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Thank You to Our 10/15 Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

On October 15, 2022, AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee held a Pro Bono Clinic at the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn from 12:00-3:30 PM. 

In all, we met with 22 clients who had questions about contracts, fraud, housing, wills, trusts, and estates. Our volunteers are constantly learning and teaching one another. Many of this clinic’s volunteer force were law students or recent law school graduates, who put their memory of basic skills such as issue-spotting through the IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) method to real-world use. We were also able to refer many clients to not-for-profit legal services to further help their case beyond the time constraints of our clinic session. Last, but not least, our volunteers demonstrated exceptional professionalism with the 4 C’s in mind: competency, confidentiality, conflict of interest, and compassion. 

AABANY Legal Interns Daniel Kang and Connor Li recounted their experiences at the clinic. Daniel said, “Many clients came in with issues regarding estate and housing law. It was great having the chance to shadow attorneys like Kwok, May, and Johnny, and to see how their legal knowledge can be used to help people in their everyday lives. I sat in on a session where one client did not come with a particular issue, but with an information request regarding the drafting of a will—and the benefits of creating one. Attorney May Wong carefully explained the concept of a will, the legal challenges which might be confronted and avoided through the creation of one, and helped the client walk away with knowledge of a legal concept that will undoubtedly impact their family.”

Connor had a similar experience when sitting in on the consultations. He said, “I sat in on a session where attorney Johnny Thach was able to help a couple find the available resources to resolve their landlord-tenant issues. Especially for non-English speakers, and even for those of us that speak English as our native language, legal terminology can be confusing. For this couple, the resources we found online were filled with legal jargon, so it was great to see Johnny clearly articulate the issues and next steps in words that even I was able to understand.” 

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped out this past Saturday. Your extra help was truly appreciated! 

Volunteer AttorneysInterpreters & ShadowersAAFE Staff
Jackson ChinConnor LiAnsen Tang
Jennifer ParkDaniel KangHayley Liang
Johnny ThachHyewon ByeonLori Huang
Kwok Kei NgJoon Choe 
May WongYiru (Lea) Jiang 
Ming Chu (Judy) LeeYuichi Hayashi 
Victoria ChengYuwen Long 
Yvette AdiguzelZixuan Luo 

Please join us at our upcoming Pro Bono Clinics! 

October 29 – registration closed at noon on 10/26 [remote option not available]

Manhattan Location – 33 Bowery, Community Room at Confucius Plaza, New York, NY 10002

November 19 – please register by 12pm, 11/16 [remote option available for NYS admitted attorneys only]

Queens Location – AAFE One Flushing Community Center, 133-29 41st Ave, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355

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AABANY’s Women’s Committee, Corporate Law Committee, and Membership Committee Co-Host 2022 Golf Outing

On October 22, 2022, AABANY held its 2022 Golf Outing at the historic Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort on a sunny autumn afternoon.  The event was presented by the Women’s Committee, Corporate Law Committee, and Membership Committee.

The 27-hole world class golf course, which has hosted the PGA Championship, was designed by renowned architect A.W. Tillinghast.  Carpools left New York City Saturday morning for the hour and a half drive to the Pocono Mountains.  AABANY members, friends, family and children enjoyed the magnificent colors of the fall foliage on a picturesque day for golf.  Golfers met at the Shawnee General Store for lunch and then hit the driving range for some practice swings.  Five AABANY foursomes, including several beginners and first time golfers, teed off in the early afternoon and played several holes across water on an island in the middle of the Delaware River.  Following the round, AABANY golfers dined together in the Shawnee Inn’s River Room at a table set for 20.

Thank you to the Women’s Committee, Corporate Law Committee, and the Membership Committee for coming together and organizing this successful outing.

