PHILIPPINE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

July 22, 2010

Los Angeles, California

______________________________________________________________________________

The Philippine American Bar Association (PABA) of Los Angeles congratulates Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye of the Third District Court of Appeal on her nomination to become the next Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.  Justice Cantil-Sakauye would be the first Filipino American to sit on a state’s highest court and the first Asian American to serve as a chief justice of the California Supreme Court. 

As the bar association comprised of Filipino-American lawyers, judges and law students in the greater Los Angeles area, PABA has been well aware of Justice Cantil-Sakauye’s record as a jurist – from the time she became a Sacramento County Municipal Court Judge in 1990, to her elevation to the Sacramento County Superior Court in 1997 and most recently to her becoming an associate justice of the Court of Appeal in 2005.  Throughout her distinguished career, Justice Cantil-Sakauye has been a source of pride for PABA and all Filipino-Americans. 

“Justice Cantil-Sakauye has been an incredible role model for our community,” says PABA’s president, Angeli Aragon.  “We are so happy that the world will now know what the Filipino-American legal community has always known:  that she is not only an incredible lawyer and judge, but she is also a terrific person with a wonderful mind.  As an Asian American lawyer, female and Filipina, I am personally thrilled by her nomination.”

PABA also applauds Governor Schwarzenegger’s vision to select Justice Cantil-Sakauye to head the state’s Supreme Court.  In placing his faith in Justice Cantil-Sakauye, Governor Schwarzenegger gives California’s highest court an able successor to retiring Chief Justice Ronald George and demonstrates that women, Filipino-Americans, Asian Americans and all people of color can reach the highest levels of our judiciary through hard work and dedicated service.

PABA was formed to address legal issues affecting the Filipino-American community and to support the Filipino-American lawyers and law students in Southern California.  PABA sponsors community legal clinics and provides pro bono legal services.  PABA also provides continuing legal education seminars and professional development opportunities for its members, and assists Filipino-American law students through mentorship programs and the PABA Foundation scholarship fund.  PABA is an affiliate organization of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).

________________________________________

www.pabala.org / www.pabafoundation.org