On Wednesday, July 23, AABANY’s Commercial Bankruptcy & Restructuring Committee partnered with Restructuring and Insolvency Network New York (RAINY) to host a Summer Happy Hour at Albert’s Bar in Midtown Manhattan.
Over 30 professionals from both the legal and business sides of restructuring came together over drinks to network, catch up with colleagues, and meet new faces in the field. The crowd was filled with a range of people, from journalists studying for the LSAT to business school graduates with long-standing careers in restructuring.
Alex Xiao, the organizer from RAINY, described the mixer as a simple but meaningful way to connect people across the industry. The strong turnout and energetic atmosphere proved just how valuable these informal gatherings can be.
AABANY is proud to support opportunities that bring together practitioners across sectors and practice areas. Many thanks to RAINY for co-hosting, and to everyone who joined us for a great summer evening in Midtown.
To learn more about the Commercial Bankruptcy and Restructuring Committee and how you can get involved, go here.
For nearly 25 years, Executive Order 13166 served as a cornerstone of the federal government’s commitment to civil rights. It required that every federal agency meet the needs of limited English proficient (LEP) individuals when it delivers critical services. It similarly required those that received federal funding, such as non-profit organizations as well as state and local governments, to guarantee that LEP individuals had meaningful access to their services.
On July 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice released guidance to implement the revocation of Executive Order 13166. It has rescinded all prior guidance to recipients of federal funding pertaining to the protections of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and suspended all existing LEP guidance. It emphasizes English-only operations without accounting for the need for LEP individuals to access critical, life-sustaining services.
The new guidance further deepens the harm caused by the revocation of Executive Order 13166. It undermines decades of progress to make government and federally funded programs more accessible. Rather than a core requirement for non-discriminatory compliance, the new guidance weakens the legal framework to combat national origin discrimination, which is prohibited by Title VI, and treats language access as merely discretionary.
We continue to call on Congress to engage in appropriate oversight over the Administration’s unwarranted actions and pursue legislative actions to strengthen and expand the protections of Title VI.
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The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) represents the interests of over 80,000 Asian Pacific American (APA) legal professionals and over 90 national, state, and local APA bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of all backgrounds in the legal profession.
