Meet the Moment: NAPABA Affiliate Grant Contest Champions

In April 2025, NAPABA launched a new opportunity for our affiliate network — the Meet the Moment Affiliate Grant Contest. This competitive funding initiative was designed to uplift innovative, high-impact programs that champion our mission and strengthen our affiliate communities.

Today, NAPABA is excited to announce the Dallas Asian American Bar Association (DAABA) and the Asian Bar Association of Washington (ABAW) as our 2025 Meet the Moment Champions! Learn about their projects below that will bring positive impact to their communities.

DAABA’s proposal, the Public Service Pipeline Project (PSPP), seeks to establish a sustainable pipeline to encourage and support Asian American attorneys and prospective attorneys in pursuing or furthering careers in public service. Through a variety of programming, members and law students will hear from government attorneys, judges, or officials, and learn about their paths to public service.

ABAW’s proposal, the Legal Language Project, aims to enhance access to justice for underserved communities while empowering the next generation of AANHPI pro bono advocates. The Legal Language Project will create multilingual legal toolkits in Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Korean covering common legal topics such as immigration, family law, and estate planning. It also seeks to train AANHPI law students and attorneys in legal service delivery that acknowledges differences in culture throughout the community, via workshops surrounding language access and legal literacy gaps impacting AANHPI immigrants and first-generation families.

NAPABA additionally recognizes the Guam Bar Association (GBA) and the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts (AALAM) for their meaningful proposals. GBA’s proposal, Legacy in Practice: Guam Attorney Mentorship Initiative, pairs early-career lawyers with seasoned attorneys in a mentorship program to strengthen Guam’s legal future and support the next generation to lead in critical roles across the profession. AALAM’s proposal, the AALAM/NUSL Law Student Support Program, provides no-strings-attached economic support to Northeastern Law students who self-identify as first-generation law students, students from low-income backgrounds, or those experiencing financial insecurity, with preference given to those pursuing public interest careers.

So far in 2025, NAPABA funded nine projects focused on community support, pro bono work, and membership development through the Affiliate Grant Program. The program has now closed for the year as all available funding has been allocated. NAPABA looks forward to reopening the Affiliate Grant Program in 2026 and continuing to support the important work of our Affiliates and National Associates.

###

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) represents the interests of over 80,000 Asian Pacific American (APA) legal professionals and over 90 national, state, and local APA bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of all backgrounds in the legal profession.