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METROPOLITAN BLACK BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY (“MBBA”) ANNOUNCES ITS 2014 ANNIVERSARY AWARDS GALA HONOREES

CONTACT: Dionne Gill                                      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TELEPHONE: 212.964.1645                         Wednesday, February 5, 2014

EMAIL: info@mbbanyc.org www.mbbanyc.org

METROPOLITAN BLACK BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY (“MBBA”) ANNOUNCES ITS 2014 ANNIVERSARY AWARDS GALA HONOREES

MBBA President, R. Nadine Fontaine, announces that the MBBA will hold its Thirtieth Anniversary Awards Gala on Friday, May 16, 2014 at Pier Sixty in New York, NY. The theme of the Gala is “The Power of Us: Celebrating 30 Years of Leadership, Innovation and Community.” Michele Coleman Mayes, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the New York Public Library and Theodore V. Wells, Jr., Partner and Co-Chair of the Litigation Department, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP will serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of the MBBA Gala.

In addition to the President, the MBBA Gala Committee members include Christine Appah, Richard D. Boyd, Jason M. Clark, Paula T. Edgar, Luwick Francois, Hon. Cheryl J. Gonzales, Co-Chair of the Gala Committee, Y. Gail Goode, Taa Grays, Andrew Hannibal, Deborah L. Martin, Moya O’Conner, Francesca J. Perkins, Yamicha Stephenson, Allison B. Tomlinson and Hon. Alvin M. Yearwood, Co-Chair of the Gala Committee.

The 2014 MBBA Annual Gala Honorees are as follows:

Trailblazer of the Year:

Raymond J. McGuire, Global Head of Corporate and Investment

Banking Citigroup, Inc.

Corporate Counsel of the Year:

Duane L. Hughes, Managing Director

Morgan Stanley

Private Practitioner of the Year:

Carmen J. Lawrence, Partner

King & Spalding, LLP

Jurist of the Year:

Hon. Sheila Abdus -Salaam, Associate Judge

New York State Court of Appeals

Public Servant of the Year:

Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO & Executive Director

Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies

Co-Chair, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Transition Team

Member of the Year:

Shirley Stewart Farmer, First President (Posthumously)

Metropolitan Black Bar Association

For more information on this event, or to schedule an interview with MBBA President R. Nadine Fontaine, please contact Francesca J. Perkins at info@mbbanyc.org. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact Paula T. Edgar at gala@mbbanyc.org.

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Save the Dates! Upcoming Manhattan Family Justice Center Trainings

  • Consumer Credit and Debt Issues for IPV Survivors
          Friday, April 25th 3-5 pm
 
  • How to File Family Offense Petitions Online
          Monday, April 28th 12-1 pm
          Tuesday, April 29th 12-1 pm
 
  • Elder Abuse: What You Need to Know
          Wednesday, April 30th 1-4pm
 
  • Improving the Identification and Support of Sex Trafficking Victims
          Friday, May 2nd 1-4 pm
 
All trainings will be held in the MFJC Training Room at 80 Centre Street 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013. 

Questions? Contact Sarah Flatto.

Sarah Flatto
Director, Programs & Outreach
NYC Family Justice Center, Manhattan
80 Centre St. 5th Floor New York, NY 10013
Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence
(212) 602-2857 | (212) 602-2800
sarahf@fjcnyc.org | www.nyc.gov/domesticviolence

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Congratulations to Hon. Doris Ling-Cohan

Justice Doris Ling-Cohan, a member of AABANY’s first Board elected in 1991, has been appointed to the Appellate Term of the First Department. This court hears appeals from New York’s Civil and Criminal Courts.

Justice Ling-Cohan is the first APA woman to serve on an appellate panel in New York state. In 2002, she became the first APA woman elected to New York State Supreme Court. In 2005, she authored the groundbreaking decision in Hernandez v Robles, becoming the first New York state trial judge to rule in favor of same sex marriage.

Please join AABANY in congratulating Justice Doris Ling-Cohan on this major milestone in her judicial career.

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Justices D’Emic, Chun appointed to administrative posts in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Justices D’Emic, Chun appointed to administrative posts in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti has announced the appointments of Hon. Matthew D’Emic as administrative judge for criminal matters in state Supreme Court, Kings County, and Hon. Danny Chun as Kings County’s deputy administrative judge for Criminal Matters.

AABANY congratulates Hon. Danny Chun on his appointment by Chief Administrative Judge Gail Prudenti to the position of Deputy Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters in Kings County. The appointment was approved by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and was made in consultation with Presiding Justice Randall Eng of the Second Department.

From the article:

Justice Chun’s judicial career began in 1999, upon his appointment to New York City Criminal Court, Kings County. He was designated an acting Supreme Court justice in 2004 and was temporarily assigned to the Kings County Family Court bench. In 2009, he was reappointed to New York City Criminal Court.

