The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) employs skilled attorneys in various roles throughout the agency. Specifically, attorneys for DMV perform legal duties such as conduct traffic and safety-related administrative hearings, provide legal guidance to the agency and its numerous program areas, and represent the agency in various legal proceedings, among other key duties. Currently, DMV is actively recruiting candidates for the Senior Attorney and Motor Vehicle Referee Civil Service positions.
Click here to access the New York State Department of Civil Service’s Legal Specialties Continuous Recruitment Exam. As the flyer notes, attorneys who meet the minimum qualifications must complete the Legal Specialties Continuous Recruitment Exam. Once completed and scored by Civil Service, the attorney is placed on a Civil Service list that many New York State agencies, including DMV, use to recruit and hire attorneys to join their legal team. While the process to apply has a few steps, the rewards associated with a legal career in New York State Government make the exam process worthwhile.
If you have any questions, please contact Paula Gaylord at 518-486-9659.
Members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have been experiencing a troubling increase in bias incidents and hate crimes. This program will provide interfaith leaders with the opportunity to express unity and support for the AAPI community and explore concrete ways that clergy can be proactive in confronting bias, discrimination and hate crimes.
We are proud to present the next Fireside Chat as part of a series of discussions produced in partnership with the New York State COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Taskforce.
We would appreciate your help in spreading the word – please invite your networks to attend the event through email, or by posting the event information on social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Participants can view the program at ny.gov/VETF.
We encourage you to submit questions for the speakers in advance by emailing [email protected], and we will also be taking questions from attendees. We will do our best to pose as many questions to our panelists as possible. You may also choose to register for this event (not required), as a means of adding the event to your calendar and for reminders, at the link here: https://covid-19-vaccine-tribal-nations-building-trust.eventbrite.com.
Thank you all and let’s #VaccinateNY!
Please refer any questions to Emily Stetson, Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs, by email at [email protected] or by phone at (518) 956-2617.
On March 9, 2021, Fordham Law News published an article spotlighting the role that Fordham Law students have played in spearheading AABANY’s Covid Rent Relief Program. Olympia Moy ‘21 and Meng Zhang ’20 kickstarted AABANY’s volunteer effort last summer, after New York State launched a rent relief program to assist residents who had lost income due to the pandemic. Concerned about low-income Chinatown-area residents, many of whom did not speak English as their first language, Moy and Zhang worked with other AABANY law students and attorneys to hold a one-day rent assistance event. On July 26, the volunteers helped 125 pre-registrants and many walk-ins navigate the challenging application process. When the state’s rent relief program opened its second round of applications in the winter, AABANY volunteers teamed up again to disseminate the program information and invite applicants to contact AABANY’s hotline for assistance. Nicholas Loh ‘22 helped lead this two-week hotline effort, connecting over 85 callers with Chinese-speaking volunteers.
The article celebrated the recognition that these students and AABANY members have received from four New York state senators. At a Lunar New Year virtual celebration in February, Sen. Brian Kavanagh awarded AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee with a certificate of commendation for providing invaluable legal assistance to the AAPI community. Looking into the future, Moy states: “We students are going to continue to try to respond as long as there are further rollouts and extensions.” To learn more about the advocacy efforts of Moy and her fellow AABANY volunteers, click here.
Please also take a look at previous blog posts from February 19 and March 1 highlighting news stories about our report. If you have come across a news report or article about our report that is not listed above, please let us know at [email protected].
More public awareness about our report and the rise in anti-Asian violence is needed. Please share our report widely. If you have ideas or thoughts about how we can combat anti-Asian violence, please share them with us at [email protected].
On March 5, 2021, the Membership Committee hosted their weekly virtual Membership Mixer, with 17 participants in attendance. This week participants were treated to a virtual escape to the famous mountains of Japan. An experienced tour guide, Kenji, called in from Osaka, Japan and provided attendees with historical background, film footage, video tours and trivia about Japan.
The Membership Committee previously hosted Monthly Mixers at bars, ballparks, stadiums, operas, etc, but due to COVID, we have moved online to offer members a weekly outlet to share their feelings, see old friends, and make new connections. Mixers start at 6:30pm on Friday and the main event ends at 7:30pm but many often stay on after 7:30pm for smaller breakout groups.
Membership Committee will continue to host weekly virtual mixers until it is safe to gather together again in person.
