From NAPABA: Prepare for the 2020 Census

Census Day is April 1

This month, households across the country will receive letters inviting them to fill out their 2020 Census forms online. Are you ready to fill yours out? Are you ready for the questions you may get as a lawyer about the Census?

Everyone should be counted in the Census, regardless of language ability, immigration status, age, income or identity. Unfortunately, in some communities there is misinformation, confusion, and fear about participating. And others, like the AAPI community, are historically undercounted.

If our communities don’t fill out the Census, they lose out on electoral power and representation, funding, resources and access to services in their language. As lawyers and community leaders, we are in a position to dispel myths and help our communities get counted.

In light of concerns about the coronavirus, Census officials are encouraging individuals to fill out the form online or by mail. For more information about the Census and the Coronavirus, please visit CountUsIn2020.org.

Four Things You Can Do to Help:

Watch and share the Census Bureau’s videos, in English and over sixty other languages, on how to fill out the Census online.

Share the in-language Census resources in your community and with your clients.

Share the AAPI in-language “About the Census” videos on social media.

Learn what lawyers and bar associations can do to protect the public.

NAPABA, the South Asian Bar Association of North American and Asian Americans Advancing Justice developed resources for AAPI lawyers about the upcoming Census. Find more materials, including in-language resources and videos, at napaba.org/census and CountUsIn2020.org.

Together we can ensure our communities are counted!

Questions about the Census?  You can contact NAPABA two ways:

  • Call the census language hotline, for answers to questions in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali/Bangla.  Call 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time at 844-2020-API or 844-202-0274.
  • Go to https://www.countusin2020.org/hotline

AABANY Celebrates 2020 Annual Dinner with More Than 800 Attendees

On Wednesday, February 26, 2020, AABANY hosted its 2020 Annual Dinner with the theme “Stronger Together: Unity in Diversity” at Cipriani Wall Street. The dinner attracted over 800 attorneys, judges, prosecutors, in-house counsel, government officials, and dignitaries and sponsorships from more than 60 law firms and corporations.

This year AABANY was proud to honor:

Hon. Sri Srinivasan, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, with the Public Interest Leadership Award.

Alan Tse, Global Chief Legal Officer, Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc., with the Corporate Leadership Award

Yen Chu, Chief Legal Officer, Equinox Holdings, Inc., with the Women’s Leadership Award

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP with the Law Firm Diversity Award

To read more about our extraordinary honorees, read the press release here.

This year, Spectrum NY1 News Anchor Vivian Lee served as MC and was joined on stage by Immediate Past President James Cho. 

James presented each of the honorees with special gifts from AABANY. Noting that Alan Tse was considered by his peers to be “The Closer,” James presented him with a bottle of McCallan, a nod to Attorney Harvey Specter from “Suits,” another well-known “Closer.” However, because Alan had to fly back to Chicago, the full-size bottle was replaced with a miniature size, with a ziploc bag that will ensure the bottle gets through security. (We have a feeling that the bottle was consumed well before Alan made it to the airport.)

For Yen Chu, James presented her with a monogrammed workout head towel for her next session at one of Equinox’s many gyms. That is one way to make sure that AABANY is “top of mind” for Yen in the days to come. Finally, for Chief Judge Srinivasan, we figured that as a jurist, he can never have too many robes, so James presented him a wizard’s robe, bearing his name above the Gryffindor crest. Although we doubt we will see Chief Judge Srinivasan wearing that robe on the bench any time soon, we can imagine him donning the robe in chambers, especially on those occasions where he may need to work some judicial wizardry to decide the most difficult cases.

In addition, we were also pleased to present the 2019 class of Don H. Liu Scholars: Grace Cho, Raymond Magsaysay, and Andrew Tran. To read more about the Don H. Liu Scholars, see our press release here.

Congratulations also to the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee. The Pro Bono Clinic was recognized with the New York State Bar Association Bar Leaders Innovation Award. NYSBA President Hank Greenberg attended the Annual Dinner to present the award. To read more about the award, see our press release here.

We thank all of the AABANY Annual Dinner Planning Committee members and volunteers for their hard work in making this year’s celebration a huge success.

We extend sincere thanks to all of our sponsors. Their generous sponsorships make it possible for us to pursue our mission to advance the interests of the Asian Pacific American (APA) legal community and the communities we serve and support our many activities and signature events throughout the year.

Lastly, we thank everyone that attended the 2020 Annual Dinner and celebrated with us.

Thanks to Corky Lee for the photos in this blog post. More photos to come. Stay tuned!

AABANY 2020 Law Firm Diversity Award – Applications Now Open

Since 2014, AABANY has sought to recognize one law firm each year for its extraordinary efforts to improve the diversity of our profession by presenting AABANY’s Law Firm Diversity Award. The 2020 AABANY Law Firm Diversity Award will be presented at the Annual Dinner on February 26, 2020.

Nominees should be a law firm that has achieved significant success in the areas of recruiting, retaining and promoting women and diverse attorneys while also demonstrating a commitment to raising awareness of, and influencing the legal community to address, the challenges faced by women and diverse attorneys in the legal industry.  Criteria for selection include:

  • Demonstrated commitment to diversity at all levels of the firm;
  • An established pipeline of diverse talent;
  • A track record of retaining and promoting women and diverse attorneys;
  • External activities, such as active participation in minority bar associations like AABANY and diversity programs of mainstream bar associations like the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, and New York County Lawyers Association;
  • Any other factors the selection committee deems valuable in promoting AABANY’s mission.

The AABANY Law Firm Diversity Award recipient will be chosen by a selection committee through a competitive and confidential process.

If you know of any firms that should apply please forward this email and direct them to this link for the form: https://www.aabany.org/resource/resmgr/lfda/LFDA_2020_SUBMISSION_FORM_FI.pdf

Deadline: January 30, 2020.