NEWSLETTER LRAFYRF a Publication for Members and Friends of the Armenian Bar Association
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Volume 26, Number 2 Armenian Bar Association - Fall, 2015 NEWSLETTER LRAFYRF A Publication for Members and Friends of the Armenian Bar Association Volume 26, Number 2 Fall 2015 EDITORS’ MESSAGE For the 2014- 2015 year, the Newsletter Com- mittee published four newsletters: Summer, Fall, Win- ter Supplement and Winter issues. Co-Editor Saro Kerkonian The Committee built on the successes of prior years. With the Summer issue, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian flanked by Tina Odjaghian, uncle Tommy Kardashian, Armen K. Hovannisian the Committee introduced an updated and members of the Kardashian family logo to mark the celebration of the As- sociation’s 25th Anniversary. We also ARMENIAN BAR SHINES BRIGHT AT SILVER launched a new column called Creative Corner and invited our members to ANNIVERSARY ANNUAL MEETING submit essays, poems and short stories. From a star-studded gala banquet to The panel was moderated by Los An- We thank Caspar Jivalagian for the a hall-of-fame team of judges assem- geles Superior Court Judge Zaven Si- heartfelt poem he penned in Armenian, bled on a legal education panel and nanian. “What a privilege and honor which had the added benefit of making much more, hundreds of members and it is to have panelists with the depth our publication bilingual. We also ac- guests of the Association’s 26th Annual and quality of knowledge that we saw knowledge Denise Darmanian, Chris- Meeting at the luxurious Montage Ho- today. We are pleased to deliver unri- tine Engustian, Judge Amy Hoogasian, tel in Beverly Hills were treated to a valed continuing legal education to our Azniv Ksachikyan and Gary Moomjian weekend that they won’t soon forget. members,” said Armenian Bar Associa- continued on page 24 On Saturday morning, June 13, 2015, tion Chairman Armen K. Hovannisian In This Issue following the Association’s business in an interview following the lecture. meeting, attendees heard an outstand- The morning lecture was followed by Judge Sam Der-Yeghiayan 2 ing educational program featuring a luncheon, where the keynote speaker Members in the News 3 four distinguished federal court jurists was Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Law Review from Armenia 5 Armenian Rights Watch Committee 7 focusing on effective litigation practice Lance Ito (ret.). Most famous for pre- Summer Studies in Armenia 8 in trial courts. The panel consisted siding over the “trial of the century” Vicken I. Simonian Student Scholarships 9 of U.S. District Court Judges Andre (People vs. O.J. Simpson), Judge Ito drew Loyola Advances Genocide Dialog 14 Birotte, Jr., Larry Burns and Dickran several ovations from the audience as Mentorship Program 15 Genocide Centennial Event in Arizona 16 Tevrizian (ret.) and U.S. District Court he shared highlights of his recent trips Judges’ Night in Boston 17 Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian. continued on page 12 Committee Focus: Social Media 18 Creative Corner 19 Summer Reception in New York 20 Genocide Denial on Trial 21 It’s easy to renew your dues online. LIFE 100 Art Exihbit 22 www.armenianbar.com/membership Getty Museum Lawsuit Update 23 1 Armenian Bar Association - Fall, 2015 Volume 26, Number 2 OUR HONOR REFLECTIONS ON CONVERSATIONS WITH JUDGE SAMUEL DER-YEGHIAYAN By Karnig Kerkonian There is a unique timbre in a man’s voice that, when you hear it, appears to source itself from some place deeper. It has an echo of sorts, an inaudible echo, if one is even possible, that wants to take you into the soul, render you more than a mere listener. The words, in turn, take on a richness at once so pri- vate and so personal while, at the same time, so open and laid bare. I think it’s unsettling: stripped of formality, of in- stitution and of ceremony, you can hear that subtle vibrato that exposes the vulnerability of one’s humanity—and then, the sheer depth to which the dag- ger of inhumanity can pierce. L-R, first row: Leona Mirza, Harry Missirlian, Ann Lousin, Lisa Esayian, Jack Mardoian. Second row: Aram Solemn Reflection Gavoor, Karnig Kerkonian, Elizabeth Al-Dajani, Daron Hovannisian, Judge Sam Der-Yeghiayan, Hayk Gha- lumyan, Genevieve Missirlian, Adam Hoogasian, Rudy Minasian, Sarkis Jebejian. Not photographed: Claudia Hoogasian, Michael Danian, Raffi Sarrafian, Greta Doumanian, Jim Simonian “[T]he Turks chopped his beard, laughed at him, and asked him to deny his Christianity[;] he refused, they cut sisters were ordered to march through our people’s voki, the Armenian peo- his arms and legs, and threw him in the the deserts.” He waited, the emotion ple’s ethos. The Judge’s pause length- river to die[.]” U.S. Senator Mark Kirk, visibly overcoming him, “And they ened, almost ceremoniously, and then U.S. Congressman Bob Dold, Chief didn’t have clothing; they