On Saturday, October 26, AABANY’s Student Outreach Committee (SOC) presented a Meet AABANY and Law School Survival Workshop at NYU School of Law. 

The event began shortly after 11 am, with an introduction to AABANY presented by Executive Director Yang Chen, followed by a panel of Committee Chairs that discussed the work of each Committee and how law students could get involved in them. On that panel were: Rosemary Yu, Co-Chair, Prosecutors’ Committee; Irene Tan, Co-Chair of the Young Lawyers Committee; Wendy Yu, Co-Chair of the Solo & Small Firm Practice Committee; Jane Chuang, Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee; and Connie Montoya, Co-Chair of the Litigation Committee.

Next came a career panel that included Tsui Yee, Co-Chair of the Immigration and Nationality Law Committee, speaking about immigration practice; Connie Montoya speaking about litigation practice; Richard Tsai, Court Attorney for Hon. Michael Stallman, speaking about government service in the courts; Clara Ohr, AABANY President-Elect, talking about practicing as an in-house counsel; and Pauline Yeung-Ha, Co-Chair of the Solo and Small Firm Practice Committee, discussing elder law practice.

After a brief break for the attendees to pick up their bahn mi sandwiches for lunch (provided by AABANY), Prof. Jerry Kang gave the keynote presentation on implicit bias in the legal profession. He shared with the audience scientific studies showing a quantifiable way to measure explicit and implicit bias and how the data may impact the way APAs are viewed as candidates for employment, partnership and as litigators. Prof. Kang’s animated and engaging lecture provided much food for thought.

Everyone was welcome to stay for a networking session that followed the workshop, which provided the opportunity for the law students to speak one-on-one with other AABANY members and leaders, including Jonathan Kim, Corporate Law Committee Co-Chair, Julie Kwon, Mentorship Program Coordinator, and Sam Yee, Thomas Tang Moot Court Competition NE Regional Coordinator.

Thanks to SOC Co-Chairs Amy Luo and Amy Ngai for organizing the event, all the panelists for sharing their thoughts, Prof. Kang for sharing his insights and findings on implicit bias, and all the AABANY members and leaders who took time out of their Saturday to meet our law student attendees.

To learn more about the SOC, contact [email protected].