The Criminal Justice Act Committee of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York is soliciting applications from highly qualified and experienced criminal defense attorneys for membership on the CJA Panel for the District.
Applications will be accepted from attorneys who are available for case assignments in either the Brooklyn or Central Islip Courthouses, or both. The Committee is also seeking applications from practitioners whose experience is uniquely suited to handling petitions for post-conviction relief.
Assignments to the Panel will be for a three-year period, beginning January 1, 2020.
Applications are available at the Clerk’s Offices at the Courthouses in Brooklyn and Central Islip. The form of the application has also been posted at the Court’s website at:
NAPABA congratulates
the newly-elected officers of the NAPABA Board of Governors for the
2019-20 board year. They will be sworn into office at the Welcome
Reception on Thursday, Nov. 8 during the 2019 NAPABA Convention in
Austin, TX.
The following individuals were elected by the NAPABA membership.
President-Elect | A.B. Cruz III
Vice President for Finance and Development | Bruce L. Ishimatsu
Vice President for Membership | Bridgett Y. Ahn
Vice President for Programs and Operations | Charles H. Jung
September’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, September 11 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 31 volunteers who volunteered their time to help 23 clients.
We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro
Bono Clinic 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.
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 September Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!
Lawyers:
Yvetta Scott
Julia Elhai
Breanna Andree-Couturier
Kelly Diep
Anna Jinhua Wang
Mayumi Cindy Iijima
Bart Wu
Samantha Sumilang
Shengyang (John) Wu
Annie Tsao
Beatrice Leong
Kevin Hsi
Jonathan Li
Christopher Chin
Karen Lin
Jonathan Hernandez
Francis Chin
Interpreters:
Henry Man Vivian Chen Teresa Wai Yee Yeung Alicia Chen Weixi He Xiaoxiao Pan Ruth Poon
Special thanks to Coordinator Johnny Thach, Coordinator Jenny Lam, Technology Coordinator Roger Chen, Vice Chair Kwok Kei Ng, and Vice Chair Zhixian Liu for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Pauline Yeung-Ha, Karen Kithan Yau, Asako Aiba, and Judy Lee for their leadership. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. The next clinic will take place on October 9, 2019. If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected].
On Thursday, May 30, 2019, AABANY’s Judiciary Committee hosted its third annual Judges’ Reception at the Surrogate’s Courthouse, 31 Chambers Street. The reception honored newly inducted, elevated and retiring judges in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
The honorees recognized at the event were individuals who represent the significant strides that Asian Pacific Americans have achieved, as well as the ongoing fight for diversity within our leading institutions.
New York State Senator John C. Liu was slated to be the keynote speaker for the reception, but due to pressing matters in Albany he was not able to attend. The Honorable Phillip Hom, Civil Court of the City of New York, delivered remarks on his behalf. Judge Hom is a friend of Senator John C. Liu from their days at Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University. Judge Hom also served as the Chief of Staff of then-Councilman John C. Liu from 2002-2005.
At the reception, the following judges were honored:
Hon. Shahabuddeen Ally Hon. Karen Cortes Hon. Shorab Ibrahim Hon. Donald Leo Hon. Ushir Pandit-Durant Hon. John Zhuo Wang Hon. Wendy Changyong Li Hon. Archana Rao Hon. Lillian Wan Hon. Karen Bacdayan Hon. Michael H. Park
All the honorees are Asian Pacific Americans Judges who were recently inducted to the bench or elevated in New York. To learn more about them and to read our press release for the event, click here. To learn more about the Judiciary Committee and to reach its co-chairs, go here: http://www.aabany.org/?page=115.
Following the awards ceremony, all attendees enjoyed catching up with each other or making new connections, over delicious food and dessert catered by Nom Wah and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.
We thank everyone that braved the rain to make this year’s reception another successful one.
Thanks to AABANY Legal Intern Katy Kim for providing the photos for this blog post.
AABANY congratulates Carol Lee, Advisory Committee member, on being honored with the American Law Institute’s Distinguished Service Award at their 96th Annual Meeting on May 22, 2019. The American Law Institute was founded in 1923 and is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law. The American Law Institute’s Distinguished Service Award is given to a member who has played a major role in Institute over many years.
