Month: February 2015

Posted on

AABANY Law Review Board & Staff Positions: Accepting Applications Until Feb. 13

The AABANY Law Review is a journal which provides comprehensive analyses of law and commentary on groundbreaking cases and legislation that impact the Asian Pacific American community, and serves as an effective research tool for practicing attorneys and law students. 

Being an executive board or staff member will be much like being on a law journal in law school, where we will edit and fact check the items we publish. This issue will be our second special edition, featuring four annotated trial reenactments. Staff teams will review the legal and historic resources AABANY has on hand at its partnering law offices to fact check and annotate the reenactments. 

Getting involved in AABANY is a great way to network with not only fellow students, but also practicing attorneys. To apply, please send your resume and a brief statement of interest to Michelle Chan ([email protected]) by February 13, 2015.

Posted on

First Annual Asian Heritage Scholarship Winner Announced

First Annual Asian Heritage Scholarship Winner Announced

Infinity Law Group is pleased to announce that it has awarded the inaugural Asian Heritage Law School Scholarship.

Congratulations to our very own AABANY member Keli Huang, who has been announced as the inaugural recipient of Infinity Law Group’s Asian Heritage Law School Scholarship! 

Keli graduated with a BA from Binghamton University, where she made the Dean’s list four semesters in a row. She was also recognized by the NY Attorney General’s office for superior service while working at their Investor Protection Bureau. Her interest in this area stems from her own family’s financial difficulties subsequent to the housing boom and crash in the mid-2000s.The $1,000 Asian Heritage Scholarship is sponsored by Gabriel Cheong of the Infinity Law Group, and is intended to encourage Asian Americans to consider a legal career. 

To read Keli’s compelling story, click on the link.

Posted on

School of Law – Asian Pacific American Law Students Association 2015 Lunar New Year Dinner | St. John’s University

School of Law – Asian Pacific American Law Students Association 2015 Lunar New Year Dinner | St. John’s University

Asian Pacific American Law Students Association 2015 Lunar New Year Dinner

March 6, 2015, 6pm-11pm

Open to Alumni 
Registration Required
Cost: $70+

REGISTER HERE

Join us for the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association 2015 Lunar New Year Dinner honoring Lisa Chun ‘00, Executive Vice President, Paulsen & Co. Open to alumni, students, friends, and family!

Where: Vermilion, 480 Lexington Ave, New York. NY 10017

Two Options to choose from:

Option 1:

  • 3 Course Meal
  • Open Bar & Hors d’oeuvres
  • From 6pm-11pm
  • Students: $70 per person 
  • All Others: $75 per person 
  • At the Door: $80 per person

Option 2:

  • Reception Only (1 hour open bar & Hors d’oeuvres)
  • From 6pm-7pm
  • $40 per person

To attend the event, please complete and return the reply card by February 24, 2015.

More Information: Kevin Wong ’16 | [email protected] or Christina Nguyen ’16 | christinama[email protected]

Posted on

KALCA’s 15th Anniversary Benefit Gala: Investing in Civic Leadership

On March 20, 2015, the Korean American League for Civic Action will hold their 15th Anniversary Benefit Gala at the Yale Club. This year’s honorees are Congresswoman Grace Meng and Xerox General Counsel & Secretary Don H. Liu, a member of our Advisory Committee and long-time supporter of AABANY. Both honorees have been friends of KALCA since its founding. We encourage you to support KALCA and their honorees this year as they continue to inspire, connect, and promote civic participation. To learn more about KALCA and the outstanding work that they do, click here.

To purchase tickets, click here.

To download the sponsorship form, click here.

WELCOME LETTER FROM THE GALA CHAIR:
March 2015

Dear Friend,

As the Chair of this year’s Gala and on behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to invite you to consider participating in the Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA)’s 15th Anniversary Benefit Gala.
This year’s event will truly be a celebration on many levels. First, we will be honoring two champions of the Asian American community who are beacons of leadership and civic participation: Congresswoman Grace Meng and Don H. Liu, Esq. KALCA has had the privilege of having these two outstanding individuals as friends and it is our great honor to celebrate their successes, commitment, and passion to inspire our next generation of civic leaders.

It is also a very special anniversary for our organization. Fifteen years ago, our forward thinking and passionate founders came together to imagine a future where our civic leaders would be as diverse as our communities and Asian Americans could feel empowered and prepared to pursue careers in public service and public interest. In less than two decades since this bold dream was conceived, KALCA has invested in and empowered over a hundred student leaders who have gone on to improve the lives and rights of millions around the world and in our own communities.

