Day: September 30, 2019

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NAPABA Announces 2019 Award Winners

NAPABA is proud to announce our distinguished award winners, who will be recognized at the 2019 NAPABA Convention in Austin, TX.

TRAILBLAZER AWARDS

The Daniel K. Inouye Trailblazer Award, NAPABA’s highest honor, recognizes the outstanding achievements, commitment, and leadership of lawyers who have paved the way for the advancement of other Asian Pacific American attorneys. Trailblazers have demonstrated vision, courage, and tenacity in their practice. They have also made substantial and lasting contributions to the Asian Pacific American legal profession, as well as the broader Asian Pacific American community.

The Honorable Richard J. Chin | Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court (retired)
Julia Markley | Partner, Perkins Coie 
Byung “BJay” Pak | United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, United States Attorney’s Office
Debbie Leilani Shon | Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP

PRESIDENT’S AWARD 

The NAPABA President’s Award is given to NAPABA members who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to NAPABA, the legal community, and the greater Asian Pacific American community.

Dale Ho | Director, ACLU Voting Rights Project

AFFILIATE OF THE YEAR AWARD

The NAPABA Affiliate of the Year Award recognizes outstanding NAPABA affiliates for their best practices and accomplishments in their local communities. 

Asian American Bar Association of New York

APA-OWNED LAW FIRM AWARD

The NAPABA APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year Award recognizes our membership’s law firms—solo, small, and large—that have achieved prominence and distinction, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to the Asian Pacific American community. The Award celebrates law practices that embrace the Asian Pacific American community while maintaining the highest ethical and legal standards in our profession. The Award also recognizes firms that have advanced the goals and ideals of NAPABA and Asian Pacific American legal advocacy groups.

Willenken LLP

LAW FIRM DIVERSITY AWARD

The NAPABA Law Firm Diversity Award honors law firms that actively, affirmatively, consistently, and enthusiastically recruit, retain, and promote Asian Pacific American lawyers to equity partnership and firm leadership. It celebrates law firm successes in recognizing the potential, supporting the promise, and raising the influence of Asian Pacific American lawyers.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

BEST UNDER 40

The NAPABA Best Lawyers Under 40 Award recognizes talented individuals within the Asian Pacific American legal community under the age of 40 who have achieved prominence and distinction in their fields of endeavor—be it the practice of law, academia, business, civic and charitable affairs, the judiciary, or politics—and who have demonstrated a strong commitment to Asian Pacific American civic or community affairs.

Vanessa E. Candelaria | Attorney, Law Offices of Vanessa Candelaria
Christina Chan | Assistant Attorney General, Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General
Nooree Lee | Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Cindy Lin | Partner, King & Spalding LLP
Laurie Rose Lubiano | IP & Product Counsel, The Climate Corporation
Catherine Y. Lui | Partner, Orrick LLP
Jessica Nguyen | General Counsel, PayScale, Inc.
Marc A. Pilotin | Counsel, Wage and Hour/President, Filipino Bar Association of Northern California, Filipino Bar Association of Northern California
Sid Shenoy | Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP
Christopher Thana Sukhaphadhana | Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property, Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc.
Jerry Vattamala | Democracy Program Director, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Johnny Wang | Partner, Stinson LLP
Jovita T. Wang | Partner, Richardson Wright LLP
Bryant Y. Yang | Assistant U.S Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office
Bilal Zaheer | Partner, Fisher & Phillips LLP

MILITARY AND VETERAN SERVICE AWARD

The NAPABA Military and Veteran Service Award recognizes individuals within the Asian Pacific American legal community serving the United States Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, including Reserve and National Guard) as uniformed personnel or as civilians or as veterans of the Armed Forces whose outstanding achievements (1) greatly enhanced the mission of the Armed Forces; (2) contributed to the advancement of rights for service-members, their families, and/or veterans; or (3) furthered the administration of justice. The NAPABA Military and Veteran Service Award is meant to acknowledge APA attorneys who exhibit the highest integrity, competency and commitment to serving others, the APA community, and their country and whose character and commitment reflect the highest standards of the Armed Forces.

Captain Lia Mihoko Reynolds | Capt., JAGC, USN, Region Legal Service Office Hawaii Commanding Officer, United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corp Region Legal Service Office Hawaii.

PRO BONO AWARD

The NAPABA Pro Bono Award recognizes an attorney or a team of attorneys for outstanding achievements in pro bono service that (1) involved impact litigation to advance or protect civil rights or (2) provided direct legal services to individuals in the furtherance of the administration of justice.