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Announcing NAPABA’s 2022-2023 Board of Governors, with AABANY Member Anna Mercado Clark as President-Elect

NAPABA has announced its 2022-2023 Board of Governors. This board will be sworn in during the 2022 NAPABA Convention Las Vegas, Nov. 3-6. NAPABA’s strength comes from the many volunteers who hold leadership positions across its diverse membership. From its national Board of Governors to its local affiliate leaders, from its substantive committees and affinity network chairs to the chairs of its professional development programs, NAPABA is driven by the expertise, energy, and commitment of its membership. 

AABANY is especially proud of AABANY member and Board officer Anna Mercado Clark for being elected as President-Elect for the 2022-2023 Board of Governors. Anna currently serves as an Officer for AABANY’s Board as Development Director. She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States as a twelve-year-old, graduating from Fordham Law School before interning for the Hon. Denny Chin. Anna is a partner at Phillips Lytle LLP and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School. 

2022-2023 NAPABA Board of Governors

Executive Committee 

President: Sandra Leung

President-Elect: Anna Mercado Clark 

Treasurer: Annette Kwok

Secretary: Kristin Haugen

Immediate Past President: A.B. Cruz III

Executive Director: Priya Purandare

Directors 

Director: Angela Lim

Director: Marty Lorenzo

Regional Governors 

Central Regional Governor: Kristy Gonowon

Central California Regional Governor: Jen Won

Eastern California: Albert Montefalcon

Northeast Regional Governor: James Y. Lee

Northeast Regional Governor: Andrew Sarrol

Northern California Regional Governor: Mari Bandoma Callado 

Northwest Regional Governor: Elisa Dozono

Southeast Regional Governor: Zarra Elias

Southern California Regional Governor: Arlene Yang

Southwest Regional Governor: Stacey Cho Hernandez

At-Large Board Members

At-Large Board Member: Gene Kim

At-Large Board Member: Kenjiro LeCroix

At-Large Board Member: Terri Ann Motosue

At-Large Board Member: Vincent Roldan 

At-Large Board Member: Eileen Sullivan 

At-Large Board Member: Qiaojing Ella Zheng

General Counsel

General Counsel: James Kim

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AABANY Celebrates with APALA-NJ at Their 23rd Annual Gala

On Thursday, September 22, 2022, our sister bar APALA-NJ  held their 23rd Annual Gala at the Liberty House in Jersey City, New Jersey. 

In attendance were AABANY Board Members, Anna Mercado Clark, Chris Kwok, Beatrice Leong, David Sohn and Andy Yoo. Many AABANY members also attended to show support. 
Anna presented the Professional Achievement Award to Dean Rose Cuison Villazor.
We congratulate the APALA NJ honorees and award recipients:

See more photos:  https://dcpnewyork.pixieset.com/apalanjgala2022/

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NAPABA Presents Its 2022 NAPABA Awards

For over a decade, NAPABA has annually honored outstanding organizations that make an impact in the legal profession and within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

NAPABA is proud to recognize these deserving innovative organizations for the following 2022 NAPABA Awards. All of these organizations will be celebrated at the 2022 NAPABA Convention from November 3-6 in Las Vegas .

Affiliate of the Year Award | Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association

The NAPABA Affiliate of the Year Award recognizes outstanding NAPABA affiliates for their best practices and accomplishments in their local communities.

Honoree Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association (SCCLA) is the country’s first AAPI bar association and has created meaningful programs and events for its members as well as for law students and the local community. Learn more about the SCCLA. 

APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year Award | Yang Law Offices

The NAPABA APA-Owned Law Firm of the Year Award recognizes our membership’s law firms—solo, small, and large—that have achieved prominence and distinction, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to the AAPI community. Honoree Yang Law Offices has shown this commitment through their work across multiple locations in California and internationally. Learn more about Yang Law Offices.

Law Firm Diversity Award | Allen & Overy

The NAPABA Law Firm Diversity Award honors law firms that actively, affirmatively, consistently, and enthusiastically recruit, retain, and promote AAPI lawyers to equity partnership and firm leadership. It celebrates law firm successes in recognizing the potential, supporting the promise, and raising the influence of AAPI lawyers. Honoree Allen & Overy has made diversity, equity, and inclusion one of their strategic priorities — fundamental to the kind of firm they want to be. Learn more about Allen & Overy.