didn’t have he resolved: “I would like to dedicate Judge Ruben Castillo, former U.S. Dep- food.” The nakedness—the actual in- this ceremony to the memory of all of uty Attorney General Mark Filip, Illi- dignity of the thing—filled the court- our great-grandparents who perished nois Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti, room. “And while marching in the in the Armenian Genocide.” And with and others sat in complete silence as an desert, my grandmother was age 12, a moment of reflective silence, a com- unnerving echo permeated the court- her younger sister was age 6 . she memorative ceremony for the 100th room. Themes of genocide, of loss and died of heat stroke”—another pause, Anniversary of the Armenian Geno- of suffering surely were not unfamiliar an interrupted deep breath, “after she cide, hosted by Senator Mark Kirk, to them—but solemnity of this magni- barely uttered the words to her mother Chairman of the U.S. Senate Human tude had heretofore been reserved for ‘I’m thirsty’.” The pain was a palpably Rights Caucus, began in the U.S. Dis- the ceremonies of Armenian churches, profound one; his words retracing an trict Court courtroom of Judge Samuel Armenian community centers and per- agony we knew easier not to visualize, Der-Yeghiayan. haps the homes of Armenians them- but now unavoidably witnessed and selves. But today, a packed United shared with the Judge, and with one A True Child of the States federal courtroom in Chicago another. The harsh legacy of those de- Armenian Diaspora stood stone silent. Speaking was not serts, the indignities imposed on those an Armenian priest, an Armenian poli- sands, has abandoned none of us. The Judge was a model envoy for tician or an Armenian community ac- Hesitating, as he recalled slowly the speaking the Armenian voki to the peo- tivist. The words belonged to a sitting rawest of human suffering, that timbre ple gathered at that commemoration. United States Federal District Court was there, as if actually carrying the A child of the Armenian community Judge; and these words burrowed into words: “[M]y great-grandmother bur- in Aleppo, Syria, raised by loving par- the chests of the scores convened that ied her [sister] in the desert as much as ents in Beirut, Lebanon, Samuel Der- afternoon in that courtroom. she could do.” And then he stopped. Yeghiayan’s early years traced the path Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan spoke And I felt that inaudible echo. Then, of many grandchildren of the victims paced, weightily, from the podium: I realized what it was. I realized what of the Armenian Genocide. He and “All the male members of [my grand- that timbre was that was reverberating his family were refugees in Syria then mother’s] family were rounded up and in that Chicago federal courtroom on Lebanon, émigrés of circumstance, yet killed and she and her mother and two April 24, 2015. What I was hearing was continued on page 10 2 Volume 26, Number 2 Armenian Bar Association - Fall, 2015 MEMBERS IN THE NEWS AND ON THE MOVE The Los Angeles Coun- members, led the historic March of more Marsha V. Kazaro- ty District Attorney’s of- than 160,000 participants for more than sian, President of the fice has announced that 6 miles, and in his words, “rising fiercely Massachusetts Bar As- Melany Avanessians, a with our Martyrs and for our Martyrs.” sociation, welcomed 2011 graduate of South- Arsiné Grigoryan re- keynote speaker Mark western University School of Law, has cently published in the Geragos to the MBA’s Annual Dinner joined the D.A.’s team of prosecutors. United Kingdom Law in May 2015. Southwestern University boasts a student Student Association Le- Armen Khajetoorian body of more than 130 Armenian-Ameri- gal Issues Journal an ar- of New York has joined can students. ticle entitled “Severing the top-tier firm of Loeb On September 23 and the Next Generation: Sexual Violence & Loeb in their New York 24, 2015, the Honorable in Genocide.” A copy of the article may office. Larry Burns, U.S. District be found at: http://www.uklsa.co.uk/ Nicholas Koumjian, Judge for the Southern wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Grigor- in September 2015, was District of California and yan-Severing-the-Next-Generation.pdf. a featured speaker at the John J. Lulejian, Resi- Arsiné is a 2014 graduate of Southwestern leading universities in dent Legal Advisor with Law School and a 2014 American Board of Los Angeles. At U.C.L.A., the U.S. Department of Trial Advocates Fellow. She is interested Mr. Koumjian presented a lecture to law students Justice’s Office of Over- in pursuing a career in criminal law, litiga- and faculty highlighting the future of seas Prosecutorial De- tion, international art law and sports law. international criminal justice. At U.S.C., velopment, Assistance, Prominent New York he teamed up with Professor Hannah and Training, spoke at a conference in trial attorney Souren A.