Lawyers and Law Firms Encouraged to Attend Job Fair

From our friends at KALAGNY:

Korean Community Services (“KCS”) has been coordinating with the New York Food Stamp Employment and Training (“FSET”) program, a state funded job training program. To increase connections with local employers (and ultimately for FSET participants), KCS and partner organizations, CMP (Chinatown Manpower Project) and Chhaya CDC, are holding a job fair on February 28, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at United Health in Flushing. If you are an employer and are interested in attending the Job Fair, please email Yi Wang with KCS at [email protected].

Korea-US FTA and Its Impact on IP Rights and Protection

From our friends at KALAGNY:

KALAGNY member Sean Kim has organized a talk at the NYC Bar Association entitled, “Korea-US FTA and Its Impact on IP Rights and Protection.”
Details:Wednesday, February 27, 2013 from 6-7:30 p.m. Event Location: New York City Bar, 42 West 44th St. (bet. 5th & 6th Ave.)

This roundtable discussion will focus on Intellectual Property rights, protection, and client counseling in light of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. Speakers include: Kenneth Cho, Senior Foreign Counsel, Kim & Chang;Charles Eloshway,Office of Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement at the United States Patent and Trademark Office; and Consul Sungyeol Kim, Trade Commissioner of Korea. Email Sean Kim at [email protected] to rsvp.

AARP.ORG Debuts Webpage for APAs 50 Years Old and Over

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For Immediate Release

 

AARP.ORG DEBUTS FIRST EVER WEB PAGE FOR

ASIAN AMERICANS 50+ DURING LUNAR NEW YEAR

Washington, D.C. (February 14, 2013) –This February, AARP.org celebrates Lunar New Year by launching its first Asian Community web page, www.aarp.org/asiancommunity.   Tailored to engage the 50+ Asian audience, the web page will include news and information relevant to the Asian American community on topics including caregiving, financial security, health, retirement, and social security among others.  It also includes AARP Asian member stories, Asian events from the state, local and national offices, videos highlighting Asian AARP members and AARP Asian executives that are in English but also providing subtitled versions in Chinese and Korean along with a financial education column from Chinese American AARP executive, Jean Setzfand! .  

“Our goal in creating this page is to be a trusted and user-friendly resource for 50+ Americans of Asian Pacific descent, the fastest growing population in America,” said Lorraine Cortes Vazquez, Executive Vice President for Multicultural Markets and Engagement at AARP.  “By offering content that is relevant, we encourage the community to participate in the national conversation on how best to serve the Asian community with issues important to our members and their families to help them get more out of life as they age.”

The video “AARP—Helping Asian Families Get More Out of Life” will be one of the links available through the new web page.  Subtitled in both Chinese and Korean, the video features AARP Asian executives as well as testimonials from influential Asian community leaders who discuss the importance of being informed about issues that affect Asians 50 and older.

To become a member of AARP and to learn more about AARP’s Asian initiative and programs, please visit www.aarp.org/asiancommunity.

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of more than 37 million, that helps people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities, strengthens communities and fights for the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare, employment security and retirement planning. We advocate for consumers in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name as well as help our members obtain discounts on a wide range of products, travel, and services.  A trusted source for lifestyle tips, news and educational information, AARP produces AARP The Magazine, the world’s largest circulation magazine; AARP Bulletin; www. aarp.org; AARP TV & Radio; AARP Books; and AARP VIVA, a bilingual news source.  AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates.  The AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that ! provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Learn more at www.aarp.org

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Grace Niwa

Niwa Public Relations

617-299-9848

[email protected]

Kristin S. Palmer

AARP Media Relations

202-434-2560

[email protected]

 

Past President Vincent Chang Quoted in Law360 Article on Prof. Rivera

Rivera Flap Shows NY High Court Picks Can Expect Scrutiny
By Pete Brush
Law360, New York (February 11, 2013, 8:02 PM ET) – The New York State Senate confirmed law professor Jenny Rivera to the state’s highest court Monday on a voice vote, but a bitter debate over her resume signals to Gov. Andrew Cuomo that upcoming judicial nominees can expect heightened scrutiny, especially if they don’t have bench experience.

Rivera, a law professor at the City University of New York, becomes the first judge ever in the Empire State to leap straight to the New York Court of Appeals from academia.

