To celebrate AAPI Heritage Month this May, Hon. Jeffrey K. Oing, Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, in Manhattan, was interviewed by John Caher, on Amici, a podcast series which features interviews with judges from the New York State court system. In a program titled, “Promoting Diversity in the Courts,” Justice Oing shared his experiences as an immigrant who grew up with his family in New York City and rose through the ranks in the legal profession to the point where he was being considered for the role of Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.
Born in Hong Kong until he was four and raised in East Harlem once his parents immigrated to the States, Justice Oing felt fortunate to have never felt like an outsider. Although his parents were not adamant on preserving his Chinese identity, he did not feel disconnected from his culture because of the large Shanghainese community that surrounded him.
During his adolescence, Justice Oing utilized what he recognized as his “gift of gab,” which is a fun way of saying that he loved to talk with people and get to know them. He uses this skill to this day, stating, “Every time I’m in a room with new people, I’m always interested to learn about them because they can read about me, they know about me but I’m really interested about them. I want to know what their story is.”
Justice Oing began his career never thinking about being a judge, even after clerking for a Chief Justice in New Jersey Supreme Court. It wasn’t until he started working at New York State Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street and served as a court attorney where he helped draft decisions for judges that he discovered being a judge is what he wanted to do. He describes this eye-opening experience, saying, “I got the job and it was nirvana.”
As there weren’t many Asians running for judge in 2000, he stuck out. Everyone knew his name and eventually he was elected as the fourth judge of Chinese descent in New York County. In 2010, he was elected to New York State Supreme Court, being the third of Chinese descent to serve in New York County.
His representation in the court was pioneering, especially as Asian representation in the law was not common. He hones in on this point, calling out the stereotypical belief that Asians can’t be leaders or are not viewed as having a management capability. He says, “we’re viewed as the … hard-working person and less as a person who can run or manage a company. And it’s sort of the docile image that we have.” Being in his role as a judge and meeting other Asian judges with the same ambition to make strides gave him hope for a future with more Asian representation on the bench.
Justice Oing expressed his passion for diversity and inclusion with his involvement in the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission and the Chinese American Planning Council. Within the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission, he supports their efforts in promoting racial and ethnic fairness to everyone in the court system. As a member of the Chinese American Planning Council, he focuses on services that provide language access to support Asian community needs. “We want to ensure that all people, all the folks who come to our services, get that assistance that they need,” he explained. “So language is a big deal for me, just because of who I am.”
Justice Oing ends his discussion by recognizing that many immigrant parents have the same goal as native-born Americans: a better life. He perfectly wraps up the conversation by observing, “The pie is pretty big. We all don’t need to have the largest slice, but if everybody can get a slice, I think that will be a good thing.”
An Allen & Overy cross-practice team acted as pro-bono counsel for the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) and Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York (KALAGNY) in filing an appellate brief amici curiae to the New York Appellate Division, Third Department.
Following his mostly unsuccessful personal injury case brought against the State of New York (Byung Choon Joe v. New York), Plaintiff, Byung Choon Joe, appealed the trial judge’s decision to the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department. A&O, on behalf of AABANY and KALAGNY, filed a brief amici curiae in support of Mr. Joe, urging the appellate court to consider whether the trial court’s decision was negatively influenced by implicit racial bias.
Terry Shen, President of AABANY, said, “As the largest affinity bar association in New York and the United States, AABANY is devoted to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. When we learned about the case of Byung Choon Joe, we were concerned about the trial court’s irrelevant reference to his Korean ethnicity in the context of a finding of a lack of trustworthiness, recalling age-old negative stereotypes of Asian Americans. We therefore joined with KALAGNY to file an amici brief to call attention to the fact that judges and the judicial system are not immune to implicit bias.”
The New York State Bar Association and several affiliates of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association also supported AABANY and KALAGNY’s brief including: the Asian American Bar Association of Chicago, the Asian American Bar Association of Houston, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania, the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Jacksonville Asian American Bar Association, the Network of Bar Leaders (a coalition of more than fifty bar associations in the Greater New York area), the South Asian Bar Association of New York, and the Thai American Bar Association.
