AABANY Congratulates Ona Wang on Her Historic Appointment to the Bench for the Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 26, 2017
Contact: Yang Chen, Executive Director
(212) 332-2478
NEW YORK – July 26, 2017 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”) congratulates Ona T. Wang on being appointed a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Wang is the first Asian American to be appointed a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York.
A partner at Baker Hostetler, Ona Wang has broad litigation experience in civil, criminal and regulatory matters. Ms. Wang has been deeply involved in complex litigation involving high-profile cases, with a particular focus in the past several years on the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Liquidation and the Michael Kenwood receivership cases in the District of Connecticut. She serves as the Vice Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee and is an active member of the New York office’s Diversity Committee and Women’s Committee.
As a volunteer with the Equal Justice Initiative, she represented inmates on death row in Alabama, seeking clemency in state and federal courts and litigating death penalty cases at all levels. In the past three years, she partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and most recently with the Human Rights Campaign and the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the national ACLU.
Ms. Wang is an active member of AABANY and currently serves as a co-chair of the Litigation Committee. Since 2003, Ms. Wang has been an active member in both the American Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association, having served in multiple committees for each. Since its inception in 2000, she has served as a member of the Federal Bar Council American Inn of Court, and most recently as a Master. As a deeply involved member of her local community, she has represented Team New York Aquatics, New York City’s LGBT+ aquatics team, at various national and international water polo tournaments and competed as an individual and relay swimmer in the International Gay Lesbian Aquatics Championships and the Gay Games and subsequently served as a volunteer coach and manager for the team from 2005 through 2010.
“As is apparent from her long track record of involvement in her legal and local communities, Ona Wang is a dedicated and highly qualified candidate to serve as a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York,” stated Dwight Yoo, President of AABANY. “Her experience as an accomplished litigator, coupled with her dedication to social justice, will serve her well as she serves the federal Court. We also recognize the historic nature of her appointment, diversifying the bench of one of the oldest and most venerable courts in the nation’s history.”
Ms. Wang received an A.B. cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, a Ph.D. in zoology from Duke University, and a J.D. cum laude from the New York University School of Law, where she served as a Staff Editor and Executive Editor for the N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change and as a research assistant for the Equal Justice Initiative. Upon graduation, Ms. Wang commenced her legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Deborah A. Batts in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Following her clerkship, she worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. In 2003, Ms. Wang joined the law firm of Baker Hostetler LLP as a litigation associate and was quickly elevated to partner in 2006.
For more information, please contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (212) 332-2478, or direct any inquiries to main@aabany.org.
The Asian American Bar Association of New York is a professional membership organization of attorneys concerned with issues affecting the Asian Pacific American community. Incorporated in 1989, AABANY seeks not only to encourage the professional growth of its members but also to advocate for the Asian Pacific American community as a whole. AABANY is the New York regional affiliate of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).
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NAPABA Congratulates BJay Pak on Nomination to be the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia
For Immediate Release
July 24, 2017
For More Information, Contact:
Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
bschuster@napaba.org, 202-775-9555
WASHINGTON — On Friday, July 21, President Trump announced the nomination of Byung J. “BJay” Pak to be the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. If confirmed, Pak would be the first Asian Pacific American to hold this position.
“We congratulate BJay Pak on his nomination to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia,” said Cyndie M. Chang, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). “A respected community member and experienced attorney with a record of leadership in government and in private practice, Mr. Pak has more than demonstrated his ability to lead the U.S. Attorney’s office.”
A longtime member of the Asian Pacific American legal community, Mr. Pak has served on the board of the Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association, a NAPABA affiliate, and was a former chair of the NAPABA Government Enforcement and Compliance Committee. He has also spoken on legal education courses sponsored by NAPABA and is a recipient of the NAPABA Best Under 40 Award.
An experienced litigator and former prosecutor, Mr. Pak is currently a partner at Chambers Pak Burch & Adams LLC, where he focuses on complex litigation. Previously, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia for six years, a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP and Schiff Harding LLP, and an associate at Alston & Bird LLP. Mr. Pak also served in the Georgia House or Representatives.
Mr. Pak clerked for Judge Richard Mills of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He received his B.B.A. from Stetson University in 1995 and his J.D., summa cum laude, from University of Illinois College of Law in 1998.
NAPABA commends President Trump for announcing the nomination of Byung J. “BJay” Pak to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at 202-775-9555 or bschuster@napaba.org.
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of almost 50,000 attorneys and over 80 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government.
NAPABA continues to be a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network of committees and affiliates, 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 color in the legal profession.
To learn more about NAPABA, visit www.napaba.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@NAPABA).
