Hogene Choi 

 Candidate for Treasurer

Candidate Statement

I first became interested in NAPABA because of the multitude of benefits and opportunities that NAPABA has to offer. I have attended every NAPABA Convention starting from 2011, as well as participating in other NAPABA programs and events: the Prospective Partners Program (2013), the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy (2015), Lobby Day (2018 and 2019), and numerous Regional Conferences. I have also had the privilege of coordinating and speaking on panels and at receptions.

I became more involved in NAPABA by joining the IP Committee in 2012, after which I started the Women in IP Subcommittee in 2014 and was then appointed co‐chair of the IP Committee in 2018. I also spearheaded the 2017 NAPABA Western Regional Conference (as President of the hosting affiliate: APABA Silicon Valley), which was and has been the largest Regional Conference of all time. After this success, I was elected by the ten NorCal affiliate bar associations to be Alternate Regional Governor in 2017 and then Regional Governor in 2018—during this time, I have invested significant time and energy to help guide NAPABA through important initiatives and critical issues.

It has been incredibly rewarding to be involved with NAPABA, and some of my closest friendships have developed through my involvement in NAPABA. Over the years, I have encouraged and helped numerous other APA attorneys and law students to get involved with NAPABA, and I also helped to increase my firm’s levels of sponsorship and involvement.
For me, it is incredibly rewarding to help NAPABA evolve and grow to better serve our community. This opportunity to give back and make an impact is why I continue to support and serve NAPABA.

As a partner at a global law firm that has been a long‐time sponsor of NAPABA, I have supported NAPABA and its affiliates by relying on my network and the resources of my firm. Most recently, my firm hosted the February 2020 board meeting at our Austin office. I have also created opportunities for the NAPABA Board to connect with important NorCal organizations such as the Bay Area Asian American General Counsels group.

Supporting NAPABA has also meant using the skills and expertise that I developed in my career prior to law school, when I worked at a number of high‐tech startup companies. I learned to identify opportunities to create value and demand, to drive growth through innovation (e.g., in revenue generation and strategic investment of resources), and to ensure the health and stability of the organization through developing its culture, policies, and best practices. I used these skills while leading APABA Silicon Valley by identifying important stakeholders, diversifying our board, increasing revenue, overhauling our infrastructure, refreshing our branding, raising our profile, and developing and deploying governance policies and best practices for the board and for our committees to place an emphasis on providing value to our stakeholders. During my time on the NAPABA board, I have also drawn upon these skills to help NAPABA renew its strategic plan and fulfill its mission.

In order to realize maximum potential, it is critical for NAPABA to focus on delivering value to its stakeholders: attorneys in all sectors of the legal profession and our sponsors, committees, networks, and affiliates. Supporting APA lawyers builds the strength of our organization by increasing the numbers and loyalty of our members, extending our reach and influence, and bringing in funds to have a greater impact, both for our stakeholders and for the APA community.

It is also important to understand where strategic partnerships with other organizations or our local affiliates may be the best path to realizing aspects of our mission that reach beyond supporting our stakeholders. In one example, to most effectively fulfill the branch of our mission statement to “promote justice, equity and opportunity for Asian Pacific Americans”, we should recognize where our interests align and seek to partner with the many highly effective organizations that are dedicated to advancing civil and human rights, including those that do not necessarily focus on the APA community. Rather than duplicating efforts by, competing for resources with, or simply ceding responsibility to such organizations, NAPABA can best serve the APA community by building strategic partnerships at the local, regional, and national levels to have an impact far beyond our footprint.

Over the next few years, NAPABA will be best served by honestly reassessing the best way to realize our core mission, evolving to focus on delivering value to our stakeholders, and strategically extending our reach to better serve the APA community.

Candidate Bio

Hogene L. Choi is a Partner in the Palo Alto office of the law firm of Baker Botts LLP. She co‐chairs the firmwide Patent Prosecution Practice Group and helps her clients to build and grow high‐value patent portfolios, investigate opportunities related to patent transactions and risks in connection with patent disputes, and develop a strategic and efficient approach to capturing and developing intellectual property. Prior to her legal career, she worked for eight years as a software engineer and in management at various high‐tech companies, including several startups.

Hogene has served on the Board of Governors of NAPABA since 2018 as the Northern California Regional Governor, and she co‐chairs NAPABA’s IP Committee. She was the President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley (APABA Silicon Valley) in 2016 and 2017 and has served on the board since 2013. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Korean American Bar Association of Northern California (KABANC) for a number of years, and she is a member of the Council of Korean Americans. She is a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area and earned two degrees from the University of California: a J.D. from U. C. Hastings College of Law and a bachelor's degree in computer science from U. C. Berkeley.

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