Rising up

• Author: Lee Rawles
• Pages: 63-63

SEPTEMBER 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 63

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RICARDO BONILLA; MEGAN BROWDIE; ALEX CHAN; NATALIE CHAN; BY REPINA VALERIYA/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

RISING

UP

Your ABA

Young Lawyers Division honors

40 up-and-coming attorneys

By Lee Rawles

RICARDO BONILLA:

FISH & RICHARDSON, DALLAS

Bonilla practices commercial and

intellectual property litigation with an

emphasis on patents. He is a co-chair

of the fi rm’s Latino a nity group and

participates in the Pathfi nder Program

of the Leadership Council on Legal

Diversity.

MEGAN BROWDIE:

COOLEY, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Browdie is a senior associate in the

antitrust practice group, guiding clients

through merger review and representing

them in government investigations. She

received Cooley’s 2017 Pro Bono Award

and is a member of the D.C. o ce’s pro

bono committee.

ALEX CHAN: TENSEGRITY L AW GROUP,

REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA

Chan focuses his practice on patent

litigation and is a former patent exam-

iner at the U.S. Patent & Trademark

O ce. He is a member of the ABA

House of Delegates and a fellow of

the Law Practice Division.

NATALIE C. CHAN:

SIDLEY AUSTIN, CHICAGO

Chan is an associate who litigates

on a broad array of employment and

labor matters. She has been on the board

of the Asian American Bar Association

of Greater Chicago and is active with

the Chicago Bar Association.

For the third year, the ABA Young Lawyers Division is

highlighting some of the best and brightest of its mem-

bers with its On the Rise—Top 40 Young Lawyers awards.

“We thought we needed to have a program in place to

really spotlight some of the great young lawyers that we

have around the country,” says Tommy D. Preston Jr.

Preston became the chair of the YLD at the close of

the annual meeting in August, but in 2015 when On the

Rise was being developed, he was the YLD’s membership

director. “We wanted to really make sure that we created

new and exciting programs to engage more young lawyers

in the ABA, so this is a recognition program but it’s also a

member-engagement program,” he says.

The inaugural awards were given out in 2016, and the

third class of On the Rise honorees was announced this

summer.

“These are people who are members but aren’t nec-

essarily o cers and leaders in the ABA Young Lawyers

Division or one of our other entities of the association,”

says Preston, director of national strategy and engage-

ment in the government operations o ce of the Boeing

Co. “Many of these young lawyers are mailbox members;

they’re connected to the association but not necessarily

actively engaged. So we see this program as a way for us to

really fi nd young lawyers who are doing neat things in the

profession but also to bring them into the organization in

a more intimate way.”

To qualify for the 2018 On the Rise awards, candidates

had to be members of the ABA, licensed to practice in the

United States or its territories, age 36 or younger, and

nominated by someone familiar with their professional

work. A selection committee of current and past ABA

leaders reviewed all nominations to select the 40 lawyers

who would be honored in this year’s class.

“The leaders of the YLD tend to get recognized often;

we tend to have the opportunity to meet with leadership

of the association more often,” Preston says. “But we

really wanted people to see that there are a large number

of young lawyers that represent the best of our division,

that represent the best in terms of young lawyers that are

in the profession.”

To learn more about each of the 2018 On the Rise

honorees or to view the previous winners from 2016

and 2017, go to ambar.org/ontherise. Q