Annette Kwok

 Treasurer

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Candidate Statement

I am seeking the position of NAPABA Treasurer for 2022-23, and I would be honored to receive the support of NAPABA’s membership for my candidacy. With your support and trust, I will work diligently to safeguard NAPABA’s finances by advising the NAPABA Board to make sound financial decisions, operate within the annual budget, and maintain a healthy reserve and adequate books of account.  

My involvement with NAPABA dates back to 2005 when I was a first-year associate. Over the past 17 years, NAPABA has been instrumental to my personal and professional development. As a beneficiary of this wonderful organization and community, I feel a strong responsibility and desire to give back to NAPABA and the members it serves.  

To further its vision and values, NAPABA has set forth four pillars of new strategic framework that are uniquely important to the Asian American and Pacific Islander legal community. I have a deep understanding of these visions and values as I have held board and other leadership positions with various national and local bar associations -- including NAPABA and its affiliates -- that are committed to promoting justice, equity, and opportunity for communities of color, especially the AAPI community.  

I’ve served on the boards of NAPABA, the American Bar Association, the D.C. Bar, the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area (APABA-DC). Specifically, I served as Treasurer of APABA-DC (2010-2012), President of APABA-DC (2013-2014), and Southeast Regional Governor of NAPABA (2015-2017). Currently, I serve as a Trustee of the Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (FADIPL) and the chair of its Scholarship Application Review Committee. The committee’s primary responsibility is to review applications and recommend aspiring law students of color for FADIPL’s mentorship and scholarship program to increase diversity in the practice of intellectual property law. 

In 2015, I was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the D.C. Bar, the largest unified bar in the U.S., with over 100,000 members internationally with an annual budget of over $30 million. During my service on the D.C. Bar’s Board, I served on Executive Committee, the Budget Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Executive Compensation Committee. As a member of the Budget Committee, I reviewed budgets for operations, assessed personnel expenses, and made recommendations regarding membership dues. With respect to the Finance Committee, I analyzed the Bar’s financial statements and ensured the Bar’s investments comply with its investment and reserve policies. As a member of the Executive Compensation Committee, I reviewed evaluations of the CEO and made recommendations on the CEO’s compensation based on market data of comparable compensation of CEOs in similar organizations. 

My experience with the D.C. Bar’s Budget and Finance Committees, along with my term on the NAPABA Board as Southeast Regional Governor and my service as APABA-DC’s President and Treasurer, make me well-equipped to handle the duties and responsibilities of NAPABA Treasurer. Through my experience as APABA-DC’s Treasurer, I gained familiarity with the financial operations of a NAPABA affiliate; through my service as NAPABA’s Southeast Regional Governor, I learned about NAPABA’s annual budgeting process, because the Board was required to review and vote on the budget annually; through my service with the D.C. Bar, I acquired the skills to comprehend, safeguard, grow, and recommend the budget of a large non-profit organization. 

I have also served as an appointed committee member of the Interests on Lawyers Trust Account 
(IOLTA) Committee for D.C. Bar Foundation and the ABA, where I worked with other committee members to educate financial institutions about the Community Reinvestment Act, develop training materials for administrators for the trust accounts, and identify opportunities to increase resources for legal civil services. Through my involvement in these organizations, I have become quite aware that bar associations throughout the country are experiencing difficulties in attracting and retaining members. As a past affiliate president and a past regional governor, I understand the disconnect the affiliate membership could feel with NAPABA. NAPABA is more than just an annual convention. If elected, I will bring my experience from other bar associations to help NAPABA continue to evaluate and improve its membership structures, promote membership and members’ engagement, and to advance our members to positions of leadership and influence in the legal profession and beyond. 

I hope you will support my candidacy. I look forward to serving you. 

Candidate Bio

Annette Kwok is Vice President, Legal at JAKKS Pacific Inc., a publicly traded multi-brand global consumer product company in Santa Monica, California. Annette manages all aspects of JAKKS’ international intellectual property portfolio, including brand protection and anti-counterfeiting; supports licensing, marketing and regulatory compliance teams; and provides business-driven, actionable advice to the stakeholders. 

Prior to JAKKS, Annette was Head of Intellectual Property at Cronos Group in Toronto, Canada, where she managed a team of IP professionals in the area of cannabis research, vaporizer device development, and cannabinoid cosmetic evaluations. 

Annette was a synthetic organic chemist and an inventor before receiving her law degree from the University of New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce School of Law. She is a registered patent attorney and practiced at AmLaw 100 firms in Washington, D.C. for 14 years.

Annette has over fifteen years of demonstrated leadership within the legal community and is a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Currently, she serves as a Trustee of the Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (FADIPL) and the Chair of its Scholarship Application Review Committee. In D.C., she served on the Board of Governors of the D.C. Bar, the largest unified bar in the U.S., with over 100,000 members internationally with an annual budget of over $30 million, and the Board of Director of the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center. She spearheaded the implementation of a Diversity and Inclusion Policy to ensure at least 30% of all candidates interviewed are self-identified as women, LGBTQ, minority, or members of another recognized protected class. She also served as the Southeast Regional Governor of NAPABA, a Past President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of D.C. (APABA-DC), and an appointed committee member of the Interests on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA) Committee of the ABA and the D.C. Bar Foundation.

Annette is committed to pro bono services and access to justice for the underserved. During her free time, she enjoys taking walks on the beach and (unsuccessfully) training her two cats to do tricks. 

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NAPABA Affiliate Endorsements

•  Asian American Bar Association of New York
  

Individual Endorsements

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