Judge Chun previously served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, where over his 12-year tenure he took on a variety of assignments, including the role of Criminal Court supervisor, with oversight for the office’s junior prosecutors. Judge Chun lectures on the subject of criminal law and taught classes in U.S. criminal procedure and trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Yonsei University School of Law in Seoul, South Korea. He earned his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law.

Please join AABANY in congratulating Hon. Danny Chun on this major milestone in his judicial career.

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Welcome the New AABANY Officers & Board of Directors!

President

Clara J. Ohr
Hess Corporation

President-Elect

William Wang
Lee Anav Chung White & Kim LLP

Immediate Past President

Mike F. Huang
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP

Vice President, Programs and Operations

Gurinder Singh
Miller Canfield P.L.C.

Vice President, Finance and Development

Bobby Liu
M.D. Sass Investors Services, Inc.

Treasurer

Jane Chuang
Lee Anav Chung White & Kim LLP

Membership Secretary

Irene W. Tan
AIG Property Casualty

Recording Secretary

Naf Kwun
Lee Anav Chung White & Kim LLP

Board of Directors

Francis H. Chin
Brooklyn Law School

James P. Chou
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Steve Chung*
NBC Universal

Jean Lee
JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Robert W. Leung
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP

Karen Lim
Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.

James Lin
New York County District Attorney’s Office

Linda S. Lin
Liberty International Underwriters

Teena-Ann V. Sankoorikal
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

Susan Shin*
Arnold & Porter LLP

Pauline Yeung-Ha*
Grimaldi & Yeung LLP

Yang Chen (Ex Officio)
Executive Director, AABANY

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The Officers will be serving for one year while Directors serve for two years. Most of our Directors are in their second year while those with an asterisk next to their names are beginning their two-year term this year. AABANY’s year runs from April 1 to March 31.

Please join us in welcoming our Officers and Directors for 2014-15. 

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America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel | National Law Journal

America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel | National Law Journal

The National Law Journal recognizes lawyers who have what it takes to run exemplary in-house legal departments.

Congratulations to AABANY Advisory Committee members Don Liu of Xerox and Sandra Leung of Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company for being recognized as being among America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel!

Both Don Liu and Sandra Leung have been recognized as AABANY’s Annual Dinner Honorees in 2009 and 2010, respectively. AABANY also extends congratulations to other AABANY Annual Dinner Honorees in the 50 Outstanding General Counsel list: Ivan Fong (1998), Thomas Sager (2010), Susan Blount (2012), and Randal Milch (2014). 

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An Endangered Species? The NYC Dept. of Education’s SHSAT: Perspectives from the Asian American Community

On Sunday, March 30, at the Flushing Library, members of the Asian American and Specialized High Schools community, including education activists, SHS alum, parents, and students, met to address the NAACP complaint leveled against the single test criteria for admission to the NYC high-performing Specialized High Schools, backed by AALDEF (Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund).

With the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test as the only criteria for admission, the racial composition of the SHS consists of a high percentage of Asian Americans (72% at Stuyvesant) disproportionately low number of Latino and especially African American students (less than 1% black students at Stuyvesant), a major issue of concern in NYC. Panelists and community members shared opinions, arguments for and against opening the criteria for admission, and personal experiences as parents and students in the testing system. 

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Panelists included: Roksana Mun (Youth Organizer, DRUM), Mitch Wu (Program Manager, Coalition for Asian American Children & Families), Larry Cary (President, Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation*), Stanley Ng (BTHS Alumnus & Lower Manhattan Representative for Citywide Council on High School), Catherine Zhou (Stuyvesant Alum & Education Activist), Michael F. Han (SHS Parent), Kathy Wang (SHS Student), Shikha Rawat (SHS Student & Youth Leader from DRUM). The moderator was Nelson Ma, lifelong New Yorker, AABANY member and Education Law Specialist. 

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Roksana Mun (left) and Mitch Wu (center left) represented views that support opening the criteria for admission to include top students and across different New York neighborhoods. They also discussed issues of standing in solidarity with other communities of color, Asian American issues of identity and the “model minority” myth, and the problematic nature of many expensive test prep academies, which many working class and immigrant families will work long hours at hard jobs to pay for. Larry Cary (center right) and Stanley Ng (right) represented views that support the SHSAT as the most non-political and least easily biased admission for acceptance and offered alternative explanations for the discrepancy. Larry Cary and Stanley Ng contextualized the larger disparities within the New York City public school system and presented case studies of schools that opened admission criteria and yet still failed to promote diversity.

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Above: Catherine Zhou shares concerns about recent cheating scandals and the test culture created out of the high-pressure single test system.

