Accepting Nominations for Officer Candidates and Applications for At-Large Board Members for NAPABA’s 2019-20 Bar Year
The NAPABA Board of Governors consists of nine Officers who are elected by the membership, ten Regional Governors who are chosen by the NAPABA Regions, and four At-Large Board Members who are appointed by the Board of Governors. Now through July 8 at 5 p.m. EDT, the NAPABA Nominating & Elections Committee will be accepting nominations for members who want to stand for election as Officers and applications from members who want to be considered for At-Large Board Member positions.
On Sunday, April 28, AABANY co-sponsored the annual Asian Pacific American Women’s Conference at Pace University. Hosted by the Organization of Chinese Advocates and Families with Children from China, the Conference was a full day of fruitful panel discussions that revolved around the sociopolitical issues that affect the Asian Pacific American woman–from #MeToo to mental health. As part of the conference, AABANY hosted a pro bono clinic and the following members gave community presentations on their areas of practice:
Tsui H. Yee (Law Offices of Tsui H. Yee P.C.): Immigration Law
Karen Kithan Yau (Kakalec Law PLLC): Protection from Wage Theft and Employment Discrimination
Beatrice Leong (Parmet and Zhou LLC): Family Law
Samantha Sumilang (Lazarus, Karp & Kalamotousakis LLP): Landlord-Tenant Law
Beatrice Leong delivers a community presentation about Family Law
AABANY also had the opportunity to table at the resource fair and spread awareness about our monthly pro bono clinic. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and said hello!
Thank you to all of the APA Women’s Conference Pro Bono Clinic volunteers! 24 volunteers in total showed up and provided valuable pro bono assistance.
Lawyers:
Kelly Diep Kathy Yung Angela Wu Grace Pyun May Wong Dianna Lee Elyssa Kates Samantha Sumilang Beatrice Leong Cindy Mayumi Iijima Nelson Mar Gloria Tsui-Yip Tsui Yee
Interpreters:
Henry Man Justina Chen Haruka Mori Charles Tan Carteneil Cheung Alicia Chan
Special thanks to Pro Bono Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy Lee, Asako Aiba, Vice-Chairs Kwok Kei Ng and Jessie Zhixian Liu for their leadership!
If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the Community Room at 33 Bowery Street .
The Honorable Dora L. Irizarry, Chief U.S. District Judge
for the Eastern District of New York, is currently accepting applications for
three (3) Fall 2019 internships.
Qualifications:
Must be a second or third year law student.
Must have good grades.
Must have strong research, writing, and
analytical skills, although participation in Law Review or a Journal is not a
prerequisite.
Military and/or other life/career experience is
a plus.
Interested law students should forward via U.S. Postal
Service or Fed Ex the following materials [Emails will NOT be accepted]:
One-page cover letter setting forth why you are
interested in an internship.
Resume
Law school transcript.
One writing sample no longer than 10 pages.
Journal or research articles will NOT be accepted.
A list of 2-3 references with their contact
information.
To: Chief Judge Dora L. Irizarry
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of N.Y.
225 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201
The deadline for receipt of materials is June 3, 2019.
Please note that, while these are not paid internships, the
Chief Judge will participate in any school sponsored program that provides
academic credit.
If you have further questions, please contact chambers at:
718-613-2150.
AABANY’s 2018 Year End Report, covering our activities for the fiscal year that ran from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, is now available. Click on the cover image to download the report in PDF.
AABANY thanks its Board Officers and Directors, Committee Chairs, sponsors, community partners and most of all its members for making FY 2018 a strong, successful and active year for us. Thank you for Serving Our Community, Advancing Our Profession during FY 2018, and we look forward to working with you all in FY 2019 in pursuit of our theme, United in Action and Vision: Towards 2020 Together.
Join us for NAPABA’s annual Lobby Day hosted in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. from May 20-21, 2019. This event brings NAPABA members from across the country to meet and discuss with members of Congress and congressional staffers on issues of importance and help promote NAPABA’s mission of advocating for justice, equity, and opportunity for APAs.
Registration | DEADLINE NOW APRIL 25, 2019 Registration includes a webinar training prior to Lobby Day as well as onsite training the day of, so that all participants are prepared for meetings with congressional members and staffers. For more information about the 2019 Lobby Day, visit our page.
Congressional Reception | May 20, 2019 In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May, NAPABA will be hosting a Congressional Reception. The reception will bring together Lobby Day participants, members of Congress and their staff, and leaders in the APA community. This event is open to the the public.
Hotel | RESERVATION DEADLINE EXTENDED to April 25, 2019 The official 2019 Lobby Day hotel, the Hyatt Place Washington DC/National Mall, is at the heart of Washington DC and walking distance of the Federal Center SW Metro Station, and the newly built Wharf.
You may also call Hyatt’s reservations department at 1-800-993-4031 and ask for “NAPABA Group” or Group Code “G-NAPA” Rate: $239 king plus applicable taxes & fees.
If you have any questions about any of the events above, please email Oriene Shin at [email protected].
More 2019 Lobby Day information can be found here.
Glenn Magpantay received the Brooklyn Law School Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service
On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Glenn Magpantay, the Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), was honored at Brooklyn Law School’s Public Service Awards Ceremony.