Carol Lee is Special Counsel at Taconic Capital Advisors, an SEC-registered investment advisor based in New York City that manages private investment funds with total assets under management of approximately $6.7 billion. She has clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Lee was elected to the American Law Institute in February 2008 and was elected to the Council in May 2012. She is also a member of the Projects Committee and previously served on the Investment Committee.
To be eligible to vote in this year’s NAPABA elections, you must be a current direct NAPABA member OR activate your NAPABA affiliate membership online by July 1, 2019.
AABANY is a NAPABA affiliate, and if you are an AABANY member you are eligible for free NAPABA affiliate membership but you must activate it for it to be effective. For directions on how to activate your NAPABA affiliate membership in time to vote, please contact Margaret Langston at [email protected], between the hours of 9:30 am – 1:30 pm, until FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2019.
Many congratulations to longstanding AABANY member Kathy Hirata Chin on being honored by the Columbia Law School Association and Asian Columbia Alumni Association with the inaugural Hong Yen Chang Award at the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) at 14 Vesey Street on Tuesday, May 28. The event was co-sponsored by AABANY, the Asian Practice Committee of NYCLA, the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York, and the Network of Bar Leaders. We were joined by many AABANY community members and Columbia alumni. Ms. Chin is a 1980 graduate of the Columbia Law School.
The well-attended reception began with AABANY Development Director Margaret Ling providing a brief history of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. She highlighted two key dates in Asian American history: May 7th, when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the United States in 1842, and May 10th, when the transcontinental railroad was completed with the help of Chinese laborers in 1869.
Then, NYCLA’s secretary Jai Chandrasekhar welcomed guests to the reception and shared some of Hong Yen Chang’s achievements, including being the first Chinese person in the United States to graduate from an American law school, in 1886.
Next, the Hon. George B. Daniels shared some of Kathy Hirata Chin’s achievements as an accomplished litigator and community member.
Then, AABANY’s Executive Director Yang Chen read from the introduction to the Portrait Project, the first-ever comprehensive study of Asian Americans in the legal profession, which spoke on the progress today of Asian Americans as big firm lawyers, government attorneys, corporate counsel members, public defenders, judges and more—reaching “levels of legal participation unthinkable compared to just over 30 years ago.” He made this reference to comment on how far Asian Americans in the legal profession have come from Hong Yen Chang’s time and have yet to go.
Bridgette Ahn, the current president of the Network of Bar Leaders, then took the podium to share brief remarks on NYCLA’s work and mission. Rudy Carmenaty, the President of the Columbia Law School Association, followed up by illuminating more of Ms. Chin’s achievements and the reasons for holding the Hong Yen Chang reception.
Then, the honoree Kathy Hirata Chin shared an engaging presentation on Hong Yen Chang’s remarkable life, including many long forgotten and little known details about his achievements at a time when discriminatory laws and attitudes toward Asians were far more prevalent.
Finally, Ms. Chin was presented with the inaugural Hong Yen Chang award honoring her trailblazing achievements in the spirit of Hong Yen Chang. Her husband, the Hon. Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, added his reflections. He stated, “Kathy is a wonderful, caring, gracious, hard working, brilliant person. And beyond that, she is a terrific lawyer, a pioneer in her own right as an Asian American woman—a litigator—making her mark at a time when law firms were still holding events at male owning clubs. And there were zero Asian American partners.”
Regarding Ms. Chin’s accomplishments, as stated in AABANY’s press release, “[she] has handled dozens of appellate cases, concentrating her practice in healthcare and real estate…. She has served on Governor Mario M. Cuomo’s Judicial Screening Committee for the First Judicial Department from 1992-1994; the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Eastern District of New York from 1992-1999; the Gender Bias Committee of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Race, and Ethnic Fairness; the New York County Lawyers’ Association’s Task Force to Increase Diversity in the Legal Profession; and Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye’s Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections from 2003-2006; and the New York County Lawyers’ Association Board of Directors. In April 2016, she was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the First Department Judicial Screening Committee. Since January 2016, Chin has served as a member of the Second Circuit Judicial Council Committee on Civic Education & Public Engagement, focusing on historic reenactments as a teaching tool. With her husband, the Hon. Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and teams of lawyers and judges from AABANY, she has developed and presented reenactments of famous cases such as Korematsu vs. U.S, to educate the community about the significant contributions of Asian Americans to the social, political and legal history of the United States.”