[AABANY congratulates Allen & Overy on this recognition. Allen & Overy received the AABANY Law Firm Diversity Award at the 2022 AABANY Annual Dinner.]

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NAPABA Applauds the Nomination of Alamdar S. Hamdani for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas

WASHINGTON – Friday [October 14], President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Alamdar S. Hamdani to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. If confirmed, Hamdani would be the first AAPI to serve as a U.S. attorney in the state of Texas.

“NAPABA applauds the Biden-Harris administration for nominating Alamdar Hamdani to serve as a U.S. attorney,” said A.B. Cruz, acting president of NAPABA. “Mr. Hamdani is a well-qualified candidate who has a long history in public service and strong ties to Houston and its legal communities. 

“There is still a large gap for Asian Americans in the law, with only one Presidentially appointed U.S. attorney out of 94 judicial districts. The U.S. attorney is the chief federal law enforcement officer in their district, and the underrepresentation of AAPIs is concerning, especially as anti-Asian hate continues to deeply affect our community. NAPABA thanks President Biden for nominating Mr. Hamdani, and Senator Cornyn and Senator Cruz for recommending and supporting his nomination. We also encourage Senators to consider recommending qualified AAPI candidates to serve as U.S. attorneys.”

Since 2014, Alamdar Hamdani has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. Prior to his tenure in the Southern District of Texas, he served as deputy chief of the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division at the Department of Justice, and as a trial attorney in the same section. Hamdani has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and was a founding partner of Hamdani & Simon, LLP. He is a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Texas at Austin.

“Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the United States and Texas, with nearly one in five new Texans identifying as Asian American,” said Priya Purandare, executive director of NAPABA. “In the Houston area within the Southern District of Texas, the Asian American population grew by 53 percent in the last decade, and they comprise nearly nine percent of the population. Mr. Hamdani’s nomination is a step in the right direction in ensuring our community is represented. We urge the Senate to quickly confirm him.”

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Announcements: New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Business Law Section

The NYSBA Business Law Section would like you to know about their Speakers Bureau as well as the opening of this year’s mentorship program. Please see below for further details:

1. NYSBA – Business Law Section Speakers Bureau – The Business Law Section is creating a faculty of speakers that they can contact for their various programs during the year. They want to make sure they have diverse attorneys as part of that faculty. Please complete this link 

https://nysba.org/app/uploads/2020/02/BUS_Speaker-Bureau-Form.pdf to submit an application to be a part of the faculty.  Please submit by Friday, October 21.  Please send any questions to Taa Grays at [email protected].

2. Law Student Mentoring – The Business Law Section is kicking off its 2022 – 2023 mentoring program. Law students seeking a mentor, please sign-up via this link 

https://nysba.org/blsmentoringprogram. Please submit your application by Friday, October 21.

Please send any questions to Juan Soto at [email protected].

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AABANY Honored with the New York State Bar Association Bar Leaders Innovation Award for the Anti-Asian Violence Task Force (AAVTF)

On September 20th, 2022, AABANY’s Anti-Asian Violence Task Force was honored with the prestigious Bar Leaders Innovation Award in the category of large-sized bar association (2,000 members or more) at the New York State Bar Association headquarters in Albany, making AABANY a recipient of this award for the third year in a row. Beatrice Leong, Esq., AABANY’s Co-Vice President of Programs and Operations, went to Albany to accept the award from the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Bar Leaders, on behalf of AABANY.  