The A&O pro-bono team for this case was led by Sapna Palla (AABANY member and Immediate Past President) along with associates Rebecca Cecchini and Ben Minkoff.
To view the entire press release, please click here.
On May 6, the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association presented the George Bundy Smith Award to the Honorable Peter Tom, former Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department. The George Bundy Smith Award is presented annually to an attorney of color whose career exemplifies the high standards in legal excellence, community service, and mentoring set by Judge George Bundy Smith through his participation in the Civil Rights Movement and his years of public service serving as a judge.
Vincent Chang had the honor of presenting the award to Justice Tom. In his speech, he described Justice Tom as “our Jackie Robinson.” Like Jackie Robinson, Justice Tom had accomplished goals during his career no one in his race had ever accomplished. Throughout his years of service in the court system, he achieved many “firsts”—first Asian American appointed to the Housing Court in New York City; first Asian American elected to the Civil Court in New York City; first Asian American elected to the New York State Supreme Court in New York County; and first Asian American appointed to the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. Justice Tom was even the first Asian American to win the New York City Golden Gloves Boxing Championship. In his legal career, Justice Tom tore down walls one by one. He employed a 100-year-old “Bawdy House Statute” for the first time in a groundbreaking ruling to evict drug dealers from residential property. In People v. Luis Kevin Rojas, Justice Tom reversed an innocent man’s conviction and saved Luis Rojas from a potential lifetime in prison. Justice Tom also gives back immensely to the Asian American community. He is one of the founders of the Asian American Bar Association of New York.
In accepting the George Bundy Smith Award, Justice Tom shared the story of his family’s immigration to the United States from China with their hopes of finding the mountains of gold in America. Instead of finding gold mountains, Justice Tom was thrust into New York City where he had to learn English, find his identity, and work hard. He stated, “[The] real treasure of America was not…easy riches but vast golden opportunities in this diverse country where the road of opportunity leads if one works hard and perseveres.” In addition, Justice Tom provided attendees with insight into how appeals are handled by the First Department, stressing the importance of strong oral argument. He also emphasized pro bono representation and civility in the legal profession.
Congratulations to Justice Tom on receiving the George Bundy Smith Award! To read AABANY’s profile on Justice Tom, click here.
AABANY is proud to spotlight Hon. Peter Tom, the 2021 recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award. Justice Tom says he is honored to receive an award named after Judge Smith, whom he always considered a good judge and good friend. Judge Smith served on the New York Court of Appeals and was a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement. Since 2007, the honor in his namesake has been accorded to lawyers who demonstrate a similar level of commitment to legal excellence, community service and mentoring. Justice Tom has done just that in his trailblazing, thirty-plus year judicial career.
After graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1975, Justice Tom joined the Civil Court of the City of New York as a Law Clerk, working on a wide variety of criminal and civil assignments. As he grew comfortable in the court system, he began rethinking his original plans to start his own law firm, and in 1985, Justice Tom became the first Asian American appointed to the Housing Court of the City of New York. Although he could not have known it then, this initial foray into the court system would launch a long and distinguished career of judicial “firsts” for an Asian American. In 1987, Justice Tom was one of the first Asian Americans elected to the Civil Court of the City of New York; in 1990, he became the first Asian American elected to the New York State Supreme Court in New York County; and from 1994 until 2008, he served as the first and only Asian American in the Appellate Division of the State of New York.
While Justice Tom’s judicial career is defined by a multitude of groundbreaking rulings and widely publicized opinions, his success spanned beyond the walls of the courtroom. At age 18, Justice Tom became the first Asian American to win the New York Golden Gloves — amateur boxing’s most prestigious tournament. What began as a tactic for self-defense had landed him in Madison Square Garden’s ring on the week of four exams. As his attention flitted from schoolwork to boxing, the young Tom was learning a lesson that stuck with him even after he swapped his gloves for a gavel. In the words of the Justice, “You cannot excel at more than one thing in life because there’s just not enough time to prepare yourself. So work harder than the competition in whatever you do, and you’ll come out ahead.”