Regarding Hong Yen Chang, according to AABANY’s press release: “In 1872, 13-year-old Hong Yen Chang came to the United States to be groomed as a diplomat. He earned degrees from Yale University and Columbia University’s law school and passed the bar exam. However, after passing the bar examination, he was first denied admission because of his lack of U.S. citizenship due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. A special act of the New York Legislature (N.Y. L.1887 c. 249) allowed his admission despite this bar and in 1888, Hong Yen Chang reportedly became the first Asian American attorney admitted to the bar in New York. Hong Yen Chang then moved to California and applied for admission to the bar there but was denied in 1890 due to his lack of citizenship. Not until 2015 was this exclusion remedied, when the California Supreme Court granted an application from members of the UC Davis Asian Pacific American Law Students Association for posthumous admission of Hong Yen Chang.”
Please join AABANY in congratulating Kathy Hirata Chin on all of her achievements and on her well-deserved honor at the inaugural Hong Yen Chang reception.
Thanks to Kevin Hsi for providing the photos for this blog post.
On Thursday, May 23, 2019, Joon Kim, Partner at Cleary Gottlieb and AABANY member, was presented with the Hon. George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award at the New York State Bar Association’s “Smooth Moves: Career Strategies for Attorneys of Color” program at Lincoln Center. The Hon. George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award recognizes lawyers who demonstrate commitment to legal excellence, community service and mentoring. The program was sponsored by the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association.
Joon Kim has led a distinguished career over two decades at high levels of government and in private practice at Cleary Gottlieb, personally trying over a dozen federal jury trials and actively participating in dozens more. He is also a regular speaker and panelist at leading industry conferences on criminal and regulatory matters.
Please join AABANY in congratulating Joon Kim for this well-deserved award and honor.
Photo courtesy of Cleary Gottlieb. Used with permission.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2019, AABANY’s Career Placement and Student Outreach Committees hosted the first Membership Mixer of the new fiscal year at Cajunsea on West 33rd Street.
Well over 30 attendees gathered and mingled while enjoying drinks, oysters, and snacks. The Membership Mixer is just oneof many events that AABANY’s Membership Committee is hosting to engage current and future members. Co-Chairs from the Career Placement Committee and Student Outreach Committee were present to meet with attendees and introduce them to the work of those committees.
Membership Committee Co-Chairs, Beatrice Leong and Christopher Bae, were on hand and made an announcement about upcoming events, which include an off-Broadway outing for “You never touched the dirt” and a Mets game at Citi Field. Please visit our calendar to learn more about our upcoming events by going to https://www.aabany.org/events/event_list.asp.
We thank everyone that braved the rain to attend the event and made it a great success.
In coordination with the Robert H. Jackson Center and the Asian American Bar Association of New York, Phillips Lytle LLP presented a two-day event at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York. On May 13, 2019, the film “Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story” was screened after a reception, and on May 14, 2019, Karen Korematsu (Fred’s daughter) introduced the powerful reenactment of “Korematsu v. U.S.: Justice Denied,” which was led by the Hon. Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Kathy Hirata Chin, partner at Crowell & Moring LLP. Thomas Loftus, a retired lawyer and Justice Jackson’s grandson, played the role of Justice Jackson. Prof. John Q. Barrett of St. John’s University, a Jackson biographer, closed out the program by speaking about the legal issues and historical events that led up to, and followed, the Korematsu v. U.S. decision.
To learn more about AABANY’s Trial Reenactments Project visit the website at reenactments.aabany.org.
Thanks to Anna Mercado Clark, Phillips Lytle Partner and AABANY member, for the photos and summary.