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association | 1612 K St. NW, Suite 510 | Washington, D.C. 20006 | www.napaba.org
New York Institutes a Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias CLE Requirement for Experienced Attorneys | Media Listing | NYC Bar
Diversity brings diverse perspectives, and fairer representation for a diverse society. While the legal profession has publicly committed itself to diversity and inclusion, it has yet to become a model of inclusion itself, remaining largely homogeneous even as the population it serves continues to grow more heterogenous.
Beginning in 2018, a biennial requirement of one credit of Diversity & Inclusion CLE will be implemented in New York for experienced attorneys. In July of last year, the New York City Bar Association and 12 other New York bar associations issued a letter endorsing the institution of a D&I CLE requirement for New York State, in accordance with Resolution 107 passed by the American Bar Association in February 2016. That resolution emphasized education for lawyers around an expanded definition of diversity, meaning the inclusion of all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities. On September 14, 2016 and January 12, 2017, AABANY issued letters in support of the D&I CLE initiative, as an organization committed to the values of equality and social justice that the legal profession upholds and to breaking the obstacles of bias and discrimination that face the APA community within the profession.
The legal profession should reflect the diversity and the complexity of the society it serves, something that the Asian American community, which remains disproportionately underrepresented in the profession today, knows all too well. “Education and knowledge breed change,” Immediate Past President Susan L. Shin wrote in a letter to Hon. Betty Ellerin, Chair of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board, last year. “By recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusion as values of primary importance, the D&I CLE requirement directly addresses one of the most important criticisms of the legal profession.” As so clearly evidenced by A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law, the report published by NAPABA and Yale Law School on July 18, Asian Americans still face many barriers when it comes to being accurately represented and fairly treated, despite three decades of growth and progress in the legal profession. The implementation of a D&I CLE is a crucial step forward in promoting diversity in the legal profession, in finding solutions to the problems addressed by the Portrait Project, and in making the law more fair and just for those who work within it and for those it serves.
For more information on the D&I CLE, follow the link in the title.
AARP Campaign for Grandparents Day of NextDayBetter
National Grandparents Day is just around the corner – September 10th, 2017 to be exact!
Are you a parent to an AAPI child?
Would you be interested in participating in a video montage and story, celebrating the sacrifice and accomplishments of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) grandparents?
We just need cute video footage of your child interacting with their API grandma and grandpa and more.
In partnership with AARP, we are creating a video entitled “Dear Grandparents” – a storytelling project focused on celebrating the immigrant stories of AAPI Grandparents. For this video, we are crowdsourcing cute footage moments of grandchildren, parent, and grandparent interacting with one another. Simply put, “Dear Grandparents” is a message of love and gratitude for our Asian Immigrant parent/grandparents.
What do we need?
- Footage when your child first meets their grandparents.
- Food! Teaching kids to use chopsticks or how to dip lumpia, slurping noodles, etc.
- Grandparents with your child! Playing, hugging, holding, etc.
- Families together – selfies/mirror shots of you and your children are welcome.
- Kids walking, running, eating – just being kids.
- Solo footage of kids smiling, crying, making funny faces.
How can you participate?
- Send an email to curious@nextdaybetter.com to express your interest in participating. We will follow up with instructions on how to participate.
- Due Date: All footage is due on August 2nd.
About our Social Impact Company: NextDayBetter is a storytelling media platform for diaspora communities. Through our global event series and original digital storytelling, we celebrate the stories of multicultural immigrants across the globe and call them to action. Through storytelling, we build empowered communities that solve today’s greatest challenges. Some of our storytelling partners include MailChimp, Doctors Without Borders and AARP.
Impact Case Study: Our campaign with Doctors Without Borders inspired the Filipino diaspora to ask pharma to reduce the price of pneumonia vaccination, resulting in over 400,000 petitions signed, 110 Filipino organizations participating, and a verbal commitment by Pfizer and GSK to drop the price of pneumonia vaccination in humanitarian settings. Watch our video here.
NAPABA HIGHLIGHTS: The Portrait Project: A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law
For Immediate Release
July 18, 2017
For More Information, Contact:
Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
bschuster@napaba.org, 202-775-9555
WASHINGTON —
Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing minority group in the
legal profession for the past three decades, but they have made only
limited progress in reaching the top ranks of the profession, according
to a new report released today by the National Asian Pacific American
Bar Association and Yale Law School.
The report, titled A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law, is the first-ever comprehensive study of Asian Americans in the legal profession.
According
to the study, there are over 50,000 Asian American lawyers today,
compared to 10,000 in 1990. Asian Americans comprise almost 5 percent of
lawyers in America and roughly 7 percent of law school enrollment.