And work hard he did. While his days in retirement have been dedicated to exercise, art, and travel, Justice Tom spent much of his professional career burning the midnight oil. In his very first judicial position, the then-Housing Court Judge was swamped with twenty to thirty new cases on a daily basis. Justice Tom recalls laboring to reach as many settlements as possible on the weekdays before spending entire weekends writing legal opinions. During this time, a frequent visitor of his was the courthouse custodian, who would come in at midnight to send the indefatigable judge home before locking up.
The concept of halfhearted work was just as foreign to Justice Tom then as it was years earlier in the boxing ring. While serving on the New York Supreme Court, he sought to instill the same tenacity in his interns, whom he taught that nothing short of absolute focus was essential for success. It is this sort of tireless work ethic that Justice Tom hopes to impress upon all aspiring jurists: “Nothing in life comes easy, so build a strong reputation for yourself by volunteering your time to your community and by working hard.”
Over the course of his judicial career, Justice Tom authored more than 500 legal opinions, many of which received front page coverage in the New York Law Journal. As a testament to the fairness of his decisions, the Court of Appeals regularly affirmed his opinions and used his dissents as the basis for reversal. In one of his most groundbreaking rulings, Justice Tom employed a 100-year-old “Bawdy House Statute” for the first time to evict drug dealers from residential property. His decision could not have come at a more opportune moment for New York, which was then being ravaged by the 1980s crack epidemic. Employing Justice Tom’s novel application of the statute, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office subsequently established a Narcotics Eviction Part throughout the city’s Civil Courts. The Justice’s ingenuity thereby helped to convert an obscure law from 1840 into a potent weapon for clearing out crack dens across the city.
While serving in the Appellate Division, Justice Tom enjoyed hearing cases on the whole spectrum of legal issues, from commercial and criminal to housing and family. One particular case, however, remains among his proudest accomplishments. People v. Luis Kevin Rojas centered on the wrongful murder conviction of Luis Rojas, whose lawyer had failed to investigate his alibi and even ineptly indicated during trial that Rojas was present at the crime scene. After his conviction, Rojas hired new lawyers and private investigators, who unearthed evidence that seemed to vindicate Rojas entirely. Writing for the appellate panel, Justice Tom castigated the defendant’s trial counsel for his “ignorance of the facts” and reversed Rojas’ conviction and his sentence of 15 years to life. Justice Tom’s decision, which saved an innocent man from a potential lifetime in prison, was featured in both the New York Times and the New York Law Journal.
Justice Tom’s first bench in the Appellate Division of the State of New York.
Though his extensive resume of legal triumphs might suggest otherwise, Justice Tom’s judicial path was not always seamless. Among the obstacles he faced was the former lack of a bar association representing Asian Americans. While AABANY now boasts nearly 1500 members as the nation’s largest affinity bar association, it was still a nascent organization — only one year old — when Justice Tom applied for his third judicial position in 1990. At the time, there were well-established ethnic bar associations for virtually all the other minority candidates. The Jewish Lawyers Guild had been established in 1962, the LGBT Bar Association of New York in 1978, and so on. Justice Tom’s ability to climb the court system without similar representation was the exception rather than the norm, as revealed by the paucity of Asian American judges seated back then.
While diversity on the bench has since increased, today’s courts are still far from reflecting the diversity of the communities they serve. Justice Tom identifies the lack of AAPIs in the judiciary as the primary reason that Asian Americans do not feel comfortable participating in the system. Particularly amid the ongoing surge in anti-Asian violence, Justice Tom says that many Asians view the predominantly white court system as a foreign institution — one where their chances of achieving proper recourse are slim. In this context, Justice Tom believes that his various judicial appointments have helped Asian Americans feel more like a part of the institution themselves. AAPIs constitute a large portion of the New York population, and representation in the judiciary must reflect this population. According to Justice Tom, greater representation of Asians among court personnel at all levels, from officers and reporters to clerks and judges, will increase the fairness of the institution in both appearance and reality.
Justice Tom served as Acting Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department in 2007, 2009, and 2016.