On September 20, Beatrice met with bar leaders from across New York state during a Bar Leaders Symposium and discussed how AABANY was able to maintain membership and actively keep its members and community engaged. During the reception following the Symposium, Beatrice accepted the award on behalf of AABANY. In her acceptance speech, she emphasized why AAVTF was created and the impact the Hate Eradication Active Response Team (“HEART”) had on helping community members navigate the criminal justice process. Beatrice also described how AAVTF worked with community organizations, the police, local prosecutors, elected officials, and law firms to gather data on hundreds of hate incidents while also directly assisting survivors. The event concluded with a dinner among the assembled bar leaders, providing another opportunity for Beatrice to share how AABANY was able to bring its leaders and members together to fight anti-Asian violence in New York City.

In AABANY’s press release about the award, President Willam Ng further commented: “With the support and acknowledgment of NYSBA and other partner organizations, AABANY and its AAVTF are confident that we can create safe and just communities and legal systems for Asian New Yorkers and all New Yorkers.” To read the press release issued by AABANY, please click here.

To read the AAVTF’s Endless Tide report, please click here.

To support the efforts of AAVTF, please click here.

To learn more about the HEART project, please click here.

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AABANY’s Academic Committee Co-Sponsors Workshop for Asian American and Pacific Islander and Middle Eastern and North African Women at UC Davis School of Law

AABANY’s Academic Committee was proud to co-sponsor the second ever Workshop for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Women in the Legal Academy at UC Davis School of Law, held on Friday, September 16, 2022. This conference is designed to support and mentor women aspiring to enter or who are in the legal academy. AABANY’s generous co-sponsorship allowed travel stipends for individuals to attend. It was a fantastic two-day event. Academic Committee Co-chairs Catherine Kim, Donna Lee, and Elaine Chiu were delighted to attend. To learn more about the Academic Committee, click here.

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NAPABA Commends Justice Goodwin H. Liu as Recipient ABA Spirit of Excellence Award

WASHINGTON — Oct. 5, 2022. This week, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession announced California Supreme Court Associate Justice Goodwin H. Liu as a recipient of its 2023 Spirit of Excellence Award. Each year, the ABA honors lawyers who have excelled in their fields and who have demonstrated an abiding commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession with this prestigious distinction.

An accomplished jurist, scholar, and professor, Justice Liu is a nationally recognized expert on constitutional law, education law and policy, implicit bias, and criminal justice reform. A graduate of Stanford, Oxford, and Yale Law School, and a former Rhodes Scholar, Justice Liu’s distinguished career includes serving as a former Supreme Court clerk, a key policy advisor at two federal agencies, and as a tenured professor and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. In 2011, Justice Liu was nominated and confirmed as an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court.

Justice Liu is a towering figure in the Asian American legal community, and in particular for his groundbreaking work on the Portrait Project, a comprehensive, multi-year, data-driven study of Asian Americans in the law, conducted in partnership with NAPABA, which was a game-changer for raising awareness about the successes, challenges, and obstacles confronting Asian Americans in the legal profession.

“Justice Goodwin Liu has opened doors, broken down barriers, and been an unflinching champion of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, not just for Asian Americans, but lawyers of all backgrounds,” said Acting NAPABA President A.B. Cruz III. “NAPABA is proud of its longstanding partnership with Justice Liu on the Portrait Project, and it was a privilege to nominate him for the ABA’s Spirit of Excellence Award. He is an inspiration for our members and beyond, as a role model for overcoming adversity in the pursuit of excellence in the legal profession.” 

In 2017, Justice Liu was the recipient of the NAPABA President’s Award, given to NAPABA members who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to NAPABA, the legal community, and the greater Asian Pacific American community.

Also receiving the 2023 Spirit of Excellence Award are:

  • Hon. Roger L. Gregory, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit 
  • Reginald M. Turner, Immediate Past President of the ABA
  • Diandra Benally, General Counsel of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation

The 2023 Spirit of Excellence Awards will be presented during a ceremony on February 4 at the ABA Midyear Meeting in New Orleans.

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The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), represents the interests of over 60,000 Asian Pacific American (APA) legal professionals and nearly 90 national, state, and local APA bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting APA communities. Through its national network, 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 all backgrounds in the legal profession.

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