January 27, 2020

First General Interest Meeting Held for Proposed Family and Elder Law Committee

Over 20 people attended the first general interest meeting of the proposed Family and Elder Law Committee on January 21 at Kleyman Law Firm. The Family and Elder Law Committee seeks to provide legal practitioners and the community with valuable resources, networking opportunities, and CLE workshops that address issues related to divorce, custody, support, child abuse/neglect, domestic violence, long-term care planning, advanced directives, and guardianship.

The Family and Elder Law committee hopes to provide an outlet to support the members that practice in these fields and provide guidance to other attorneys who do not. Participating members of the committee can learn from experienced family, matrimonial and elder law attorneys regarding these issues. There will be many opportunities to advocate, volunteer, take on pro bono cases and network with legal professionals in these fields.

We were honored to have Alvin Tsang, who wrote and directed his documentary film about immigration and divorce, Reunification, join us. We hope to co-sponsor the screening of his film in March/April. We discussed many great ideas of having mediation trainings, holding workshops on Know Your Rights, and reaching out to other not-for-profit organizations for sponsorship and collaboration. Your inputs are greatly appreciated and we hope to implement them moving forward.

For more information, please contact Yan Sin – sinsengyan(a)gmail.com; Beatrice Leong – leongbeatrice(a)gmail.com; and May Wong – maywong.esq(a)gmail.com.

Last but not least, many thanks to Beatrice Leong and her firm, Kleyman Law Firm, who lent us the space for this inspirational meeting and Yan Sin for providing the Maury show souvenirs for our raffle winners!

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020

Women’s Committee Hosts First Breakfast Meeting in 2020

On January 16th, the Women’s Committee kicked off the new year with a breakfast meeting at Urbanspace Vanderbilt. Eight people attended the 8am meeting to discuss careers, professional development events, and New Year resolutions. It was great meeting lawyers from different fields, lawyers in transition, and lawyers with a variety of skills including yoga training and image consulting! We encouraged our members to attend the Family Law Committee General Interest Meeting and the Brown Bag Lunch with Sandra Ung, Special Assistant to Congresswoman Grace Meng and Executive Director of At the Table PAC, on 2/25. Registration link coming soon!

Thanks to everyone who attended. To learn more about the Women’s Commitee go to https://www.aabany.org/page/122

January 27, 2020

Thank You to Our January Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

AABANY’s Pro Bono Committee held its third Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic on Thursday, January 16, 2020, at A Plus Academy located at 6802 8^th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The clinic brought out 18 volunteers who volunteered their time to help 10 clients.

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.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinics by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

To make it easier for our members and our community to donate to the Pro Bono Clinic, we have set up a page on Give Lively where you can make a donation by texting APAPROBONO to 44321. It takes seconds to donate, and we hope you will take a moment today to support the Pro Bono Clinic and help it meet its fundraising goals. Please donate today!

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/

AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the January Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

Tina Y. Song
Yifei He
May Kay Wong
Francis Chin
Veronica Louie

Interpreters:

Teri Chou
Go-eun Son
Ru Hochen
Alicia Chan
Jonathan Wong
Jing Chu

Special thanks to Coordinator Xinyi Shen, Coordinator Roger Chen, Vice Chair Kwok Kei Ng for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy Lee, Karen Kithan Yau, and Asako Aiba for their leadership. We also thank our “On-Call Expert” Beatrice Leong for offering advice by phone. The Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic will be a bi-monthly clinic occurring on the fourth Thursday of every other month. The next clinic will be held on Thursday, March 26, 2020, 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].

January 27, 2020

AABANY Celebrates Lunar New Year at Mayer Brown

On January 22, 2020 AABANY co-hosted a Lunar New Year party with the Financial Services Network of NAPABA at the offices of Mayer Brown. Over 50 attendees enjoyed food, wine and drinks. Kendrick Nguyen, founder of Republic Bank, spoke briefly about his journey from being a lawyer to CEO of a start-up with 60 employees.

We thank Mayer Brown and all who attended this event.