As a harbinger of the increased diversity he hopes for, Justice Tom left a judicial legacy that doubtlessly merits NYSBA’s George Bundy Smith Pioneer award. Looking forward, he believes that AABANY’s rapid growth will enable the association to play a critical role in seating even more Asian Americans on the bench. Because judges can only say so much while remaining bipartisan, Justice Tom views AABANY as an advocate that can speak on behalf of budding Asian American jurists. One can only hope that among this group of aspirants, some will follow in Justice Tom’s footsteps and emerge as the next generation of legal pioneers.
AABANY encourages everyone to attend the presentation of Justice Tom’s award at NYSBA’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Spring Meeting on Thursday, May 6, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The registration page for the award ceremony can be found here.
The Historical Society of the New York Courts continues its month-long celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Monthwith its 2017 film Get to Know: Hon. Peter Tom. At the time of the interview, Justice Tom served as the Acting Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department.
The now-retired Justice Tom speaks of his upbringing in Hong Kong, and how his early years in the United States brought him to an interest in the law. He traces his judicial career from Housing Court Judge to Appellate Division Justice. He also discusses the importance of boxing in his life. The film comes full circle in Justice Tom’s reflections on the American dream.
NEW YORK – Sept. 8, 2017 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) is proud to announce that the Hon. Randall T. Eng, Presiding Justice, Appellate Division, Second Department, will be the recipient of the Norman Lau Kee Trailblazer Award at AABANY’s Eighth Annual Fall Conference on September 23, 2017, to be held at the Fordham University School of Law.
Named for Norman Lau Kee, a revered legal and community pillar of New York City’s Chinatown for decades, this Trailblazer Award honors an accomplished leader in the legal profession who is of Asian Pacific American (APA) descent or has demonstrated dedication to APA issues in the community. This award honors an individual who has carved a path for others to follow, served the community as a mentor and role model, and has made a lasting impact on the APA community through his or her dedication and commitment.
Hon. Randall T. Eng was a groundbreaker long before he was appointed by Governor Cuomo to be the first APA Presiding Justice of an Appellate Division in New York. A graduate of St. John’s University School of Law, Justice Eng served as New York’s first APA Assistant District Attorney in 1973. He later became the first APA judge in New York in 1983, when Mayor Edward Koch appointed him to the Criminal Court of the City of New York.
Justice Eng was elected to two terms as Justice of the New York Supreme Court in 1990 and 2004, and in 2007 became the first Asian American Administrative Judge of the Queens County Supreme Court, Criminal Term. A former colonel of the New York Army National Guard, adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University School of Law, and Inspector General of the New York City Correction Department, Justice Eng’s career shines brightly as an exemplar of both service and groundbreaking pioneering ability.
Born in China, Justice Eng moved to the United States with his family when he was just six months old. His father, an Air Force veteran of World War II, opened a laundry and cleaning store in Queens—one of the few options available for Asian and immigrant families during that time. Aware from an early age of the barriers that awaited him if he tried to pursue law, Justice Eng remained, in his own words, “undaunted…because that was the era of civil rights.” It is that undaunted spirit of Justice Eng’s that has made him a trailblazer and an inspiration for Asian Americans in the legal community and throughout the country.
Today, Justice Eng plays a key role in the development of jurisprudence and judicial policy in New York as Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department. The ten counties under its purview make Justice Eng’s Appellate Division one of the nation’s busiest. From supervising the court’s various agencies to being the Second Department’s Chief Administrator, Justice Eng has significant responsibilities at one of the highest levels of the state’s judiciary system. All the while, he has helped to pave the way for generations of APA lawyers in government, and remains an uplifting example for the APA community.
“At a time when the obstacles that face APAs in the law seem innumerable, Justice Randall T. Eng through his career has blazed a trail toward a more promising future for APAs in the legal profession and inspired generations of lawyers,” states AABANY President Dwight Yoo. “AABANY is honored to present Justice Eng the Norman Lau Kee Trailblazer Award at its Eighth Annual Fall Conference.”
For more information, please contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (212) 332-2478, or direct any inquiries to [email protected].
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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Additional information about AABANY is available at www.aabany.org
NEW YORK – May 26, 2017 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”) is proud to recognize an historic first for the Appellate Division, First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Appointed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Justice Jeffrey Oing and Justice Anil Singh join Justice Peter Tom in the First Department, which now has three Asian Pacific American (“APA”) sitting judges for the first time. We offer our congratulations to these decorated jurists.
