The UW School of Law will honor three alumni at the 2010 Alumni Recognition Banquet on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle:
Johnson Toribiong, President of Palau '72, LL.M. '73
Distinguished Alumni Award
Sworn into office January 15, 2009, Toribiong is Palau's seventh president. He is a former ambassador of Palau to the Republic of China (Taiwan) and co-founder of the firm Toribiong and Coughlin. During his presidency, Toribiong has garnered publicity for offering to resettle a dozen Uighurs, Chinese Muslims who had been captured in Afghanistan and held in Guantanamo Bay, in Palau and forming an organization of Pacific Island states to protect the tuna industry. Toribiong is the first sitting head-of-state to receive a Law School Alumni Association Recognition Award.
Michael Gotham '93
Service Recognition Award
Gotham is the Director of Recruiting and Retention with the law firm Perkins Coie. In that role he oversees law student and lateral attorney recruiting, new attorney orientation and integration, associate evaluation and compensation, and other attorney personnel matters.
Sonia Rodriguez Martinez '00
Recent Graduate Award
Rodriguez is the owner and managing attorney of Morales Rodriguez P.S. in Yakima specializing in family law. In 2008, she was appointed to the Yakima City Council, the first Latino member in Yakima history, serving until November 2009. Rodriguez was recently sworn in as a Pro Tem Judge in Yakima County.