KABA-DC Newsletter: 1Q 2024

For membership renewal, please click here.

Reminiscing Seollal Event

We were excited to see a great turn out from the Korean American legal community and look forward to introducing more programming, business development coaching, and exclusive benefits. Please check for more pictures at this link.

Upcoming Events

Member Meet-up, March 16th (Sat) @ noon: For paid members, a Saturday lunch get-together.

Launch Workspaces
The Watergate Building
2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Seventh Floor
Washington, D.C.

Lunch and beverages will be served. Casual attire and pets are welcome. Street parking and paid parking is available at and around 2600 Virginia Avenue NW.

Please RSVP to kabadc2009@gmail.com by the close of business on Thursday, March 14.

Tennis Event, April 4th (Thu): A private tennis lesson, followed by a happy hour. To help us organize, please fill out the survey at this link.

Summer Reception, July 18th (Thu): Summer fun at the Wharf! Come to the KABA-DC summer reception for a chance to make new connections with attorneys and law students.

Chuseok, September 18th (Wed): Celebrate Chuseok with KABA-DC! Our celebration of the Moon Festival will feature traditional food and drinks, as well as the celebration of the successes and accomplishments of Korean American women around us.

*For specific updates, please keep an eye on our upcoming announcements.

Member Spotlight: Heidi Son

Heidi is an immigration attorney at Murray Osorio P.C. Please check out Heidi's recent article on H-1B Lottery at this link.

1. What motivated you to become a lawyer? Having grown up mostly in California, and moving to North Carolina from Seoul, I was shocked to experience racial discrimination in college. For the first time in my life, I was called derogatory, racial slurs. It eventually led me to dream about becoming a civil rights lawyer.
2. Tell me about your practice! I am a Business Immigration lawyer with over 10 years of experience in immigration law and 5 years in employment law. I manage an extensive array of employment-based immigration cases, assisting individuals and companies with obtaining work authorization, investment visas, and employment-based green cards. In particular, I focus on finding creative solutions for complex cases serving investors, entrepreneurs, and start-ups, as well as small to mid-sized U.S. companies looking to add foreign national talent in STEM roles. Learn more about my practice at https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidison/
3. What is your favorite thing about DC? I have fond memories of visiting the Smithsonian museums as a family when our two boys were still little. And though the boys have now all grown up, we still enjoy strolling through the cherry blossoms in the spring.
4. Why did you decide to serve as a KABA officer? Having lived abroad in 5 different countries in the last 17 years, I did not have the opportunity to meet and collaborate with other Korean American lawyers. When we moved back to the DC area, I attended a KABA networking event in 2023 and saw that most members were very young, law students or recent graduates just starting their legal career. Now that we are here in the U.S. permanently, I decided to volunteer for KABA hoping to I can give back to the Korean American legal community as an older lawyer with 2 decades of experience in the legal field.
5. What was your greatest moment for the past year or so? My older son has dreamt of playing American football since he was 5 years old. After years of training, he received several offers to play college football. When he finally committed to play D3 football at University of Rochester, we celebrated his accomplishment as a family.
6. Please tell us about your non-work passion, whatever it is! As a former fine arts major, I love to draw and paint. Since I don't have much spare time to produce art for the sake of art, my outlet for creativity is to decorate
   my house or repaint my furniture.
7. What is the weirdest/quirkiest thing about you? Once I retire, I would like to write romance novels and movie scripts.
8. What was your favorite trip in the past? After experiencing the 2011 earthquake/tsunami in Japan, we took our boys for their 1st cruise to Australia and New Zealand for 10 days during Christmas/New Years holiday. It was
   one of our best family trips that we all still remember (though the boys were only 4 and 6), and it was the catalyst to our annual cruise tradition.
9. What is your favorite movie or book (comic book included)? I love the movie, Invincible, a football movie based on a true, "Cinderella" story of a Philadelphia Eagle.
10. What do you look forward to the most in the next 5 years? We will be an empty nester in 2 years. I look forward to not having to wake up early every day and make breakfast and pack lunch. I can sleep in and maybe cook one deal on any given day. Maybe not cook at all! Wouldn't that be divine.