Justice Oing was elected in 2003 to serve as a New York City Civil Court Judge. In 2010, he was elected to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judicial District, and assigned to the Commercial Division. He also served as Deputy General Counsel to the New York City Council in 2002 and 2003, and also served as Deputy Director of the New York City Districting Commission. Justice Oing graduated from Columbia College in 1986 and from New York University School of Law in 1989.
Justice Singh was born in India in 1958 and immigrated to the United States in 1976. He becomes the first Indian-American elevated to an appellate court in New York State. After being elected as a New York City Civil Court Judge in 2002, he was designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice in 2010 and was elected to his current role as a New York State Supreme Court Justice, First Judicial District in 2013. In April 2015, Justice Singh was appointed to the Commercial Division. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1980 and the Antioch School of Law in 1986.
“AABANY commends Governor Cuomo on appointing Justice Oing and Justice Singh to the First Department,” says Dwight Yoo, AABANY President. “During this APA Heritage Month, we honored our newly and recently inducted APA judges as well as retired APA judges at our inaugural Judges’ Reception on May 17, and at that event, Presiding Justice Randall Eng of the Appellate Division, Second Department spoke about the strides that have been made in the past three decades for APA judges in New York. Now less than a week later, we have Justice Oing and Justice Singh joining Justice Tom, with Presiding Justice Acosta at the helm. Diversity on the bench is being strongly reflected on the First Department bench, and we are gratified to be witnessing this historic development firsthand.”
“We join in congratulating Justice Oing and Justice Singh on their appointment by Governor Cuomo,” says Linda Lin, co-chair of AABANY’s Judiciary Committee. “We also wish to recognize Justice Tom on his exemplary service as Acting Presiding Justice, during which time he cleared a significant backlog of cases despite having limited resources. We thank Justice Tom for his dedication and commitment to public service, and we congratulate Presiding Justice Rolando Acosta on his appointment.”
Governor Cuomo designated Associate Justice Rolando Acosta as Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, and appointed Supreme Court Justices Cynthia Kern, Peter Moulton, Jeffrey Oing and Anil Singh to fill four Associate Justice vacancies. AABANY congratulates all of Governor Cuomo’s appointees.
For more information, please contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (212) 332-2478, or direct any inquiries to [email protected].
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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Additional information about AABANY is available at www.aabany.org
The Appellate Division, First Department was honored as an institution by the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) on December 13, 2016 at the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. The First Department was recognized for its illustrious history and for its court work including the development of precedential legal principles for lower courts to follow, especially in the field of commercial litigation.
The gala was attended by over 100 judges and over 800 attorneys and guests.
Acting Presiding Justice Peter Tom accepted the award on behalf of the First Department. In his remarks, he observed:
In so many respects, we reflect this great city that is our home. We live amidst its blessings and
its problems, and above all, among its people. Our staff and our bench reflect the cultural
diversity of the City. In my earlier years on the First Department bench, I have been joined by
judges having the more traditional Irish, Italian and Jewish backgrounds – and Leo Milonas
proudly represented the Hellenic tradition – but increasingly, up to present, by judges and staff
who have African-American and Hispanic backgrounds and, as is obvious as I stand here now,
also Asians. I think that it is especially remarkable at this point in our city’s history that my
good friend Justice Randy Eng is the Presiding Justice of our sister-court in Brooklyn while I am
Acting Presiding Justice of the First Department. This is the first time in the history of New
York State that two Asians preside over two of the four judicial departments. After a century in
existence, this court is beginning to reflect the diverse population of the city.
AABANY congratulates the First Department on this honor from NYCLA and shares in Justice Tom’s observation that the court, after 100 years, is “beginning to reflect the diverse population of the city.” We hope that it continues to do so.
For the full text of Acting Presiding Justice Tom’s acceptance speech, follow the link in the title. To read more about the event in the New York Law Journal, click here (subscription required).
Photo of Justice Eng (l.) and Justice Tom (r.) at the NYCLA Annual Dinner courtesy of Justice Tom.
