The Austin Asian American Bar Association (AAABA) was founded in the summer of 2006 to serve the professional, social, mentoring, and community interests of Asian-Pacific American attorneys in Austin and Central Texas. The effort was led by several local attorneys who recognized the need for a dedicated local Asian American bar association and gathered over the course of several meetings in a classroom at the University of Texas School of Law to plan the organization’s formation. The need for a dedicated bar association had grown alongside the community itself: The number of Asian-Pacific American attorneys in the Austin area grew nearly tenfold, from an initial list of about 12 lawyers in 1992 to over 120 by the mid-2000s.
In July 2006, a council of founding lawyers formally launched AAABA. From the organization’s inception, the founders chose to keep the formal board small and to operate AAABA through a leadership council to encourage as many members as possible to share in the organization’s leadership. Albert Li served as AAABA’s first president, and Albert Lin, Cindy Lin, and Tini Nguyen served as the three original directors. Additionally, the early council included Lisa Tsai, Michelle Cheng, Phong Phan, Gina Shishima, Chad Anson, Michael Wong, Ketan Kharod, and Elias Lorenzana.
Shortly after its establishment, AAABA joined the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) as its third Texas-based affiliate. Organized as a 501(c)(6) non-profit business league, AAABA operates as a bar association devoted to serving the Asian-Pacific American legal community in Austin and the surrounding Central Texas region.
