By: Rafael G. Nendel-Flores, HBA President   

 

With the passing of Labor Day, summer is now officially over, the kids are back in school and Hispanic Heritage month is here.  With this in mind,  I wanted to first focus on the impressive accomplishments of our local Hispanic professionals in the last few months alone.  In July, Governor Brown appointed Julie Palafox to the Orange County Superior Court.  We are very happy for Judge Palafox and are honored that we supported her candidacy.  Four of the HBA's own Board Members were recently selected as "Rising Stars" by Southern California Superlawyers---yours truly, Darrell White, Eric M. Dominguez and Diana Lopez.  Also, Santa Ana Councilmember Michelle Martinez was elected president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).  Finally, I was honored to be included in Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, for the second year in a row.
 
The HBA has a very busy fall planned.  First up, the HBA will be holding its Annual Judges BBQ on September 27.  This year we will be honoring US District Court Judge Andrew Guilford.  Judge Guilford has been a consistent and tireless supporter of the HBA.  Next, HBA will be holding a joint CLE event with JAMS on civility in the legal profession on October 13 at 6:30pm.  In my opinion, this is a critical topic as lawyers often treat each other with less respect than they should.  At the end of the day, we are in the same profession even if we happen to be on opposite sides of a dispute.  HBA also plans to hold an event regarding the judicial appointment/application process with Kimberly Knill, the Chair of the California State Bar's Judicial Nominee Evaluation Commission and a few recently appointed judges.  Hispanics continue to be hugely underrepresented on the California bench and a big part of this problem is the low number of Hispanic attorneys applying for judicial appointments.  Hopefully, this event will demystify the application process and, more importantly, encourage qualified folks to apply.  HBA will then hold its Annual Dia De Los Muertos event at Luna Kutsi on November 4 and its annual Holiday Party in December.  These will all be great events and I look forward to seeing all of you at these events!
 
Finally and on a more serious note, I wanted to briefly address some of the unproductive and frankly offensive ant-immigrant rhetoric that we are hearing from certain presidential candidates and their surrogates.  This nativism is inconsistent with our nation's founding principles and, regardless of one's political persuasion, inconsistent with conservative principals as I understand them.  As Ronald Reagan observed on independence day in 1986:
 
Consistent with President Reagan's observation, three of the major presidential candidates on the Republican side (Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio) come from first generation immigrant families.  Rather than vilifying immigrants, we should celebrate these diverse presidential candidates and the millions of other hard working immigrants in this country as classic immigrant success stories.