FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Yang Chen, Executive Director
February 5, 2014 (718) 228-7206
AABANY TO HONOR VERNON JORDAN WITH “I4 LEADERSHIP AWARD”
AT 25TH ANNUAL DINNER TO BE HELD AT CIPRIANI WALL STREET
NEW YORK – On Wednesday, February 26, 2014, the Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”) will hold its 25th Anniversary Annual Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street. Attendees of the 2014 AABANY Annual Dinner will include prominent federal and state judges, elected officials and dignitaries, attorneys from large and small law firms, corporate law departments, prosecutors’ offices and government agencies. AABANY’s 2013 Annual Dinner attracted more than 750 members of the legal and business communities from New York and beyond. This year AABANY is pleased to announce that the 2014 honorees will be:
- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Freres & Co., LLC
- Randal S. Milch, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, and General Counsel Verizon Communications Inc.
- AALDEF (Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund)
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. will receive the AABANY I4 Leadership Award. The I4 Leadership award is presented to a leader who is an ICON, embodying the highest IDEALS and INSPIRING others while making a real and lasting IMPACT in the community and society. Mr. Jordan, a Senior Managing Director at Lazard, the financial advisory and asset management firm, also remains Senior Counsel at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he practices general, corporate, legislative and international law in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Akin Gump in January 1982, Mr. Jordan served as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League, Inc.; executive director of the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; attorney-consultant at the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; assistant to the executive director of the Southern Regional Council; Georgia field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and as an attorney in private practice in Arkansas and Georgia. Upon graduation from Howard University School of Law in 1960, he joined the firm of a civil rights activist in Atlanta and became involved in a case against the University of Georgia to challenge racist policies. In 1962, Mr. Jordan became a Georgia field director for the NAACP and his leadership was an instrumental part of the civil rights movement. In particular, Mr. Jordan, as director of the Voter Education Project, coordinated voter registration drives and counseled the electorate, helping to dramatically increase the number of African-American elected officials.
Mr. Jordan has served as a key strategist and advisor to multiple U.S. Presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Bill Clinton, as well as to many prominent civil rights leaders. His presidential appointments include: the President’s Advisory Committee for the Points of Light Initiative Foundation; the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on South Africa; the Advisory Council on Social Security; the Presidential Clemency Board; the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; the National Advisory Committee on Selective Service; and the Council of the White House Conference “To Fulfill These Rights.” Jordan served as the chairman of the Clinton Presidential Transition Team in 1992.
”We are deeply honored and humbled that such a legendary defender of legal rights as Vernon Jordan will be helping AABANY commemorate our 25th anniversary at our Annual Dinner, along with Randal Milch, recipient of AABANY’s Corporate Counsel Leadership Award, and AALDEF, recipient of AABANY’s Public Advocacy Award,” said Mike Huang, AABANY President.
For more information about AABANY, or this event, please contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (718) 228-7206, or direct any media inquiries to main@aabany.org.
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The Asian American Bar Association of New York was formed in 1989 as a not-for-profit corporation to represent the interests of New York Asian-American attorneys, judges, law professors, legal professionals, paralegals and law students. The mission of AABANY is to improve the study and practice of law, and the fair administration of justice for all by ensuring the meaningful participation of Asian Americans in the legal profession.