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Above: Stanley Ng presents information about the neighborhoods feeding into the Specialized High Schools. He pointed out that the willingness of Asian American students to travel a long commute for their education, as well as a lack of seats for public high schools in Queens if similar numbers of Asian American Queens residents do not feed into the SHS system.

We can all agree that every NYC student deserves the best education possible. A special thank you goes out to Chris Kwok, Labor and Employment Law Committee Co-Chair, and Nelson Mar for organizing and moderating an event revolving around an important issue that affects the Asian American community!

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Co-sponsored by the Coalition for Asian American Children & Families (CACF) and the Asian American Bar Association (AABANY)

*Appearing in his personal capacity, and not representing the views of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation

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From AALDEF: 2014 Justice in Action Awards

March 26, 2014 – Mari Matsuda, Professor of Law at University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show, and John G. Chou of AmerisourceBergen Corporation were honored with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) 2014 Justice in Action Awards on March 25, 2014, at AALDEF’s 40th Anniversary Celebration.

Since 1987, AALDEF has presented the Justice in Action Awards to exceptional individuals for their outstanding achievements and efforts in advancing social justice.

The awards were presented by Charles Ogletree, Jr., Harvard Law School professor and former Justice in Action Award honoree and Judge Ida Chen, the first Asian American female to serve as a judge in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Juju Chang, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC News Nightline, and Cindy Hsu, Emmy Award-winning anchor for CBS 2, were the co-emcees for the banquet of over 800 to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of AALDEF.

Among the guests at Pier Sixty in New York City were U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Karen Korematsu, the daughter of the late civil rights icon Fred Korematsu, and AALDEF founders Loida Lewis, Arthur Soong, and Ira Glasser. Past Justice in Action Award recipients in attendance included Art Chong, Sandra Leung, Don Liu, Parkin Lee, and Alice Young,

For the 40th Anniversary, AALDEF Executive Director Margaret Fung and Board president Tommy Shi shared the story of the creation of AALDEF 40 years ago. “Our first office was on the second floor of a tenement building in New York’s Chinatown,” said Fung. “We were passionate about our work and believed we could change the world one case at a time.”

Among the challenges ahead for the Asian American community, Fung pointed to the glass ceiling faced by many Asian Americans, the attack on affirmative action programs, the standstill of immigration reform in Congress, and the continuing struggles of human trafficking survivors and immigrant workers seeking to earn a living wage.

AALDEF client Hong-Mei Pang, now organizer of AALDEF’s undocumented youth group RAISE, spoke about the lack of options she had faced prior to garnering AALDEF’s legal representation and joining the movement for immigration reform. “My call to AALDEF became a turning point in my life,” said Pang.

Judge Ida Chen introduced honoree John Chou by thanking AALDEF “for recognizing John Chou for advancing the status of Asian Americans all over the country.” Chou said that by receiving the Justice in Action Award, he was “following in some really big footsteps.” He described AALDEF as representing “lawyers at their best.”

Former honoree Charles Ogletree Jr. introduced honoree Mari Matsuda as a “living legend.” Matsuda shared her advice for young people seeking to stand up for their beliefs. “If you were sitting still and doing nothing, you would get no pushback,” she said. “We need to do the work to make this a better, stronger country for everyone.”

The evening came to a close with honoree Aasif Mandvi taking a rare break from satire to describe the impact of his hit political comedy show The Daily Show on addressing racism and bias. “What AALDEF does in a real way, I do in a very small way, by pointing out the absurdity,” he said.

Past Justice in Action Award recipients include Rep. John Lewis, David Henry Hwang, Fareed Zakaria, BD Wong, Sandra Leung, Mira Nair, Deval Patrick, George Takei,Salman Rushdie, Seymour Hersh, Harry Belafonte, Margaret Cho, Yoko Ono, and the late civil rights icons Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi.

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Photo Credit: Lia Chang

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Photo Credit: Corky Lee

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From NYIC: IMMIGRANTS’ DAY OF ACTION

                                   

*SAVE THE DATE*

IMMIGRANTS’ DAY OF ACTION 

THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

April 10th is an historic day for our movement.  This year, we will be joining groups around the country for a nationwide mobilization demonstrating the power of our movement and calling on lawmakers at the city, state and federal level to enact policies that promote immigrant rights.  Please join the New York Immigration Coalition and New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform together with our allies across New York City for a rally to demand fairness and equality for immigrants in New York and across the country.

We hope you can also join the New York Immigration Coalition in the morning for legislative meetings with our City Council and our new Mayoral Administration to push the NYIC’s City Policy & Budget Priorities, which, if enacted, would strengthen New York City as a national leader on immigrant rights. 

Join us and help raise the voice of immigrants in New York City!

To RSVP click here

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