LLSA honors community members with awards

March 3, 2017

The Latinx Law Student Association will present annual awards to three people whose work and achievements lift up the legal community, support the law school, and foster justice.

Veronica Quiñónez '11 will receive the Spirit of Service Award, Chach Duarte White '00 will receive La Justicia Award, and Steve Tapia will receive the Latina/o Amicus Award. The awards will be presented at a receptionon March 9 at 5:30 p.m.

Verónica Quiñónez
Verónica Quiñónez

Verónica Quiñónez is the president-elect of the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, and previously served as the director of clinics for LBAW. She is also the deputy president (Region XVI) for the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Quiñónez is the owner of Veronica Quinonez Law, PLLC, located in South King County. Her firm offers bilingual mediation services and legal services in the counties of King and Pierce, primarily in the areas of family and dependency. She enjoys working with at-risk children and providing affordable legal services for populations that are predominately underserved.

During law school, Quiñónez was the vice president of the Latina/o Law Student Association. She earned her bachelor's degree in criminal justice and legal reasoning from University of Texas at El Paso in 2008, and also graduated from UTEP's Law School Preparation Institute. She was the recipient of the 2016 LBAW President's Award and the 2016 WSBA Outstanding Young Lawyer Award.

Chach Duarte White
Chach Duarte White

Chach Duarte White '00 is a staff attorney at the Legal Counsel for Youth and Children where she represents children that are legally free and those that can qualify for special immigrant juvenile status in dependency proceedings. She also represents homeless youth and young adults by addressing their legal barriers.

She previously worked for Northwest Justice Project on the CLEAR line and served as a Title 26 Family Law Guardian ad Litem. She then worked as the associate director of the Academic Resource Center and as an adjunct professor of legal writing for Seattle University School of Law. Later, she was the Diversity Program Manager for the Washington State Bar Association and worked for the Moderate Means Program at both Seattle University and University of Washington Schools of Law. She also served as a grants consultant for the Legal Foundation of Washington.

She is the co-chair of the Judicial Institute, the chair of the WSBA Lawyer's Fund for Client Protection and a past-president of the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington. She is passionate about fighting for the underdog and leveling the playing field.

Steve Tapia
Steve Tapia

Steve Tapia has practiced entertainment, media and intellectual property law for over 30 years. He currently teaches intellectual property and business curriculum at the law school.

As in-house counsel for DIRECTV Sports Networks, he was the primary contract negotiator and rights manager for sports programming and distribution partnerships with the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Big Sky Conference, Mountain West Conference and many other teams and conferences.

Before joining DIRECTV, he was a Senior Attorney in Microsoft's Law and Corporate Affairs department. His assignments included leading Microsoft's Copyright And Trade Secret Practice Group, and advising on Microsoft's open source licensing strategies and policies. He also was the primary counsel for MSN, MSNBC, Slate, and Microsoft's corporate marketing and advertising operations. In addition to legal positions, he also led Microsoft's business development teams for ebooks and entertainment.

He frequently speaks on copyright law, social networking, online advertising issues, media law, first amendment issues and digital downloads of entertainment content.

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