Washington Prism - Andrea Noble
While pursuing his doctorate of law, Robert Babayi made note of the various ethnic organizations that made scholarships or mentoring available to his schoolmates.
As a first generation Iranian American however, Babayi rarely saw his peers pursuing degrees in law and certainly didn’t see the base of ethnic support that cheered others along throughout the difficult process.
To help foster a successful contingent of Iranian American lawyers Babayi co-founded the Iranian American Bar Association in Washington D.C. in 2000.
The organization now has over 330 members and has spawned three additional chapters in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York with several more on the way.
This year Babayi was elected as the IABA’s president and plans to continue to expanding the non-profit’s scope. College-age members make up nearly 45 percent of the IABA’s membership. Babayi attributes this to the fact that Iranian Americans are still very new to the legal community.
“We want to build the image of the Iranian American legal community,” Babayi said. “Now what we are seeing is the second generation of Iranian Americans is more involved in law.”
Establishing mentoring networks for students and recent graduates to provide guidance for new lawyers is one of IABA’s main goals.
“There is always a need for someone to show you the ropes,” Babayi said.
Now as more Iranian Americans begin to pursue legal professions the networking opportunities are growing and need to be tapped into said Babayi.
The IABA has also provided annual scholarships for law students.
“One of the most important aspects of their organization that I saw going on was the networking,” said Babayi of the Iranian American Lawyers Association in Los Angeles whom he drew some inspiration from.
Another community need Babayi wanted the IABA to address was to help provide access to lawyers for legal counsel. Shortly after the IABA’s formation the organization received its first challenge. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, a large group of Iranians in the country on visas were detained in Los Angeles and needed legal aid.
“One of the first things we did as an organization was to go on a fact finding mission and interview detainees and create a report,” Babayi said.
The report was presented to Congress and aided in protection of the civil rights of those detained.
Babayi and other IABA board members have also met with members of Congress to brainstorm a government outreach program to aid in the establishment of more people-to-people outreach opportunities between Iran and the United States.
Specifically Babayi would like to see more exchange opportunities for Iranian law students to study in the United States or perhaps even for judges to receive more training.
The IABA is in initial discussions with the State Department on how to proceed with such a program. But funding is also a big concern for the small, membership due-driven association.
Babayi has big dreams of starting a pro bono program, but to do that the IABA would first need a legal defense fund to pull from. Babayi said he has been approached by an organization looking to fund such a project but that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to hammer a deal through. The association is also wary of how it receives its funding so that it is not perceived as a government entity.
In the meantime separate chapters focus on networking events in their areas. Over the Persian New Year (Nourooz) the Los Angeles chapter held a sold out dinner reception with council members and superior court justices speaking at the event.
In Washington D.C. monthly happy hours or lectures are common. A recent lecture centered on the Office of Federal Asset Control, which deals with the restrictions of financial transactions with Iran.
Andrea Noble writes regularly for Washington Prism
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