The March 1st broadcast of the Brian Lehrer Show featured Arun Venugopal, a senior reporter for WNYC’s Race & Justice Unit. Together, Brian and Arun discussed the alarming rise in anti-Asian violence since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brian opened the show by citing statistics from AABANY and Paul, Weiss’ co-authored report: A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions. According to the report, there have been more than 2,500 anti-Asian hate incidents nationwide between March and September of 2020. Drawing on another finding of the AABANY report, Arun noted that targeted attacks are particularly commonplace in New York, where Asians are more at risk of physical assault, verbal harassment, and being coughed and spat on. Arun proceeded to draw awareness to a number of local hate incidents, the most recent among them being the stabbing of an Asian American man in Chinatown last Thursday. Citing the opinion of Chris Kwok, AABANY board director and co-executive editor of AABANY’s report, Arun noted that such attacks may be motivated by the stereotype that Asians are “soft targets” who will not fight back. Expanding on this notion, Arun stated that Asians must be seen as part of broader communities that will fight back.
In the remainder of the show, listeners from the Asian American community called in to voice their own experiences as victims of the “soft target” stereotype and express a similar desire for intersectional coalitions. While debates continue over how such coalitions may best be built, Arun pointed out that we all have a role to play in the here and now. By reporting bias incidents to groups like Stop AAPI Hate and the Asian American Federation, whose work is also discussed in the AABANY report, we can ensure that the issue of anti-Asian violence remains at the top of the nation’s political agenda.
To listen to this episode of the Brian Lehrer Show in its entirety, click here.
William Ng, incoming President-Elect at AABANY, was recently interviewed for a Law360 article published on February 26, 2021 titled “3 Ways Employers Can Help Asian Workers As Attacks Surge.” Law360 asked legal experts for tips they could share with employers on how they can create a safe environment for their Asian American employees at work during the rise of anti-Asian violence.
The first tip legal experts shared is to acknowledge the problem. Employers need to recognize and denounce the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and bigotry. By doing this, it gives a voice to the Asian American community and lets them know that they are supported. The second tip is to have a game plan. William Ng suggested to Law360 that employers should have a plan for exactly how they will handle a situation of anti-Asian harassment or violence. He stated, “It’s just being aware of these issues and understanding, ‘Hey, if this happens, what will we be doing?'” Suggestions William Ng provided include assembling a security management team and being in contact with local law enforcement. The third tip experts suggested is that employers should use training to empower bystanders such as offering bystander intervention training and implicit bias training.
To read the full article, click here (subscription is required).
On March 1, 2021, Law360 published an interview with Jane Jeong, a member of AABANY’s Young Lawyers Committee and the host of its new podcast, The Whole Lawyer Project. Diverging from your typical legal podcast, The Whole Lawyer Project spotlights successful Asian American attorneys and the human side of their profession. As Marco Poggio of Law360 writes, “It tells the life stories that won’t be found on the bio page of a law firm’s website.” Poggio’s interview with Jane centers on how her personal and professional experiences inspired this latest creative venture. Invoking her own identity as a Korean American, an immigrant, and a woman, Jane explains, “there are not many leaders in the law who look like me, that have my background.” In the competitive and high-stress environment of BigLaw, this problem of representation fueled Jane’s imposter syndrome, which led her to start writing about the pitfalls of striving for perfectionism on AABANY’s blog. Now, Jane looks to the AABANY podcast as a new platform for the same passion project: increasing the visibility of Asian American leaders in the legal industry, and sharing her own hard-won lessons about balancing wellness and work. Ultimately, Jane hopes to inspire listeners to pursue their own passions, even when they deviate from preconceived plans or customary paths. “My goal for the podcast is to give people a chance to see what other people are doing in all these different creative ways, both conventionally and unconventionally, and see how life in the law can really fit them, instead of the other way around,” Jane says.
To learn more about the creation and content of The Whole Lawyer Project, Law360’s full interview with Jane can be found here (subscription required).
我们很荣幸推出下一期的炉边谈话，作为与纽约州 COVID-19 疫苗公平工作组 (New York State COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Taskforce) 合作开展的一系列讨论活动的一部分。这将是一次向全纽约州讲普通话的社区提供教育的难得机会，意义非凡，所以我们希望这次活动的参与者越多越好。
We are proud to present the next Fireside Chat as part of a series of discussions produced in partnership with the New York State COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Taskforce. This will be a meaningful opportunity to provide education to Mandarin-speaking communities across New York State, and we want to encourage as much attendance as possible.
