Chicago partner Avanti Bakane has been elected VP of Communications of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) by the organization's membership.
Bakane has served as the Regional Governor for the Central Region for the past two years, acting as the liaison between her regional affiliates and the NAPABA Board. As VP of Communications, Bakane will now serve on NAPABA’s Executive Board.
Bakane is actively involved in the legal and diversity organizations in Chicago and nationally. She is most recently the former President of the South Asian Bar Association and she also volunteers with Apna Ghar, a civil rights and social action organization.
Since its inception in 1988, NAPABA has been at the forefront of national and local activities in the areas of civil rights, combating anti-immigrant backlash and hate crimes, increasing the diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, and professional development. NAPABA host its annual conference in cities across the country to connect its more than 2,100 members which includes Asian Pacific (APA) attorneys, judges, law students, legal scholars, and elected officials from around the country.
Hosted in Washington, D.C., the 2017 NAPABA Convention was the largest gathering of APA attorneys in the country and it was the largest in NAPABA history. The 2018 conference will mark the 30th year since the inaugural conference hosted in Chicago in 1988. The 2018 conference will be on November 11 and will once again be hosted in Chicago.
Bakane is a member of the Commercial Litigation practice group at Gordon & Rees. Clients regularly retain Bakane in a variety of complex matters. She represents publicly traded and smaller companies alike in areas such as complex class action, antitrust, and other commercial litigation with a focus in consumer class action defense. She has experience in federal and state courts across the country. She assists with ethical and compliance matters and is a key asset in pre-suit negotiations, litigation, and other legal counseling.
Gordon & Rees has an active Diversity Committee dedicated to cultivating an environment that values differences. Gordon & Rees is committed to fostering an environment that supports diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The firm looks forward to sponsoring NAPABA future events. To learn more about Gordon & Rees' commitment to Diversity, please click here.