my name as a candidate for the position of NAPABA President-Elect for 2017-2018. As NAPABA continues to lead the way in the diverse legal community, whether in civil rights advocacy or providing value, professional development and opportunities to its members, I am excited for our future together. 

I have had the privilege of serving as Vice-President of Programs and Operations for 2016-2017, and for two years before that as an At-Large Board Member on the NAPABA Board of Governors, where I worked on a variety of task forces with others in NAPABA leadership, including, most recently, the development of NAPABA Connects, which revitalized and updated the former pitch program. I have co-chaired the Regional Conference Committee since 2014, and helped organize over a dozen regional conferences. I also previously served on the steering committee for the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy (CBLA), forging relationships with current and next generation leaders of the other national bars of color, the LGBT bar and the
ABA.

My goals for 2017-2018 include continuing the work of the programs task force, in coordination with membership and communications, which have both broadened and refined NAPABA’s programs and services to Affiliates and Direct Members in recent years. I am inspired by the NAPABA Board and Staff, and am proud of the way NAPABA continues to set the bar higher every year. 

I continue to believe that we are the national voice of the APA legal profession, a multifaceted and dynamic community, challenged to speak in unison and work toward greater inclusion while acknowledging and celebrating the diversity of voices and perspectives within it. As an Officer and Board Member of NAPABA, I have engaged in dialogue, actively listened to others and worked to build consensus, and I will continue to do so on a broader scale as President-Elect. 

I have long been committed to bar service, locally and nationally. I am a former President of the Missouri Asian American Bar Association (MAABA) in and was a board member for eight years. Since attending my first NAPABA conference in Boston in 2009, I progressively increased my involvement with NAPABA at the national level. I chaired the Central Regional Conference in St. Louis in 2011, and since 2012, I have served annually on an Awards Committee subcommittee. In 2013, I served on the host committee for the 2013 NAPABA Annual Convention in Kansas City, where I also co-chaired the CLE programming committee. I was a member of the inaugural class of the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy in 2013, and in early 2014, I became co-chair of the Regional Conference Committee. In 2017, I became a TIPS CONNECT! Diversity Fellow, working to strengthen connections between diverse bar leadership and the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section. I also began serving on the Executive Committee of the Solo and Small Firm Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco. 

Professionally, I recently became a partner at Alto Litigation, a litigation boutique in San Francisco, handling complex business disputes, including trade secrets and insurance coverage issues, after 14 years in larger firms in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to entering private practice, I was a public defender in California and Missouri. I received my undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and I was born and raised in Hawaii. I have lived and worked in parts of this country with some of the strongest concentrations of APA lawyers in the country, and in places where we are underrepresented, and I value the perspective offered by both. At a time when divisions are growing, we need leaders who practice listening and appreciating other points of view, the better to raise our collective voices and move us forward together. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead NAPABA and strengthen its mission and hope to have your support. 

I would be honored to serve as President Elect for NAPABA. If you have any questions about my candidacy, please do not hesitate to contact me at daniel@altolit.com. Thank you for your commitment and contributions to NAPABA and for voting in this election.

Candidate Bio

Daniel Sakaguchi is a partner at Alto Litigation. He has successfully handled complex lawsuits in both state and federal court, and is licensed in Missouri, Illinois and California. Daniel has served as an At-Large Board Member for NAPABA and has co-chaired the Regional Conference Committee since 2014. He is a past president and former director of the Missouri Asian American Bar Association, honored for his service as a MAABA Torchbearer in 2015. He was recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as a 2011 “40 Under 40” and has been recognized by Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyers® (2014-2017) and as a Rising Star (2010-2012), and by Best Lawyers in America® for Copyright Law in 2015-2016.

Endorsements

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