This is what KALCA is all about. KALCA educates, empowers and engages our Asian American community and the next generation of civic leaders. We inspire, connect, promote civic participation and invest in our next generation. We help build a future where America is better because we have the most qualified, informed and passionate Asian Americans as participants and leaders. However, to continue this vision and to sustain our programs, we need your help.

In the upcoming weeks, I and one of our KALCA Alumna from the Class of 2009, Juliette Cho, would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about how you can partner with us in our work. You can reach out to us at [email protected].

We are so appreciative of your support over the years and know we could not have started or continue this journey without your partnership. We welcome the chance to count you as continued friends and look forward to celebrating with you on Friday, March 20, 2015. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Very truly yours,
Judy H. Kim
Gala Chair 2015

Posted on

PALS Mentoring Program: Open Enrollment Until March 8

The second enrollment period for law students seeking Attorney Mentors is now OPEN, APPLY TODAY! This open enrollment period will conclude on Sunday, March 8th. 

APPLICATION MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

Students must currently attend one of the thirteen New York City metropolitan area law schools, that PALS serves:

  • Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
  • Brooklyn Law School
  • Columbia University School of Law
  • CUNY School of Law
  • Fordham University School of Law
  • Hofstra University School of Law
  • New York Law School
  • New York University School of Law
  • Pace University School of Law
  • Rutgers University School of Law (Newark)
  • Seton Hall University School of Law
  • St. John’s University School of Law and
  • Touro CollegeJacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center

Students must be a 1L or 2L Law Student of Color:

  • However, we would like to continue to encourage 3rd year law students to attend PALS panels, workshops and networking receptions to also meet attorneys and develop mentoring relationships.

Students must submit a brief essay of 250-500 words addressing the following topic:

  • As a law student of color what do you hope to gain by participating in the PALS Mentoring Program and the PALS Community? Please explain why it is important for you to pay this forward when you become a practicing attorney.

Completed mentee applications will be matched with mentors in the order in which they are received after the conclusion of the open enrollment period.

Students matched through the program will be required to review the PALS MentoringManual and sign a participation agreement with their mentor.

Click Here To Apply!

If you have any questions or concerns about the PALS Mentoring Program, please contact PALS at [email protected].

*********************************************

PALS Mission Statement:

PALS is dedicated to enhancing the skills and careers of minority law students and early career attorneys. PALS does this by offering customized mentoring, educational and professional development opportunities. PALS provides resources to augment the law school and employer training of, respectively, minority law students and beginning lawyers, and will continue to offer its services free of charge.

PALS is a 501©(3) not-for-profit organization

Providing Mentoring, Career and Skills Development for Minorities in the Legal Profession Since 1984

Posted on

Responding to the Needs of Immigrants and Immigrant Families in New York: Implementation of Executive Action for the Unauthorized

Wednesday, March 25, 2015
9am to 5pm
Sheen Center
18 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012

REGISTER

Over the last several years, communities throughout the nation have prioritized initiatives to regularize the lives of persons in need of protection, including individuals and families with members that lack immigration status. In the New York City metropolitan area, public and private entities have devoted extensive resources to mobilizing in response to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, to planning for the newly announced Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program, and to providing legal and resettlement services to children and families who have fled violence and privation in Central America and Mexico.

In recent months, New York collaborative initiatives have intensified in response to the massive Executive Action programs announced by President Obama on November 20, 2014, which will cover the unauthorized parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (DAPA). The President also announced the expansion of the DACA program and other important, but more modest initiatives. This work comes in the midst of New York City’s municipal identification card program, “IDNYC,” launched in January 2015, and on top of large-scale “steady state” work with immigrants by community-based organizations.

To examine the coordinated response of public and non-profit entities to the DAPA and DACA programs, the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) are hosting an all-day event on March 25th at the Sheen Center, located in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood.

The event will include key-note presentations by faith leaders, as well as panel discussions with federal, state, and local officials, legal service agencies, community-based agencies, and national immigrant rights groups. Its panel discussions will:

  • Examine federal, New York State and New York City policy, outreach, and initiatives on Executive Action.
  • Explore legal services mobilization efforts by public and private entities and other collaborative programs in New York City, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley, looking particularly at outreach, public education on benefit eligibility and the risk of fraud, and provision of legal screening, representation and advocacy.
  • Address the role of non-legal, community-based institutions, particularly Catholic parishes, in ensuring the program’s success.

