SDNY NOTICE: SDNY Accepting Applications for Magistrate Judge
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has announced a vacancy for a full-time U.S. Magistrate Judge position in the White Plains courthouse. The SDNY’s public notice, which contains additional information about the position and the application, is available on the court’s website at www.nysd.uscourts.gov. AABANY encourages all qualified attorneys with an interest in serving in the federal judiciary to submit an application, which is due no later than September 30, 2013. If you have any questions about the position or would like assistance in connection with your application, please contact any of the Co-chairs of AABANY’s Judiciary Committee:
- Vince Chang([email protected]),
- Theo Cheng ([email protected]),
- James Chou ([email protected]), or
- Robert Leung ([email protected]).
NAPABA Political Appointments Project
Many NAPABA members have expressed interest in serving in the second term of the Obama Administration. NAPABA has assembled information as an introduction to the process, and important information about how to facilitate pursuit of a position is included. Current NAPABA members should submit application materials as outlined here.
VOLUNTEER and Join Us at the Annual Citywide Citizenship Application Assistance Event on May 11th!
Please Support AABANY and Volunteer with Us for the Saturday, May 11th, Citywide Citizenship Day 2013.
We invite you to participate in the largest naturalization application assistance event in New York State! Your skills and experience will be an enormous asset and we greatly value your commitment.
AABANY is co-sponsoring this event again. This year, we hope to have at least 10 experienced AABANY immigration law practitioners participate. But we also need the help of all attorneys and paralegals — whether you practice immigration law or not! We need any and all AABANY members to participate on Citizenship Day, in order to better serve and represent the APA immigrant community.
Needed:
Attorneys and paralegals with or without expertise in naturalization and citizenship law. We need your help to determine applicant’s eligibility for naturalization, assure that applicants leave the event with a properly completed application, and to assist and/or supervise volunteers providing application assistance.
When:
Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. But if you can only come for part of the day, that’s ok too. Volunteer whatever time you can — whether it’s a morning or an afternoon.
Where:
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Haaren-Hall Building, 899 Tenth Avenue, Gymnasium, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10019.
How to Register: Click here to be taken to the registration form. Once there, you should chose “AABANY” as your affiliation so we can keep track of registration and attendance for you.
Why Volunteer? Because you are helping the many immigrants in our city who hope for and deserve U.S. citizenship — but cannot afford private attorney legal fees to achieve their goal. Plus, I guarantee that you will have fun and enjoy a great deal of personal satisfaction by assisting others during this pro bono event. I know this because I see the happy faces of our volunteers each year! This is always a wonderful experience!
For more information: Contact Rio Guerrero, Co-Chair AABANY Immigration and Nationality Law Committee, at [email protected].
DEADLINE TO APPLY: VABAW Hong-Duc Clerkship Program
The Vietnamese American Bar Association of Washington (VABAW) is pleased to offer a summer clerkship through our Hong Duc Clerkship program. This year’s recipient will be VABAW’s 6th Hong Duc Clerk. The clerk will be working at Hogan Lovells in Ho Chi Minh City this upcoming summer.
The application deadline is February 28, 2013. Click here to download a copy of the application.
For more information, please visit our website http://vabaw.com.
Deadline to Submit: Joint Minority Bar Judicial Internship Program
The deadline to submit an application for the Joint Minority Bar (“JMB”) Judicial Internship Program has been extended until Friday, February 8, 2013.
The Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage (“AJHH”), the Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”), the Asian American Law Fund of New York (“AALFNY”), the Metropolitan Black Bar Association (“MBBA”), the Puerto Rican Bar Association (“PRBA”), and the South Asian Bar Association (“SABANY”) have joined together to form the Joint Minority Judicial Internship Program (the “Program”) to offer law students who have completed at least one year of law school the opportunity to continue their legal education as summer judicial interns in New York and New Jersey metropolitan area courthouses. Judicial internships are exceptional learning opportunities that offer tremendous insight into the process of judicial decision-making. They offer an opportunity to strengthen analytic and legal writing skills.
For more information about the JMB Judicial Internship Program and to download a copy of the application, please visit www.jmbjip.org.
Please direct any questions about the program or application to [email protected].
NAPABA IHC Mentoring Program
The NAPABA In-House Counsel Committee’s mentoring program is accepting applications for in-house counsel (including attorneys working for the public sector, academic institutions, and non-profits) to participate as a mentee and/or mentor. The program seeks to foster relationships between NAPABA members who are experienced in-house counsel and NAPABA members who are either (i) new to the in-house position and in need of guidance, including advice on professional development, career goals and transitioning into the in-house position, or (ii) experienced in-house practitioners in need of guidance on how to move forward or position themselves to take advantage of future opportunities. Applications are due to Lusanna Ro at [email protected] and David Kahng at [email protected] by February 15, 2013.
Please encourage your IHC members to participate. More information about the program can be found here: http://napaba.org/napaba/showpage.asp?code=In-HouseCounsel.
CORRECTION – Sandy Resources and FEMA Application Deadline: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27th, 2013
**CORRECTION**
As of today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that FEMA has also given New York a 30-day extension for applying for individual assistance. In addition, FEMA has extended access to its Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, by 14 days. That will allow New Yorkers to stay in hotels through February 9 (check-out is Sunday, February 10th) if their homes were damaged by the storm.
DEADLINE TO APPLY FOR FEMA BENEFITS HAS BEEN EXTENDED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27th, 2013
Click HERE to apply for FEMA disaster assistance.
