The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York (KALAGNY), and the South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY) stand in solidarity with the American Jewish community and unequivocally condemn anti-semitism and all forms of bigotry, hatred, and discrimination. We join in this statement at the start of a New Year for Jewish people around the world, in hopes that together we can bring about greater understanding, peace and harmony in all our communities.
AABANY, KALAGNY, and SABANY recognize that there has been a staggering rise of hate crimes and intolerance against Jewish people. In recent months, we’ve seen attacks on Jewish communities and Jewish-owned places of business, and senseless violence against Jewish people. Many of our friends, family, and colleagues have been victims of such anti-semitism and bigotry.
As anti-semitism surges in the United States, we must do all that we can to put a stop to these hateful incidents. We are compelled to act now. As members of the bar and officers of the court, we strive to work together with our allies to eliminate anti-semitism and to enhance awareness of this injustice.
We are deeply concerned about the increase in anti-semitic sentiment, threats, and violence against our Jewish neighbors, friends, and community. We urge U.S. legal, political, civic, and faith leaders to denounce the use of hateful, anti-semitic rhetoric, which not only endangers the Jewish community, but also damages our national social fabric.
We will continue to strengthen the alliances between our nation’s Jewish and Asian communities, fight against all forms of bigotry and hatred, and stand together with communities facing discrimination.
On Friday, September 3, 2021, the Membership Committee hosted a private screening of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” for AABANY members and friends at AMC Times Square. Nearly 90 attendees came out to see the premiere of the latest Marvel movie, which featured the first Asian lead character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Actor Simu Liu starred in the leading role as the superhero Shang-Chi alongside Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh and others. The Membership Committee is thrilled to have been part of a historic weekend in which “Shang-Chi” debuted to record-breaking box office numbers for Labor Day Weekend with the movie grossing an estimated $83.5 million domestic total in its four-day opening. Make sure to go out and watch the movie if you haven’t done so already. Highly recommended!
NAPABA Board of Governors Election Meet the Candidates Forum
Wednesday, September 8 at 5 PM PDT/8 PM EDT
To better engage NAPABA members in the Board of Governors elections process, the NAPABA Elections and Nominations Subcommittee is pleased to provide you the opportunity to meet the candidates in a moderated discussion.
Please note that not all candidates for the 2021-22 NAPABA Elections will be participating in this program. Visit our website to view the full list of candidates.
Candidate for Secretary
Judy Lam
Candidates for Director
Kristin Haugen
Marty Lorenzo
Moderator
Christine Chen Executive Director, APIAVote
In preparation of the exercise of your right to vote, we encourage you to take the time to consider the vision each candidate has for NAPABA and the diverse perspectives across the Board as a whole. We believe that the active participation of our membership is essential to a vibrant and diverse organization.
On August 24, the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the Asian American Bar Association of Silicon Valley (APABA-SV) and Cooley LLP co-sponsored “The Rise in Anti-AAPI Violence and a Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law 2.0,” a discussion held on Zoom with Associate Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court. The conversation was moderated by United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York Pamela Chen, who made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ Asian American judge to serve in federal court. Both speakers were introduced by Matt Nguyen, a Litigation and Investigations Associate at Cooley LLP and a former law clerk of Justice Liu’s. This discussion was prompted by two trends: The dramatic rise in anti-Asian violence during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of AAPI representation in senior leadership roles in the legal profession.
Justice Liu opened the discussion by giving attendees an overview of A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law (“The Portrait Project”), an analysis of trends related to Asian Americans in the legal profession that was published by Yale Law School and NAPABA in 2017. Notably, the Portrait Project found that there has been a persistent lack of Asian American representation in senior leadership, managerial, and governmental positions, roles with decision-making capabilities, and other prestigious positions in the legal profession, such as clerkships, despite a dramatic increase of Asian Americans pursuing the law in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Respondents in the Portrait Project’s study also reported that they faced many barriers in their professional life, most notably inadequate access to mentors and contacts and a lack of formal leadership training programs. When asked how their colleagues thought of them, respondents said they were frequently perceived as hard-working, responsible, logical, careful, introverted, and awkward, but not as empathetic, creative, or assertive. Justice Liu pointed out that these descriptors could indicate implicit bias towards Asian Americans in the legal profession, as many of them align with stereotypes of Asian Americans as passive, hard-workers who lack social capital. Justice Liu also noted that lawyers and judges should conduct outreach to Asian American students in high school or earlier in college, as AAPIs have the largest declining percentage change in law school enrollment of any ethnic group, and AAPI undergraduates considering an advanced degree are less likely than those of other ethnic groups to think of pursuing a JD.
