Close to 900 people milled around the geometric patterned carpet of the Apex at Red Hawk Casino in Shingle Springs on Friday the 13th, hoping to get a selfie with the woman of the hour. Anh Phoong — lawyer, mother, boss, and billboard celebrity — sported a red festive top and, adorned in a matching nutcracker hat, greeted guests with warm hugs and doled out drink tickets like Oprah Winfrey: you get a drink ticket, you get a drink ticket, and you get a drink ticket, too.
Phoong, 43, lives her life by a simple yet powerful ethical code: Go all in. The Phoong Law Center annual holiday festivities were an abundant manifestation of that motto. It was as much family friendly, with go-karts, Build-a-Bear workshops and face painting, as it was camp extravagance, with a Michael Jackson impersonator, Chinese lion dancing, a mariachi band and approximately one metric ton of shrimp cocktail.
Party favors aside, Phoong was who employees, friends, family, extended family, and some rather high Sacramento political players came to see last Friday. And despite the hundreds of attendees vying for a hug, a hello and of course, a selfie, Phoong greeted each one as if they were the person she’d been waiting for the entire time…