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Yoshinori
H. T. (Toso) Himel was the founding president of ABAS
in 1981-82, was the president of the Asian/Pacific Bar
of California, and is the president of the ABAS Law
Foundation. Before going into law, he studied mathematics
at Harvard and sociology at Michigan, and did political
science computer work. After getting his J.D. at UCD
(Order of the Coif), he did a clerkship with Judge Albert
V. Bryan of the U.S. Fourth Circuit, then joined the
U.S. Justice Department, Civil Rights Division, to sue
race and sex discriminators. In 1979 he transferred
to the United States Attorney's Office in Sacramento,
where he litigates tax, environmental and information
and privacy cases.
Toso has been interested in computers
since 1955. He was a founding member and chair of the
SCBA's SLUG section. For years he wrote a technology
column, "Keys to the Courtroom," for the Daily
Recorder and the SCBA Docket, later Sacramento Lawyer
magazine. He has served on the U.S. District Court's
website committee. Since 1995 he has been the telecommunications
chair for CAPITAL, Sacramento's API coalition.
A lover of plain English, Toso is a member
of Scribes, the American Society of Writers on Legal
Subjects. In 1986 he founded NOTA BENE - Notes to Asian
Lawyers. He was Sacramento Lawyer magazine's editor-in-chief
in 1999 and 2000.
Toso has supported
pro bono activities since 1981, when he joined the Voluntary
Legal Services Committee. He has served on the boards
of directors of ALSO and the Legal Center for the Elderly
and Disabled, and received the State Bar President's
Pro Bono Service Award in 1987.
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