When asked by audience members why fewer Asian American students are pursuing careers in the law, Justice Liu answered that while the authors of the Portrait Project did not have a definite answer, he believed that negative perceptions about the legal profession during the Great Recession could have dampened interest in the law among AAPI students. In addition, Justice Liu also said that Asian Americans in the law suffer from a continued lack of visibility, as there are few Asian judges, prosecutors, district attorneys, and there have never been any Asian American justices on the United States Supreme Court. According to Justice Liu, increased representation of Asian Americans in government positions, elected office, and in the federal and state judiciaries would bring more attention to issues facing the AAPI community.
AABANY Executive Director Yang Chen also discussed AABANY’s Hate Eradication Active Response Team (HEART), which AABANY launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic to help Asian American community members report potential hate crimes. HEART assists community members who may have difficulty reporting anti-Asian violence due to cultural and linguistic barriers to bring reports to the police or to their local prosecutor’s office. If you would like to learn more about the HEART program or get involved, please follow the link here. Chen also mentioned generally that the AAPI community has come forward to report bias incidents and hate crimes but have not been taken seriously by law enforcement, and the anecdotal evidence for this trend is disconcerting and disappointing.
Justice Liu described this trend as illustrative of the dual challenge faced by Asian American lawyers; while they are responsible for advocating for the AAPI community, they are also victims of anti-AAPI violence and casual racism themselves. He also described such challenges as intersectional, as he discussed how female Asian American lawyers are frequently mistaken for paralegals, defendants, support staff, or almost every other position aside from a lawyer when they are in the courtroom, as the idea of a female Asian American lawyer is seemingly unimaginable. Justice Liu also said that representation is important in ensuring that the public understand the obstacles facing the AAPI community and the severity of the recent increase in hate crimes. In addition, Liu advocated for the increased use of data, as data can illustrate the widespread nature of such violence and can add credibility, while anecdotes can be dismissed as statistically insignificant. Liu also said that it may be wise to recruit those with law enforcement or prosecutorial experience in helping community members make reports, as these individuals would have a strong understanding of reporting procedure and how to work with law enforcement.
When asked about how courts should protect victims of anti-AAPI violence, while also ensuring that courts and the criminal justice system are not contributing to systemic racism targeting Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), both Justice Liu and Judge Chen said that they did not view these as zero-sum issues. They encouraged Asian, Black, and Brown communities to engage in conversations about these issues, while also saying that anti-Blackness and racism towards Brown and Asian people are all indicative of a larger trend of othering people.
Justice Liu was also asked about ways to reduce partisanship in appointments to higher level positions in government. However, Justice Liu responded by saying that he never believed Asian American representation in judiciaries and district attorneys’ offices to be political, as Asian Americans span the range of the political spectrum in the United States and many Asian community organizations are non-political.
An audience member also asked how Asian American partners and leaders can advocate for themselves and the AAPI community while also ensuring that the law is race-blind and neutral. Justice Liu responded that he viewed advocacy as a way to address implicit bias and negative perceptions that disadvantage people, instead of as a call to give individuals special treatment based on their race. He also called for leaders to re-examine processes and criteria for hiring and promotions, as many of them rely heavily on interviews or other forms of evaluation that could convey implicit biases.
AABANY would like to thank Justice Liu, Judge Chen, and Matt Nguyen for taking the time to lead such a thoughtful, relevant discussion. AABANY would also like to express its gratitude to NAPABA, APABA-SV, and Cooley LLP as co-sponsors for this event, as well as all of the attendees who came to this event. If you are interested in learning more about the Portrait Project 2.0, which is set to be published in 2022, please follow the link here.
On August 14, AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee and Government Service and Public Interest (GSPI) Committee hosted a hybrid legal clinic and provided a “Know Your Rights” presentation for residential and commercial tenants on the topic of rent arrears and evictions. The event was held at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) in Manhattan’s Chinatown and was co-sponsored by AABANY, CCBA, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York (CCCNY).
