Spotlight on New Board Members

We are very happy to welcome Samir Halawi and Nour Hamidi on the AALASC Board!  

Samir Halawi

Samir Halawi is a Tax & Executive Compensation Associate with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP practicing out of its Los Angeles office. Samir’s practice involves a wide range of transactional and advisory work in the corporate tax, partnership tax, tax-exemption and executive compensation areas. Samir was born in Beirut, Lebanon and was raised in Beirut, Accra, Ghana and Freetown, Sierra Leone. He first set foot in the United States when he was 16 years old. A Los Angelino since immigrating, Samir worked his way through college; attending Santa Monica College before transferring to California State University Northridge to conclude his undergraduate studies. After gaining some professional work experience (including a stint selling after-market aircraft parts to foreign militaries), Samir found himself in law school. He attended Georgetown University Law Center obtaining a dual J.D./Tax LL.M. and graduating with a number of university honors. 

Nour Hamidi

Nour Hamidi

Nour is a first-generation Palestinian American Muslim attorney who was born and raised in Orange County, California.  She is a litigation associate at Ellis George Cipollone O’Brien where she practices white collar criminal and regulatory defense and a wide variety of civil litigation, in both federal and state court.  Prior to joining Ellis George Cipollone, Nour clerked for the Honorable Sheri Pym of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She also served as a judicial extern for Judge André Birotte Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Nour received her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles where she served as the Research Editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles International Law Review and as the community liaison for the ACLU at Loyola. In law school, Nour founded the first Muslim law student association, and worked with the Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic where she represented individuals who were wrongly convicted in their youth or sentenced to unjustly disproportionate sentences. Nour is a recipient of the AALASC ChangeLawyers Scholarship. As a board member, she is committed to advancing AALASC’s mission to create more diverse and equitable representation in the legal field.

AALASC 2023 Banquet Recap

Awards

At our banquet, we had the opportunity to recognize three organizations for their lengthy track record demonstrating their commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.  

The California Minority Counsel Program, and California ChangeLawyers were honored with the Inclusive Excellence Award, for their commitment and contributions to diversifying the legal profession, and showing leadership in recognizing, and advancing Arab Americans within the legal profession.  The Walt Disney Company was honored with the Diversity Champion Award, for their commitment to advancing Arab Americans through diverse and inclusive content.  The General Counsel for Disney, Horacio Gutierrez, summed up the theme of the night succinctly: “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are!”

 

Fireside Chat

We were also delighted to have California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban join us at the banquet for a Fireside Chat.  Prior to joining the California Supreme Court, Justice Groban served as the Senior Legal Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown, ultimately advising the governor on the appointment of over 600 judges, or roughly one out of every three judges in California.  Justice Groban repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to equal access to justice, and to achieving full diversity in the judicial branch; he had a hand in appointing one of only three Arab American judges currently on the bench, our very own AALASC board member, Judge Tony Raphael.  During the fireside chat, Justice Groban shared his thoughts on the importance of diversity in the judiciary, and the qualities that make an excellent judge, emphasizing in particular that being a judge is “about being a good listener, having a high emotional IQ, and not having an ego.” 

 

The Daily Journal published a great write-up for the event, and the photographer helped capture all the attendees who came out to celebrate with us! (View Photos)

Message From Our Incoming President, Rudy Salo

Arab American Heritage month always makes me think about the history of Arab Americans in this country, and our different experiences.  I grew up in Orange County in the 1980s, which for many reasons was awesome. We had the best music, the best movies, and no one can convince me otherwise.  Life was simpler before the explosion of the internet.  

But growing up as an Arab American in the 1980s was tough. Many times, I turned on the television and there were stories about plane hijackings, terror attacks, or wars that I had nothing to do with, but they had a profound impact on my fragile, young identity. I felt like an enemy here, and I didn’t feel any pride in my heritage. Quite frankly, I felt disdain. 

I remember after the first Gulf War started in 1990 being scared because of the pervasive jingoism, which is very similar to our current environment for members of many disadvantaged groups. I told my parents not to speak Arabic in public because I was afraid of what might happen to them and me.  They still bring that up to me to this day, and I feel a sense of guilt and shame about it.  

As a teenager, all I wanted was to be “normal.”  I was obsessed with punk rock and, like most teenagers back then, I wanted to be (and was) in punk band(s) (which I continued to do until I went to law school).  Still, I always felt like an outsider because of my Arab/son of immigrants background, and there were always skinheads around at the punk shows and in Huntington Beach back then which consistently reminded me of my “otherness.”

I think back on this time and wonder what would have made things better for me and other Arab American and Middle Eastern kids back then.  I think an Arab American/Middle Eastern role model in comic books or on television, would have made all the difference. When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of comic books, because I was looking for heroes. But there were no Arab or even Middle Eastern comic book characters back then that I was aware of; usually we were the villains.  Back then, we just didn’t have enough “regular” everyday heroes (like lawyers, doctors, government officials, etc.) representing us in literature, film, TV shows, radio shows or otherwise. 

But things are finally moving in the right direction! And it’s in large part due to influential media companies, such as Disney, who we are honoring at AALASC’s Annual Banquet on April 28, 2023.  Their show Ramy (on Hulu), starring actor/comedian Ramy Youssef, is a perfect example of the kind of regular every day Arab American hero that our community needs. Ramy is a millennial Egyptian Muslim living in New Jersey, and the show explores the challenges of what’s like being caught between a religious Egyptian community, who thinks life is a moral test, and Ramy’s millennial American peers, who believe life has no consequences.  Disney’s live action adaptation of Aladdin, importantly featured a diverse cast, with an Arab American, Mena Massoud, playing the lead role.  Another example is the Netflix series Mo, about a Palestinian who straddles the line between two cultures, three languages and a pending asylum request while hustling to support his family.  We also have Arab American actors in lead roles portraying non-Arabs.  Rami Malek won an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, and was first launched into the spotlight because of his role in Mr. Robot, which was created by another Arab American, Sam Esmail.  Hopefully, the continued success of stories with Arab American characters will produce more role models for kids growing up who need heroes, and the partnership of hugely influential media companies such as Disney and Netflix are invaluable.

As the incoming President of AALASC, I want to thank all Presidents and Boards that came before me for being heroes in their own right. I look forward to working with the incoming Officers, Board members and all members of our organization to support, promote, and grow the Arab American legal community, and hopefully, inspire other Arab and Middle Eastern Americans to do the same.

Rudy S. Salo is the incoming President of the Arab American Lawyer’s Association of Southern California. Rudy is also an infrastructure finance attorney advising governmental entities and financial institutions on financing infrastructure and transportation systems throughout the United States. Rudy is also a notable writer/public speaker/actor and is currently a Transportation Contributor to Forbes.com. Rudy is the co-host of “Good Is In The Details,” a philosophy/self-improvement podcast. Rudy received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree from UCLA, magna cum laude, in Political Science. During the Spring Semester, Rudy is a lecturer at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law.