I am Armbien Sabillo (he/him), and I am honored to be considered for the role of Director-at-Large for the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California (FBANC). 

Currently, I am patent counsel at Neurocrine Biosciences, where I am the lead attorney for several research programs investigating treatments for neurological and endocrine-related disorders. My practice includes intellectual property due diligence, freedom to operate analysis, and global patent prosecution.

I earned my J.D. at Berkeley Law, my Ph.D. in Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, and my B.S. in Physiology at San Francisco State University. I was previously a Patent Analyst at Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco, a Patent Associate at Cooley LLP in Silicon Valley, and Patent Counsel at Gilead Sciences.  

As a queer Pilipino immigrant, I am passionate about serving my communities, and have served on the board of directors of FBANC for three years. For the past three years, I have also served on the board of Community Resources for Science, a science education non-profit that provides free science lessons to underserved students in Oakland and the greater Bay Area. I am determined to diversify the legal profession as a Fellow of the National Filipino American Lawyers Association (NFALA) Leadership Academy, and as an alumnus of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinder Program.

As Director-at-Large, I plan to leverage my three years of experience as an FBANC board member to support FBANC’s initiatives, particularly with regards to programming, mentorship, and career development.

In 2022, I was Mentorship Director and co-organized the Komunidad Conference, which allowed me to create programming for law students in the SF Bay Area. This role gave me special insight into the challenges that law students face, and the issues that they want to address in the legal profession and in the Fil-Am community.

In 2023 and 2024, I was Professional Development Director. In this capacity, I co-organized Night with Fil-Am Judges and transformed this event into a Kamayan Feast. This change was not only culturally significant, but also created a much more familiar and intimate setting for attendees and Fil-Am judges to get to know each other and connect.

As Professional Development Director, I co-founded the Liwanag Conference, which consists of professional development workshops and MCLE-style seminars geared towards Fil-Am legal professionals in the early and mid years of their careers. Liwanag is meaningful because it helps illuminate a key stage of an attorney’s career. New and mid-level attorneys are in a transitional period: from law student to practicing attorney, and from foundational training to focusing their career trajectories to specific directions. With Liwanag, we saw an opportunity to bridge and further empower the pipeline from law student to seasoned practitioner. The theme for this past year’s Liwanag was “A.I., Equity, and the Law,” and dissected the ways in which AI impacts people and society, and how as attorneys we can help ensure that the law is applied equitably. 

With my years of experience serving on the FBANC board, proven record for optimizing existing programming, and success in establishing new flagship FBANC events, I hope to support the endeavors of the new FBANC board in whatever way I can. Thank you for your time and consideration.