Official blog of the Asian American Bar Association of New York
ATL: Moonlighting Talks about NAPABA
Susan Moon tells us about all the wonderful programs for in-house counsel that were on offer at the recent NAPABA National Convention in Atlanta. Plenty of good ideas for programming that would be attractive to in-house lawyers.
Karen Wu, Co-Chair of AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee, has been recognized by the New York State Bar Association as an Outstanding Young Lawyer. As stated by NYSBA’s Young Lawyers Section:
Each year the Young Lawyers Section of the New York State Bar Association honors a young lawyer who has rendered outstanding service to both the community and legal profession. The Outstanding Young Lawyer Award recognizes an attorney who has actively practiced less than 10 years, and has a distinguished record of commitment to the finest traditions of the Bar through public service and professional activities.
Karen, as an associate at Perlman & Perlman and in her numerous volunteer and community service activities, amply meets the requirements of the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award. Please join us in congratulating Karen on this outstanding achievement. You can reach her directly at [email protected], or feel free to leave a comment on this post.
On Wednesday morning, November 30, AABANY Board member and Real Estate Committee Chair Margaret Ling spoke as a panelist on a program on commercial condos and co-ops presented by the New York Business Development Corporation and Winoker Realty Company. The event took place at a vacant retail space on West 39th Street, near Port Authority. Margaret spoke on EB-5 visas and the importance of title insurance for commercial condos and co-ops. Most of the audience included professionals in the real estate industry, and the lawyers in attendance earned 0.5 credits in Areas of Professional Practice. AABANY was a proud co-sponsor of the program. For more information about the program or about the Real Estate Committee, contact Margaret at [email protected].
For Immediate Release
For More Information, Please Contact:
Jonathan Saw
Asian Pacific American Employees View Their Companies Less Favorably
the Longer They Have Been in the U.S.
“Time in U.S.” Could Be a Critical Factor in Asian Pacific American Employee Engagement
New York, NY, (November 28, 2011) – The longer Asian Pacific American (APA) employees live in the United States, the less favorably they view their companies, an annual Asia Society survey found. The 2011 Asian Pacific Americans Corporate Survey indicates that this decline starts after about 10 years and is most apparent amongst APA employees who have lived in the U.S. 20+ years or who are U.S.-born.
The favorability decrease is especially true in the critical area of professional growth. Among those surveyed:
The model minority stereotype assumes that the hardworking, intelligent, Asian American employee, who does not “rock the boat,” has no problem rising up the corporate ladder. This is especially true for those who are culturally “American.” But a look at the senior ranks of most companies shows that the reality is quite different. Asian-American faces are almost entirely absent.
“New Asian immigrants are singularly focused on establishing a foothold both economically and culturally in the U.S. – similar to immigrants of any ethnicity,” said Vishakha N. Desai, President of Asia Society. “On the other hand, Asian-Americans who were born here may recognize more easily where Corporate America’s formal policies and commitment to diversity are not fully realized on the day-to-day level.”
This is not to say that companies have not made efforts, but the data suggests they may be focused on the wrong thematic areas.
“The implications of this data are striking.” said Desai. “It suggests that efforts to engage Asian-American employees need to include ‘time in the U.S.’ as an additional filter. For example, while the offer of assertiveness training may be welcomed by an employee recently arrived from Shanghai, it could be viewed as deeply objectionable when offered to an APA employee who was born in San Antonio.” Desai continued.
The country of origin differences are real and should not be overlooked. However, the survey data suggests that this could be less true as time goes on. With the APA population growing faster than any other ethnic group, except for Hispanics, the disengagement suggested by the data will fast become an even larger issue.
About the Asian Pacific Americans Corporate Survey
Asia Society first began conducting the APA Corporate Survey in 2010, to address the need for independent information, backed by statistics, about the APA workforce. At that time, there was very little information about APA employees and their perceptions and experiences, and the APA Corporate Survey was the first to exclusively measure and to recognize practices related to developing APA working at Fortune 500-level companies.
2011 Award Winners
KPMG LLP: Overall Best Employer for Asian Pacific Americans
Colgate-Palmolive Company: Best Company for Asian Pacific Americans to Develop Workforce Skills
PepsiCo, Inc.: Best Company in Promoting Asian Pacific Americans into Senior Leadership Positions
Cardinal Health, Inc.: Best Company for Support of the Asian Pacific American Community
GE: Best Company with the Most Innovative Practices
2011 Other Finalist Companies:
3M
Cisco
Corning Incorporated
Freddie Mac
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Bank
Kaiser Permanente
Kraft Foods
Lear Corporation
McDonald’s Corporation
New York Life Insurance Company
Pfizer
PG&E Corporation
Sodexo, Inc.