Dear Friends,
As our community is still struggling because of immigration status restrictions on disaster relief benefits, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) continues to call on the Mayor and Governor to make more relief assistance available to all New Yorkers. Our colleagues at the New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS) are working hard through their Unmet Needs Roundtable to make funds available to support immigrants who do not qualify because of these restrictions. In addition, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) has taken some steps to assist organizations working with immigrants. But more needs to be done. We will keep you posted on future developments.
Despite the limitations on existing benefits for Sandy victims, this link will give you a list of resources that are currently available.
If you have any questions, requests, or concerns please reach out to Manny Castro at [email protected] or (212) 627-2227 x 246.
Service in the Obama Administration
SERVICE IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
Many NAPABA members have expressed interest in serving in the second term of the Obama Administration. NAPABA has assembled the information below as an introduction to the process, and important information about how to facilitate pursuit of a position is included. Current NAPABA members should submit application materials as outlined below.
Career Versus Non-Career Positions
There are two ways to serve in the Administration: through a career position or through a non-career position. Career positions are civil service positions that have a traditional application process, while non-career or “political” positions are appointed by the president. Some non-career appointments require Senate confirmation while others will not, and there are often considerable delays involved in the Senate confirmation process.
Those who may be interested in career positions should search for vacancies using www.usajobs.gov, where all career civil service positions with the federal government are posted by the Office of Personnel Management. All applicants should follow the instructions contained in each posting of interest to them. Most career positions are not replaced during an administration change and interested individuals may apply for these jobs at any time.
How to Seek a Political Appointment
For those who may be interested in non-career positions, NAPABA strongly recommends that such members carefully and thoughtfully educate themselves about the available positions sought, their qualifications for such positions, and how they intend to navigate through the application, interview, and, if applicable, the Senate confirmation process. It is important to neither oversell nor undersell your qualifications in the process. A good starting point is to review the “Plum Book”, which is available online at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-PLUMBOOK-2008/content-detail.html, and is also available as an app here: http://m.gpo.gov/plumbook/. NAPABA members interested in non-career positions should also review the Council for Excellence in Government’s unofficial guide to selected presidential appointments, which is called the “Prune Book” and available online at www.excellenceintransition.org.
Applications that identify non-career positions of interest with the greatest degree of specificity possible (e.g., “Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative”) are more likely to reach the appropriate decision-makers in the Obama Administration, and to have greater success in the process. Conversely, applications that are not specific in the position sought (e.g. “I want to do something in trade.”) may be at a relative disadvantage in the process. There is no official list available of positions that are currently open or likely to become open. Interested parties should list the positions that they are interested regardless of the availability of this information.
Whether or not assistance from NAPABA is sought, everyone seeking a non-career position with the Obama Administration must visit and follow the application instructions posted on www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/apply_for_a_job/. As with other competitive opportunities, NAPABA members pursuing positions in the next Administration – especially non-career positions – are highly encouraged to apply early and to promote their applications through all networks available to them, in addition to seeking any desired assistance from NAPABA.
Selection for career positions and appointments for non-career positions is an ongoing process that will continue year-round.
How NAPABA Can Help
NAPABA will try to answer members’ questions about service in the Obama-Biden Administration that were not addressed or not fully addressed by the information provided herein. Questions should be emailed to [email protected], using the subject line “POLITICAL APPOINTMENT APPLICATION QUESTION.”
NAPABA may be able to provide a limited number of current members with mentors who can directly answer questions about pursing political appointments and provide guidance about the appointment process. If you would like to request a mentor, please send an email to [email protected] containing the subject line “POLITICAL APPOINTMENT APPLICATION–MENTOR REQUEST” and a brief description of your needs and why you believe that you would particularly benefit from mentorship. We will try to fulfill as many matches as possible and appropriate. To ensure an accurate mentor match, NAPABA requests that each NAPABA member seeking a mentor to have already reviewed the Plum Book, the Prune Book, and/or usajobs.gov and have narrowed his or her areas of interest based upon the information learned from the Plum Book, the Prune Book, and/or usajobs.com.
Where appropriate, NAPABA may try to facilitate an individual NAPABA member’s application for a position with the Obama Administration. Those interested in this type of assistance should submit their resumes and bios to [email protected] using the subject line “POLITICAL APPOINTMENT APPLICATION MATERIALS.” Resumes and bios should be given filenames based on one’s last name, first name, and type of document. For example, a resume submitted by Pia Rivera would be saved as “Rivera Pia Resume” and her bio would be saved as “Rivera Pia Bio.” Please identify positions of interest using the greatest degree of specificity possible (e.g., “Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative”, “U.S. Attorney, San Francisco”). NAPABA’s direct efforts to facilitate any specific application may be subject to review and approval by the NAPABA board and/or Co-Chairs of the appropriate committees.
Note that although NAPABA may be able to support its members during this process, submitting materials to NAPABA is not an essential component of one’s application. All applications for career or non-career positions with the Obama-Biden Administration can be submitted using only www.usajobs.gov or www.whitehouse.gov, as described above.
NAPABA wishes the best of luck to all applicants!
AALFNY 2013 Scholarships
SPREAD THE WORD! Each year, the Asian American Law Fund of New York (the “Fund”) awards up to three scholarships of up to $5000 to law students that are committed to helping the Asian American community in New York. The Fund recognizes that at a time when money is tight, committing one’s time to our community service organizations can be a financial strain, especially when considering law school tuition and living expenses.
If you are a law student and are planning to work with a community service organization in the New York area during the summer 2013, you are eligible to apply. Go to bit.ly/AALFNY_SchlrshpForm_2013 for more details and to download a copy of the Scholarship Application. The completed Scholarship Application and all required materials must be postmarked by April 1, 2013.