Thanks for Coming to Fall Conference 2011: Diversify

Thanks to everyone who came to AABANY’s Second Annual Fall Conference on September 17, 2011, at Skadden.  We are grateful for the hospitality of Skadden and its entire team for hosting us so well throughout the day.  Special thanks go to our anchor sponsor Wells Fargo for its generous support.  We thank also Sprint and Veritext as additional sponsors.

Thanks to our hard-working Committee Chairs and program organizers for bringing in some excellent speakers and moderators covering a diverse range of topics that truly defined what it means to “Diversify” as an attorney.  Thanks to the Fall Conference Planning Committee for putting in long hours, participating in meetings and conference calls and doing all that was needed to pull off an event of this magnitude. Thanks to all the volunteers, mostly law students, who assisted tremendously in the smooth flow of everything from registration to checking attendees in and out of each program and making sure that everyone was getting proper CLE credit.  Thanks to our AABANY Legal Interns, Melerie Shih and Hyunjoo Kim for running our BlackBerry PlayBook sweepstakes.  Congratulations to Judy Tsang (@soapdishes) on winning the drawing for the PlayBook. 

 Thanks especially to everyone who registered to attend the Fall Conference.  All told we had more than 210 attendees througout the day, from morning until evening.

During the luncheon, Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China, delivered inspiring and compelling remarks covering a wide range of subjects from Asian American attorneys to attorneys in China and the struggles and challenges that both have faced and continue to face.  At the end of the luncheon, President Linda Lin announced the launch of the AABANY Law Review and introduced its first Editor-in-Chief Jen Yue Connor Yim. (Read the AABANY press release announcing the AABANY Law Review here.)

After the end of a long day, many of the attendees stayed for the cocktail reception.  During the reception, James Hong, Civic Participation Coordinator at MinKwon Center, spoke about the work that MinKwon has been doing to mobilize the Asian American community in New York to engage in the re-districting process.  MinKwon is the lead organization behind ACCORD (Asian American Community Coalition on Redistricting and Democracy) of which AABANY is a member.

Also during the cocktail reception, AABANY officially kicked off its inaugural Mentorship Program, with Julie Kwon, Mentorship Program Coordinator, introducing the program and inviting the first class of AABANY mentors and mentees to meet each other in person for the first time.

Fall Conference 2011: Diversify was a wonderful event, and it would not have been as successful without your involvement and participation.  Thank you all for being a part of it.  If you have any feedback, good, bad, big, small, please share it with us by emailing your comments to [email protected].

NAPABA Election: Message from Alex Lee, Esq.

Alex Lee, past president of APALA/NJ, friend of AABANY and active member of NAPABA, is a candidate for NAPABA VP-Communications and send this message to everyone at AABANY:

Dear AABANY member:

This email is a reminder to vote in this year’s NAPABA elections – you have until 11:59PM PDT, this coming Friday, September 23rd to cast your votes. By now, you should have received an electronic ballot and/or a paper ballot via The NAPABA Lawyer newsletter.  If you haven’t, this may because NAPABA has an out of date email or snail mail address on file – please check with your home affilliate to ensure the correct information was sent to NAPABA when annual dues were paid in June/July but in any case, please also contact Andre Harrison in the NAPABA DC office at [email protected].

I know usually NAPABA elections generate limited interest for most people as often candidates run uncontested. This year is no different – of the seven races, just one – Vice President of Communications – is contested. However, that contested race happens to be mine – – I’m running against Bijal Vikal of White & Case in Palo Alto, California – and coming from your sister affiliate across the Hudson, I would greatly appreciate your vote and support. Attached are my candidacy statement and CV so you can take a look at my qualifications.

I’m very proud (some would say to the point of obnoxiousness, LOL!) of my roots in the NY/NJ area.  I was born in New Jersey, went to grad school in Manhattan, and have lived on and off for many years in the city.  My first mentorship during law school was through AABANY and I’ve always tried to attend AABANY events when I can.

I consider myself good friends with many of AABANY’s past presidents and officers.  So when people ask why I’m running for NAPABA Board, a big reason is to continue and maintain NY/NJ representation at the national level.  Of the current slate of candidates, none (other than myself) are from the Northeast.  This fall, when Andy Hahn and Joe Centeno step down from their Board positions, the Northeast representation on the Board could be reduced to just our two regional governors.  That’s about 10%.  Considering the Northeast is 25-30% of the total NAPABA membership, we will be grossly under-represented.

We deserve better than that and if elected, I pledge to ensure that the Northeast will be heard at the Board level.

If you have any suggestions or comments or just want to chat, have a beer, etc., please feel free to contact me. Meeting fellow attorneys from around the country and the tri-state area has been one of the most rewarding aspects of NAPABA for me and I hope to continue to expand my friendships with all of you in the coming years. Thanks for your time and support and if you haven’t already, please try to make plans to attend the National Convention in Atlanta this November.

Regards,
Alex Lee

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Law Offices of Alexander M. Lee
354 Bloomfield Avenue, Suite 201
P.O. Box 205
Caldwell, New Jersey 07006
Tel: 973/364-1688
Fax: 973/364-1689
E-Mail: [email protected]
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The attachments are:

Alexander Lee CV

Alexander Lee Candidacy Statement