Bar Association honors Kim Tran with Apex Award for Excellence in Diversity

The Bar Association presented the Apex Award for Excellence in Diversity to Kim Tran, colleagues said during remarks that recounted her decades of work to expand opportunities for women and attorneys of color.

Speakers said Tran pushed for representation inside law firms and across local and national bar groups, served on multiple nonprofit boards, taught citizenship classes for immigrants and mentored legal professionals across the Seattle area and beyond.

"I want to thank the Bar Association for giving Kim Tran the Apex Award for Excellence in Diversity. It is really acknowledging and recognizing accomplishments of somebody who really devoted her professional career to making sure that everyone had the same opportunities regardless of their *** or their color," Speaker 1, a commenter, said. Speaker 2, a commenter, added, "Anyone who knows Kim knows that she's always been a champion for diversity, for justice, and felt so passionately about in everything that she did."

Speakers described Tran's early career and the changes she helped bring about at Stafford Fry Cooper. "On her first day as a summer associate in 1997 for Stafford Fry Cooper, she told me that she wanted the professional legal community to look more like the community it served. She was joining a firm at that time that was mostly middle aged white men. She was the first person of color that we hired. And by the mid 2 thousands, Stafford Fry Cooper was 1 of the most diverse firms in the Seattle area. We went from 2 female attorneys to half of the attorneys being women," Speaker 1 said. Another segment noted, "We went from 0 attorneys of color to a third of the attorneys being attorneys of color. And it was really Kim who made this happen."

Speakers highlighted Tran's leadership in bar associations and community organizations. "She volunteered first with the Vietnamese Bar Association, then the Asian Bar Association, and then the King County Bar Bar Association rising to be the president of all 3 organizations," Speaker 1 said. "She was the first female person of color to serve as president of the King County Bar Association. She made it a priority to ensure that the board was recruiting diverse members for representation," Speaker 2 said. Speaker 3 noted, "She was chairman of the board for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, which is based in Washington, DC."

Remarks also described Tran's community work outside the bar: "There are a lot of issues that AJC tackles that impact the Asian American community, like access to technology, alien land laws, representation on the census, voting rights," Speaker 2 said. "She was on the board of the Asian Counseling and Referral Service and was at 1 point the president of that board. She would teach citizenship classes to immigrants who wanted to become citizens, helping them prepare for the exam, and then celebrate it with everyone who passed, which was virtually everyone who attended her classes," Speaker 1 said.

Speakers described Tran as a mentor and a connector. "Over the span of her more than 25 years of practice, it was so easy to work with her. She was a great leader. She just had this natural talent to bring together people, make them feel comfortable, and inspired," Speaker 2 said. Speaker 3 added personal reflections: "Kim was a woman with the most beautiful smile that really touched the hearts of so many people. She was a great friend through hard times and fun times. She was a mom of 3 who loved her children so much. She was so incredibly proud of them. When she passed away, I was involved with some aspects of notification, and I just received email after email after email from people from all over the world who worked with her in different organizations including Microsoft, GitHub, Seattle City Light, Stafford Bridal talking about what an incredible mentor she was, how she always helped lift people up."

Speakers closed their remarks by addressing Tran's family and noting the award as an honor. "It was important to Kim that opportunities were opened up for all, and I really do believe she made an incredible impact by giving these opportunities to others. To Angelo and the boys and the rest of Kim's family, this award is so well deserved and is a real honor, and you deserve to have this in your hearts," Speaker 3 said.