During the presentation, which was shown on Zoom and screened in-person at CCBA, Rina Gurung, an associate court attorney at the New York State Unified Court System and co-chair of the GSPI Committee; Kensing Ng, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society in East Harlem; and Meghan Liu, a Cleary Gottlieb pro bono fellow at Legal Services NYC, discussed different types of cases that are brought in housing court, such as nonpayment, holdover, and housing part cases. They also explained which eviction moratoria are in effect due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and emphasized that these laws can change at any time. This was especially relevant, given the imminent expiration of the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act on August 31, 2021; the expiration of the CDC’s moratorium on October 3, 2021; and the U.S. Supreme Court’s August 12, 2021 opinion striking down part of the New York moratorium.
Gurung, Liu, and Ng also provided resources that tenants could contact to file hardship declarations and explained the basics of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), which provides rental arrears, temporary rental assistance, and utility arrears assistance to low- and moderate-income households at risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability. They also explained that landlords seeking to sue their tenants should hire a lawyer and for those who received a marshal’s notice to go to court. In addition, the presenters explained differences in procedures for cases involving commercial tenants and provided resources for both landlords and tenants, phone numbers for free consultations for income-eligible individuals, and a guide to landlord disputes. Bei Yang, a contract attorney at On Call Counsel, interpreted the presentation live into Mandarin Chinese.
Eighteen clients attended the clinic for one-on-one legal consultations with AABANY volunteers, including 12 who had registered beforehand, one virtual caller, and five walk-ins. Topics ranged from housing and matrimonial law to immigration, fraud, medical malpractice, and personal injury. All available client consultation slots were successfully filled.
One client, an older man who only spoke Cantonese, came to the clinic because he had been scammed by a woman who claimed to be interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with him online. She then asked him to send her a significant sum of money, and he did so before realizing that she was a fraud. Such occurrences are not uncommon, especially among elders, and individuals who have been or who know victims of similar types of fraud should not feel ashamed to tell their stories or speak to an attorney. Sharing these stories promotes awareness of these types of scams and helps others avoid them.
While AABANY volunteers were conducting one-on-one consultations, several clients watched the presentation in the CCBA sitting area. One client asked for the PBCS email to see if she could get a recording of the presentation and re-watch it, as she missed a portion of the live presentation. She also was impressed by clips from the Anti-Asian Violence PSA that explained what hate crimes were and how they can be reported, and asked for the link to the YouTube video, even though she spoke no English. After the one-on-one consultations concluded, volunteers debriefed the clinic and got to know each other over a post-clinic meal at Canton Lounge.
The PBCS Committee thanks Rina Gurung, Kensing Ng, and Meghan Liu for lending their expertise in rent arrears, eviction moratoria, and landlord and tenant rights and Bei Yang for providing a live interpretation of the presentation. The Committee would also like to thank Beatrice Leong, Francis Chin, Guiying Ji, Jae Hyung Ryu, Judy (Ming Chu) Lee, Karen Kithan Yau, Kwok Ng, Samantha Sumilang, and Shengyang Wu for providing clients with legal information and resources during one-on-one consultations; Kloe Chiu and Esther Choi for providing language interpretation during one-on-one consultations; Luna Fu and Wai Yip from AAFE for language interpretation and other assistance; Zhixian (Jessie) Liu and Poonam Gupta for acting as standby consultants for immigration-related questions; and Asako Aiba, Karen Lin, Kevin Hsi, Kwok Ng, May Wong, Megan Gao, and Olympia Moy for coordinating and staffing the clinic. AABANY would also like to thank CCBA, CCCNY, and AAFE for co-sponsoring this event. We are also grateful to the staff at Charles B. Wang for providing video resources on mental health and anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To learn more about the PBCS Committee and its work, click here and here. The PBCS Committee is tentatively planning to hold its next hybrid legal clinic on Saturday, September 18, 2021 between 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM. For up-to-date details about the clinic and registration information, please click here.
The deadline to apply for the NAPABA Prospective Partners Program (PPP) has been extended! PPP aims to increase the number of Asian American and Pacific Islander partners at major law firms through introduction, mentorship, and relationship building. In anticipation of the program’s eleventh year, the PPP is inviting candidate applications and nominations for participation in PPP sessions taking place at the 2021 NAPABA Convention in Washington, D.C., from December 9-12, 2021.
