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.