On Friday, January 17, 2020, thirty AABANY members and friends braved the cold weather to enjoy a mixer at Citifield for the Hello Panda Lantern Festival.
Members were able to walk around the beautifully crafted structures, lit in colorful lights against the black night sky. Members also took a break from the cold and warmed up with hot cocoa and food while networking.
We thank AABANY’s Government Service & Public Interest, Pro Bono and Community Service, Young Lawyers, and Membership Committees for co-sponsoring this event.
AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, January 8 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 31 volunteers who volunteered their time to help 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.
To make it easier for our members and our community to donate to the Pro Bono Clinic, we have set up a page on Give Lively where you can make a donation by texting APAPROBONO to 44321. It takes seconds to donate, and we hope you will take a moment today to support the Pro Bono Clinic and help it meet its fundraising goals. Please donate today!
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 January Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!
Lawyers:
Steven Schaefer Eugene Kim Simon Zhen Bart Wu Tina Y. Song Yan Sin Samantha Sumilang Chris M. Kwok Beatrice Leong
Interpreters:
Masako Catalina Ya Peng H. Anthony Park Xin Zhou Go-eun Son Weixi He Ruth Poon Kenny Moy Jing Chu Limeng (Charles) Tan Alicia Chan Teri Chow Sophia Catalina Nanako Arai Teri Chow
Other Volunteers:
Linda Liang, Research & Administration
Special thanks to Kwok Kei Ng and 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 February 12. If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected].
On January 17, 2020, the Asia Practice Committee and Student Outreach Committee successfully co-hosted an event regarding career development in Greater China for law students and young lawyers, at Fordham Law School, 150 W 62nd Street. The panel speakers included Han Deng from Reed Smith, James Hang Jiang from Mayer Brown, Karen R. King from Paul Weiss, and Jian Wu, Co-Chair of the AABANY Asia Practice Committee. The panel shared their insights into legal career development in Greater China and the U.S. from a comparative perspective.
We thank Jian Wu for moderating and all the speakers for presenting this informative program. We thank all attendees for coming out for this program. We thank AABANY’s Asia Practice Committee and Student Outreach Committee for co-sponsoring this event. For more information about AABANY’s Asia Practice Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/582. For more information about the Student Outreach Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/121
Since 2014, AABANY has sought to recognize one law firm each year for its extraordinary efforts to improve the diversity of our profession by presenting AABANY’s Law Firm Diversity Award. The 2020 AABANY Law Firm Diversity Award will be presented at the Annual Dinner on February 26, 2020.
Nominees should be a law firm that has achieved significant success in the areas of recruiting, retaining and promoting women and diverse attorneys while also demonstrating a commitment to raising awareness of, and influencing the legal community to address, the challenges faced by women and diverse attorneys in the legal industry. Criteria for selection include:
Demonstrated commitment to diversity at all levels of the firm;
An established pipeline of diverse talent;
A track record of retaining and promoting women and diverse attorneys;
External activities, such as active participation in minority bar associations like AABANY and diversity programs of mainstream bar associations like the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, and New York County Lawyers Association;
Any other factors the selection committee deems valuable in promoting AABANY’s mission.
The AABANY Law Firm Diversity Award recipient will be chosen by a selection committee through a competitive and confidential process.
The notice below is from Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks relating to the annual report submitted to the Legislature, the Governor, and the Chief Judge evaluating the state’s experience with electronic filing. Please send responses to [email protected] by January 17. Read the notice for further details.
For Immediate Release I December 30, 2019 For More Information, Contact: Jill Werner, Interim Executive Director, [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) extends its gratitude to Tina Matsuoka for her dedicated service as executive director of NAPABA for more than eleven years. NAPABA flourished under her tenure, which was marked by significant financial and programmatic growth.
“The NAPABA Board is grateful to Tina for her leadership and vision,” said Bonnie Lee Wolf, president of NAPABA. “NAPABA is recognized on the national stage for its effective advocacy and policy work and emulated by peer organizations in large part because of Tina’s efforts.”
Tina was the longest-serving executive director in NAPABA’s history. Before she joined NAPABA, she was a practicing attorney with experience in government and private practice.
In announcing her departure, Ms. Matsuoka said, “It has been an honor to have worked with dedicated and talented NAPABA staff, board members, and volunteers to support the Asian Pacific American community and diversity in the legal profession. Although I am looking forward to spending more time with my family, I will truly miss the NAPABA community of lawyers who have become friends and mentors.”
Jill Werner, who is now serving as NAPABA’s Interim Executive Director, has served in various roles at the American Bar Association, including as director of member retention and staff director of the National Association of Bar Executives and the National Conference of Bar Foundations.
The NAPABA Board of Governors is working to ensure a smooth transition and has begun the recruitment and selection process for the next executive director.
On December 19, 2019, many were on hand to celebrate E. Grace Park being sworn in as a judge in the Manhattan 4th Municipal Court District of the Civil Court of the City of New York.
Judge Park was born in Seoul, Korea where she lived through the second grade when she immigrated to the United States to join her mother in Chicago, Illinois. Thereafter, Judge Park moved to Boston, Massachusetts for her high school years. She attended Dartmouth College, where she received her B.A. magna cum laude in Government & Asian Studies. Judge Park holds two Master’s degrees: the first in Regional Studies – East Asia from Harvard University and the second in Public Administration from Columbia University. Judge Park received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1999, where she served as Senior Editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law as well as President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. After graduating from law school, Ms. Park clerked for the Hon. Jacob Mishler in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, followed by five years in private practice. Judge Park then embarked on a career in public service with the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, representing children in Family Court.
Congratulations, Judge Park, for your hard fought election and well deserved induction ceremony. AABANY wishes you the best of luck in your new career on the bench.
AABANY congratulates My Chi To on her appointment as Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Insurance Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). In this role, she will oversee more than 1,400 insurance companies with $4.7 trillion in assets. My Chi To is an AABANY member and was a Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, in the Restructuring Group and Global Insurance Practice.
According to the DFS Press Release which announced her appointment in November,
My Chi was awarded the Kathryn R. Heidt Memorial Award by the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. She also received the Best Lawyers Under 40 Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. An advocate for women in law and business, she is a member of the Steering Committee of the U.S. 30% Club, a group of business leaders focused on improving the representation of women at all levels of U.S. organizations, including corporate boards. My Chi will join New York state’s Committee for the Advancement of Women in Leadership in Financial Services, which was announced by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo in September.
She received an M.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She received an LL.L. and LL.B. in Civil Law and Common Law from the University of Ottawa and was a law clerk to the Hon. Claire L’Heureux-Dubé of the Supreme Court of Canada, the highest court of Canada.
On Tuesday, December 17, the Academic Committee hosted their Annual Holiday Lunch at Dim Sun Palace in the East Village. Academic Committee Co-Chairs, Prof. Elaine Chiu (St. John’s), Prof. Suzanne Kim (Rutgers), and Prof. Donna Lee (CUNY) played hosts to a full table of members of friends who came to meet the Committee’s leadership and find out what events and plans they have in store for the balance of the 2019 fiscal year and beyond. Elaine, Suzanne, and Donna encouraged everyone to to save the date for a Pathways to Academia program being planned for January 24. They also asked for ideas and suggestions on how to get law students more involved with community service, such as by volunteering at the Pro Bono Clinic.
The fare at Dim Sum Palace was plentiful, varied, and delicious, and everyone enjoyed the dishes that were served. The weather outside was gloomy and damp but around our very full table, we were able to share a warm and satisfying meal among good company.
To learn more about the Academic Committee and how you can get more involved with it go to https://www.aabany.org/page/352 .