Karen King | Counsel, Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP AWARD

The NAPABA Women’s Leadership Award recognizes the accomplishments of women lawyers and is presented to an individual who has achieved excellence in her field or who has demonstrated leadership and advancement of women or women’s issues. 

Debbie Leilani Shon | Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP

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Congratulations on a Successful First Pro Bono Legal Clinic in Brooklyn!

AABANY’s Pro Bono Committee organized and held its first ever Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic was held on Thursday, September 26, 2019 at A Plus Academy located at 6802 8th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY and it was quite the successful event. With a total of 30 volunteers in attendance, including attorneys, interpreters and a benefits counselor, we were able to provide legal assistance and referrals to 27 clients from the New York community.

The Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic has allowed AABANY’s Pro Bono Committee to service a new community in need of pro bono legal services and indicates our efforts to grow and expand these services to more New Yorkers in need. Clients local to Brooklyn were able to attend, but clients traveling from Queens and other surrounding areas also made the trip, with some clients stating that they traveled an hour or more just to receive the help they have been looking for.

The evening started off with a community presentation by AABANY’s Membership Director and GSPI Committee Co-Chair, Beatrice Leong, Esq. which focused on family law, specifically matrimonial & divorce law. The presentation alone provided the answers that one client needed. This client was able to leave the presentation knowing what their next steps were without needing any further legal assistance. The remaining 26 clients were all able to sit down with an attorney, and an interpreter when needed, for a consultation session to receive the legal help and resources they were seeking. Common legal issues at this clinic included family, immigration, and elder law matters.

In just a few years, our Manhattan clinic has assisted hundreds of low-income clients and the new Brooklyn clinic provides us the opportunity to grow those numbers and ensure that many more will be able to receive free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. In order to continue to provide and expand our pro bono services to other New York communities in need, we continue to ask every member to actively support AABANY’s Pro Bono Clinics.

If you know family members, friends, colleagues or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Pro Bono Clinics, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected]. Financial contributions can also be made directly by texting APAPROBONO to 443-21 to make a donation through Give Lively.

Thank you to our volunteers:

Lawyers:

Beatrice Leong
May Kay Wong
Michelle Yeung
Jen Rasay
Gina Kim
Chai Park
Francis Chin
Michelle DeSousa-Fiore
Kwok Kei Ng 
Zhixian Liu 
Pauline Yeung-Ha
Judy (Ming Chu) Lee
Karen Kithan Yau
Asako Aiba

Interpreters:

Ruth Poon
Wai Yee Chan
Shuping Deng
Xiaoxiao Pan
Guanlan Shen
Bo Hu
Meng Zhang
Steve Mei
Alex Hwang

Intake Coordinators/Interpreters:

Breanna Andree-Couturier
Henry Man
Jay Tang
Gary Chen
Xinyi Shen
Yuying Zhu

Benefits Counselor: 

John Colon, NY Connects

Special thanks to Co-Chairs, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy (Ming Chu) Lee, Karen Kithan Yau, and Asako Aiba, and Vice Chairs, Kwok Kei Ng and Zhixian (Jessie) Liu, for coordinating this clinic. Additionally, thank you to the various community leaders and organizations whose help made this clinic possible. 

AABANY’s Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic is conducted in collaboration with: NYS Assemblyman, Peter J. Abbate Jr., NYS Senator, Andrew Gounardes, and NYC Councilman, Justin Brannan. Special thanks to our community sponsors: A+ Academy, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), Chinese American Social Services Center (CASS), Homecrest Community Services, Academy of Medical & Public Health Services (AMPHS), Brooklyn Community Improvement Association (BCIA), Parent Child Relationship Association, and the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn (UCA). 

The Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic will be a bi-monthly clinic occurring on the fourth Thursday of every other month, except for November which would be Thanksgiving Day. The next clinic will be held on Thursday, November 21, 2019 from 6:30 pm to 8:30pm. If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected].

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AABANY September Membership Mixer

On September 25, 2019, the Academic, Military and Veterans and Membership Committees had a mixer at Atwood restaurant. Non-members learned about AABANY events and committees and how to join! To learn more about the Academic Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/352. To learn more about the Military and Veteran Affairs Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/444. If you are interested in becoming a Member, please sign up on https://www.aabany.org/page/510.

A big thanks to Shawn, owner of Atwood for being a gracious host, and Galvin, a photographer who took our picture!