Glenn Manpantay (left) and AABANY GSPI Committee Co-Chair Kevin Hsi (right) at the Public Service Awards Ceremony
Glenn Manpantay, a former AABANY Board member and a current co-chair of the LGBT Committee, was presented with Brooklyn Law School’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service, in recognition of his incredible devotion to educating and fighting for LGBT equality, racial justice and immigrant rights.
Please join AABANY in congratulating Glenn Manpantay for this well-deserved award and honor.
We thank Kevin Hsi for providing the photos for this blog post.
Mineola, NY – Nassau County Executive Laura Curran [recently] issued a warning to residents about a telephone scam in which consumers receive calls from potential fraudsters impersonating the Chinese Consulate to demand payment in exchange for a package or to prevent punishment from the consulate office. As of this month, there have been continued reports of these scam calls targeting residents throughout Nassau County. Nassau residents who receive such calls should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-FTC-HELP.
“These phone scams are more than just tedious; for many – especially our more vulnerable residents – they can be catastrophic,” said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. “I urge our residents to be vigilant, and immediately contact the FTC should they receive this scam call.”
On April 3, 2019, AABANY co-sponsored with Fordham APALSA and the Federal Bar Association a trial reenactment of the historical case, Korematsu v. U.S. in a packed Moot Courtroom at Fordham Law School.
As every seat in the spacious Moot Courtroom filled up and audience members began to stand along the sides, Dean Matthew Diller of Fordham Law School delivered passionate opening remarks. The Dean noted that the reenactment is vital to this time, for we not only need to remember the best of this nation, but also the worst of it. Judge Denny Chin, United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and his wife Kathy Hirata Chin played their usual roles of Narrators 1 and 2. The cast of the reenactment consisted of students and faculty from Fordham and a few members of the AABANY Trial Reenactment Team.
Korematsu’s struggles were recounted on a sunny afternoon in April 2019, yet a sense of heaviness that seemed to belong to an older time filled the room. Fred Korematsu was arrested during WWII for his disobedience of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Korematsu to an incarceration camp for being Japanese American. Korematsu spent the rest of his life fighting for justice. The performers’ voices were amplified through microphones, accompanied by PowerPoint slides projected onto the wall on the stage, guiding the audience through Korematsu’s decades-long struggle. When Fred Korematsu exclaimed on the stage, “The Supreme Courts’ decision meant that being an American was not enough — you also have to look like one; otherwise, you may be seen as an enemy of the state,” one cannot help but reflect on the differences and similarities of minority experiences between past and present.
The last part of the reenactment struck a thought-provoking and alarming note when the Korematsu case was overruled in a footnote in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii, but the decision itself served as justification for the travel ban targeting Muslims, raising the question of whether one injustice was exchanged with another. The reenactment ended with a wave of prolonged and warm applause from the audience.
A Q&A session and a reception followed, ending the night with great food, drinks and company.
We thank Judge Denny Chin and Kathy Hirata Chin for their continuing contributions to AABANY’s reenactment program. We thank Fordham Law School for hosting the event, and Fordham APALSA and the Federal Bar Association for co-sponsoring the reenactment. We thank the volunteer actors for delivering incredible performances. Last but not least, we thank everyone who attended the event for joining us in remembering Fred Korematsu and celebrating his achievements.
From left to right: Yang Chen (Executive Director of AABANY);Chris Kwok (AABANY Board Director and Issues Committee Chair);Prof. Suzanne Kim (Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School and Academic Committee Co-Chair); Josh Hsu (Deputy Chief of Staff to Senator Kamala D. Harris); Marianne Chow (AABANY Board Director and Co-Chair of Professional Development Committee); Kevin Hsi (Co-Chair of Government Service and Public Interest Committee)
On March 15, AABANY and NYU APALSA hosted a conversation with Josh Hsu and Suzanne Kim in Furman Hall at NYU Law School. The discussion focused on Asian Pacific American attorneys’ engagement in public service.
Josh Hsu is the deputy chief of staff for Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA). The discussion was moderated by Suzanne Kim, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. Suzanne Kim is also a co-chair of AABANY’s Academic Committee.
Attendees filled a classroom at NYU Law School’s Furman Hall to hear Prof. Suzanne Kim in conversation with Josh Hsu on his experiences as an APA in public service.
Professor Kim interviewed Josh Hsu about various topics, including Hsu’s professional development, Hsu’s experience with working on the Hill and Asian American attorneys’ involvement in public service — mainly the lack thereof. Josh Hsu recounted how he received the clerkship offer from Judge Chin. As a law student, Josh drafted an article entitled “Asian American Judges: Identity, Their Narratives, & Diversity on the Bench” for Professor Mari Matsuda’s class, and to his surprise, he received Judge Chin’s comments on his draft, which is how Josh connected with Judge Chin and later received a clerkship offer from him. This experience made Josh realize that there is more than one way to make connections and enter into public service.
After the conversation, the floor was opened up for mingling. Attendees of the event actively engaged in more intimate and in-depth conversations with each other and with Josh Hsu.
Attendees continued the conversation after Prof. Kim and Josh Hsu concluded their conversation.
We thank Josh Hsu for sharing his insights and knowledge with us as an APA in public service and encouraging others to join him on his path. We wish him best of luck on the Hill. We thank Suzanne Kim for facilitating the conversation and NYU APALSA for co-sponsoring the event. Last but not least, we thank everyone who joined us on a Friday night and for sharing your enthusiasm about APA engagement in public service.