Time Warner Inc.
To speak with representatives from one of these finalist companies or for questions about participating in the 2012 survey, please contact: Jonathan Saw, [email protected], 212-327-9269
About the Asia Society
Asia Society is the leading global and pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders and institutions of the United States and Asia. The Society seeks to increase knowledge and enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of arts and culture, policy and business, and education. Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. Asia Society is on the web at www.AsiaSociety.org.
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Report of the Nominations Committee
Nominations Committee Chair Linda Lin submits the Report of the Nominations Committee for 2011. The Report lists the candidates that the Committee has found qualified for the Directors and Officers vacancies for the upcoming elections in January.
The New York State Bar Association’s Antitrust Section is seeking to diversify its membership and invites APA attorneys and law students to join the section. A section summary is available at bit.ly/Antitrust_Law_Section. As part of this outreach, the section will pay for the registration fees associated with attending its annual meeting day program and evening events on January 26, 2012. Interested practitioners or students can contact the chair of the section, Jay L. Himes (Partner at Labaton Sucharow LLP), directly at [email protected] or (212) 907-0700 . (Please note that you must be or become a NYSBA member to join the section.)
Assuming you’re a fully paid-up member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, I invite you to register for our new eight-week, sixteen-hour continuing legal education course on real estate bankruptcy. As usual, tuition is free (in part due to the support of the ABA’s Real Property Trust and Estate Law Section and First American Title Insurance Company of New York).
We start on Monday evening, January 9, 2012 at 6:30 PM. We’ll continue on Monday evenings from 6:30 PM through 8:55 PM, but we won’t meet on January 16, 2012 (Dr. M. L. King Day) or February 20, 2012 (Presidents’ Day).
The course is designed to help you open the door to new opportunities. If you think you’re not ready to represent owners and tenants of distressed property and lenders holding mortgages on distressed property, we’d like to help you get there. With foreclosed properties proliferating in New York’s diverse communities, the need for lawyers with a working knowledge of real estate as well as the Bankruptcy Code is bound to expand. Yet, despite the impact of bad economic times, many of you have told me that you shy away from bankruptcy-related matters. By teaching you the basic tools you need to get started, we hope to help you build your practice and serve the communities.
I urge you to reserve a seat quickly. Our last five courses were oversubscribed in one week. So, if you’re ready to commit yourself to attend at least six of our eight sessions, please act quickly. All you need to do is send me an e-mail message ([email protected]) with your contact info.
If you attend all eight sessions, we anticipate that you’ll earn 19.2 CLE credits.
Our classroom will be the Village Room at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. The address is 633 Third Avenue. It’s between 40th and 41st Streets.
Here’s table listing the sessions and the topic for each.
Session/Date/Topic
1) January 9, 2012 The Structure of the Bankruptcy Code
2) January 23, 2012 Pre-Bankruptcy Planning and Commencement of a Case
3) January 30, 2012 Rights of Mortgagors and Mortgagees Under Chapter 7
4) February 6, 2012 How Chapter 13 Works
5) February 13, 2012 Rights of Mortgagors and Mortgagees Under Chapter 11
6) February 27, 2012 Avoidance Actions and Bankruptcy Remote Structuring
7) March 5, 2012 Unexpired Leases and Executory Contracts
8) March 12, 2012 Wrap-Up, Review, and Student PanelEach session will include a networking coffee break to allow you to meet and get to know your fellow students. We’ll use this time to eat, gossip, and exchange business cards. By the way, the coffee and snacks are free also. We will provide written materials for each session (without charge) and send them to you by e-mail. Reading them before class will enhance your knowledge and enjoyment.
Immigration Law 101 for the Layperson
Please join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute for a talk on Immigration Law 101 for the Layperson, by Linda T. Chin, on Friday, December 2, 2011, from 6PM to 8PM, at 25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Room 1000, between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan. This talk is free and open to the public.
To RSVP for this talk, send an e-mail to [email protected] with your contact information, or call 212-869-0182. For security purposes, please be prepared to show proper identification when entering the building.
Yim & Chuang Quoted in NYT Article on Lawyers Hanging Their Own Shingles
Jane Chuang, AABANY IP Committee Co-Chair, and her partner Michael Yim (also an AABANY member) were mentioned in a Nov. 23 New York Times article about young lawyers taking the path of starting their own law firms rather than taking the traditional law firm route. Click on the link to read the article. Congrats to Michael and Jane!