Asian Americans are the largest minority group in big law firms, but
they have the highest attrition rates and the lowest ratio of partners
to associates.
Asian
Americans comprise 3 percent of federal judges and 2 percent of state
judges, compared to nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population. Only three
out of 94 U.S. Attorneys in 2016 were Asian American, and only four out
of 2,437 elected district attorneys nationwide in 2014 were Asian
American.
The
two-year study — authored by California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin
H. Liu, recent Yale law graduates Eric Chung, Xiaonan April Hu and
Christine Kwon, and Yale law postgraduate associate Samuel Dong —
included a dozen focus groups and a national survey of over 600 Asian
American lawyers.
The
survey revealed that Asian Americans identify lack of access to mentors
and contacts as a primary barrier to career advancement. They also
report being perceived as careful and hard-working, but not assertive or
creative. “Whereas Asian Americans are regarded as having the ‘hard
skills’ required for lawyerly competence, they are regarded as lacking
many important ‘soft skills,’” the study found. More than half of the
Asian American lawyers surveyed said they “sometimes” or “often”
experience implicit discrimination in the workplace.
“Our
study shows that Asian Americans have a foot in the door in every
sector the legal profession,” said Justice Liu. “The question now is how
wide the door will swing open. Despite much progress, Asian Americans
still face significant obstacles to reaching the leadership ranks.”
“The
Portrait Project shines a light on the obstacles and challenges faced
by Asian American lawyers every day,” said Cyndie M. Chang, president of
the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. “While incredible
strides have been made over the past 25 years, much work remains to be
done to push past the stigmas and assumptions associated with Asian
Americans. The insights gleaned from this report will unquestionably lay
the groundwork for the road ahead.”
“This
project is timely and important — a must-read for anyone who teaches or
practices law,” said Heather Gerken, dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman
professor of law at Yale Law School. “Justice Liu is a trailblazer, and
it’s a testament to him that he is trying to ensure that other Asian
Americans have a chance to pursue their dreams going forward.”
“This
path-breaking project literally changes the face of Asian American law.
For too many centuries, Asian Americans have been the objects, not the
subjects, of American law: victims and litigants, not activists,
lawyers, or judges,” said Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling professor of
international law at Yale Law School and former legal adviser of the
U.S. Department of State. “This indispensable report finally provides
the facts behind the stereotypes, the deeply felt feelings behind the
faces.”
“The
Portrait Project provides important and necessary data on the advances
and areas for further improvement for Asian Americans in the legal
profession,” said Michelle K. Lee, former undersecretary of commerce and
director of U.S. Patent and Trade Office. “Much progress has been made,
but much work remains ahead. Particularly noteworthy are the
differences highlighted by the data along gender lines, which illustrate
the challenges faced by Asian Americans in the legal profession are
even more pronounced for Asian American women.”
“This
first-ever study of its kind is significant not only for its breadth
and the insights it provides on the so-called ‘bamboo ceiling’ in the
legal profession, but also because it provides a roadmap for how Asian
American attorneys can continue to break through and advance within the
profession,” said Ivan K. Fong, senior vice president and general
counsel of 3M, and former general counsel of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.
“This
new empirical study is a significant contribution to our understanding
of the challenges faced by Asian Americans in the legal profession,”
said Ajay K. Mehrotra, director of the American Bar Foundation and
professor of law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. “It
is only by first identifying the factors that have impeded the long-term
leadership success of Asian Americans that we can find potential
solutions to this vexing problem.”
“The
Portrait Project has confirmed the existence of the bamboo ceiling. It
also shows that the future success of the Asian American legal community
requires more leadership and mentoring,” said Don Liu, executive vice
president and chief legal officer of Target Corp. “The study will be
tremendously helpful in removing the professional obstacles that exist
for Asian American lawyers.”
“The
Portrait Project not only points out the flaws of the hiring and
promotion system of workplaces toward Asian Americans, but also shows
what Asian Americans can do to succeed,” said Bijal Vakil, partner,
White & Case. “Change requires both mentoring Asian American lawyers
on strategies to effectively navigate the status quo of law firms in a
manner as personally authentic as possible and to continue pressuring
law firm leaders for inclusive leadership.”
For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, 202-775-9555, bschuster@napaba.org. Questions about the study may be sent to portraitprojectresearch@gmail.com.
The
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the
national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law
professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of almost
50,000 attorneys and over 80 national, state, and local Asian Pacific
American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large
firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit
attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government.
To learn more about NAPABA, visit www.napaba.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@NAPABA).
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association | 1612 K St. NW, Suite 510 | Washington, D.C. 20006 | www.napaba.org