There will also be a short discussion on the work of national organizations in assisting local communities in implementing these programs and efforts to evaluate the programs’ success. After the formal event, there will be a reception and, for those interested, a roundtable discussion that will provide an opportunity to share and coordinate best practices and approaches to serving and empowering this population. The all-day event will seek to place this work in a broader policy, moral, and demographic context; improve the response to the needs of these populations in the New York metropolitan area; and identify lessons, successes and challenges in implementing these programs.

The event is free, but please register only if your attendance is definite. To register, visit http://goo.gl/forms/LDgubFchST or email your name, title, organization and email address to [email protected].

~

Thank you to the New York Immigration Coalition for sharing news of this important event.

Posted on

//photos.gstatic.com/media/slideshow.swf

AABANY CONGRATULATES GLENN MAGPANTAY AS
RECIPIENT OF THE NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION’S HAYWOOD BURNS MEMORIAL AWARD

For immediate release: February 2, 2015
Contact: Yang Chen, Executive Director, (718) 228-7206

NEW YORK – February
2, 2015 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”) is proud to
announce that AABANY’s LGBT Committee Chair Glenn Magpantay was the recipient
of the 2015 Haywood Burns Memorial Award, presented by the New York State Bar
Association (“NYBSA”) on January 29, 2015 at the New York City Hilton Midtown
as part of their Annual Meeting.

The Haywood
Burns Memorial Award, given to honor the late civil rights lawyer and academic
Dean W. Haywood Burns, is presented each year by NYBSA’s Committee on Civil
Rights to an individual who has contributed to New York State in a manner that
reflects Dean Burns’ commitment to the struggle for justice and the qualities
that made him an outstanding advocate for civil rights and the empowerment of
the powerless. AABANY was proud to nominate Mr. Magpantay’s nomination for this
award.

Mr. Magpantay
is now the Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander
Alliance. Immediately before that, he spent sixteen years at the Asian American
Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), defending and promoting the voting
rights of Asian Americans. Mr. Magpantay has fought to expand access to the
right to vote, leading AALDEF’s Annual Asian American Election Protection
Project, the nation’s largest poll monitoring and multilingual voter survey
program for Asian Americans. As a civil rights litigator, Mr. Magpantay engaged
in impact litigation and has filed several briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court
regarding involving voting rights and language access in the Asian American
community. He has fought for the fair political representation of racial and
ethnic minorities in Congress, the State House, and City Hall and worked on
many redistricting battles. Mr. Magpantay is an adjunct law professor at
Brooklyn Law School, and an undergraduate teacher at Hunter College. In
addition to inspiring many lawyers and law students to engage in pro bono work
through his organizing efforts as a former Chair of AABANY’s Pro Bono
Committee, he also inspires the legal community through his teaching and
scholarship on many topics, such as constitutional theory and strategies to
safeguard minority political participation. Mr. Magpantay currently serves as
the Chair of AABANY’s LGBT Committee, which he founded.

As stated by
Executive Director Yang Chen in the introductory remarks given on the night of
the awards ceremony, “Glenn is an exemplary advocate, scholar, mentor and
leader in the public interest. He gives voice to the voiceless, power to the
powerless. He stands up for the unrepresented and under-represented in our society….
Now more than ever we need lawyers and individuals like Glenn to teach us and
remind us of the need to continue fighting for the civil rights of all
Americans. AABANY commends NYSBA for recognizing Glenn with the Haywood Burns
Memorial Award, and we congratulate Glenn on a well-deserved and auspicious
honor.”

_

For more
information, please contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (718)
228-7206, or direct any inquiries to [email protected].

The Asian American Bar
Association of New York is a professional membership organization of attorneys
concerned with issues affecting the Asian Pacific American community. Incorporated in 1989, AABANY seeks not only
to encourage the professional growth of its members but also to advocate for
the Asian Pacific American community as a whole. AABANY is the New York regional affiliate of
the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).

###

Additional
information about AABANY is available at www.aabany.org

Follow
our blog at www.blog.aabany.org

Follow
us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aabany

Find
us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aabany

Find us on LinkedIn
at www.linkedin.com/in/aabany

Photos courtesy of Francis Chin.

(Source: http://www.aabany.org/)