An expert in Hispanic and women’s civil rights issues, Rivera replaces the court’s first and only Hispanic judge, Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, who was forced to retire at the end of 2012 after reaching the age of 70.

“Professor Rivera has dedicated her career to public service,” Cuomo said after the vote. “Her extensive experience in civil rights law and her passion for making our state a fairer and more just place will greatly benefit New York.”

That Rivera’s Senate confirmation came on a voice vote suggested Republican opposition wasn’t uniform, experts said. But that didn’t stop several influential Republicans, including Middletown, N.Y., Republican John J. Bonacic from taking to the Senate floor in opposition.

“To put someone who has such narrow legal experience on the highest court of this state for 14 years … and pass over other highly qualified nominees is not something that I can support,” said Bonacic, whose judiciary panel advanced Rivera’s nomination without recommendation after a testy Feb. 4 hearing that was carried over until the next day.

Bonacic was referring to a list of seven candidates, sent to Cuomo by the State of New York’s Commission on Judicial Nomination on Dec. 1, that included three state appellate division judges and two practicing attorneys.

“The nominee has a very limited law practice experience,” said Bonacic, adding that he had “concerns that she will be prone to judicial activism.”

Even though they didn’t have the votes to mount a serious challenge, Republicans are making it clear they will do what they can to make sure Cuomo doesn’t steamroll them at every turn, according to Pace University law professor Randolph M. McLaughlin, who also works as of counsel on civil rights matters at Newman Ferrara LLP.

“The Republicans were trying to send Cuomo a message, that they’re not a rubber stamp,” he said. “My gut instinct tells me, given the range of folks he has in the wings, that Cuomo will pick a sitting judge next.”

Cuomo won’t have to wait long before his next pick. After Rivera is sworn in, she will become the only the sixth sitting member on a court that is supposed to have seven judges.

The court had been operating with a relative skeleton crew of five judges after Ciparick’s retirement and the Nov. 6 death of Judge Theodore T. Jones. A slate of nominees to replace Jones is due to hit Cuomo’s desk in early March.

“If Cuomo doesn’t want to go through this brouhaha again, he’ll pick someone who is a judge,” McLaughlin said.

Cuomo also may find himself under heavy pressure to replace the deceased Jones, the court’s lone black judge, with another African-American, according to Albany Law School professor Vincent M. Bonventre.

“I will be shocked if the next list doesn’t have two or three African-Americans on it,” Bonventre said.

While Republicans attacked Rivera for a lack of experience, McLaughlin noted they also took issue with her academic writings, in which she espouses progressive views on civil rights, racial justice and women’s issues.

“They were trying to knock her down, embarrass her, or get her to say something stupid,” McLaughlin said. “It was pretty embarrassing to see her raked over the coals.”

The charge that Rivera lacks experience is not necessarily fair, according to experts, including Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch LLP<http://www.law360.com/firm/wollmuth-maher> partner Vince Chang, who heads the New York County Lawyers Association’s federal courts committee chair.

“A lot of people say the criticism of her experience was just a pretext,” Chang said, noting that state bar associations went over her record carefully and universally recommended her qualifications. “Many very fine judges were professors.”

Opposition to Rivera’s nomination didn’t come exclusively from Republicans on Monday. One of the state Senate’s mavericks, Bronx Democrat Ruben Diaz, said Cuomo, in nominating Rivera, seemed keen on pitting Hispanics against the state’s Republicans.

Diaz, an outspoken and often bombastic critic of Cuomo, added that past Hispanic nominees for other high offices in the U.S. didn’t receive the same support from New York’s Latino population when they were nominated by Republicans, including former President George W. Bush.

“Where were you when George Bush nominated Alberto Gonzales and Miguel Estrada?” Diaz asked his Latino counterparts from the Senate floor.

Overall the proceedings were a departure from the state Senate’s typical Court of Appeals approval process, which over the decades has been staid, with one or two minor exceptions, Bonventre said.

A fierce critic of state Senate inaction on high court nominees, Bonventre applauded the Legislature for subjecting Rivera to tough questions.

“They’ve made it clear to the governor that he can’t just nominate anybody and expect them to roll over,” Bonventre said. “They’re obviously going to start taking their constitutional responsibility more seriously than they have in the past. In the past, they have been complete rubber stamps.”

–Editing by John Quinn and Richard McVay.
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