On March 25, 2024, the AABANY LGBT Committee organized a program with the generous support and sponsorship of Goodwin Procter LLP titled: Protecting DEI at Big Law since SCOTUS: A Queer Asian Perspective. The program featured two prominent speakers: Kavita Ramakrishnan, Senior Director at Diversity Lab and Dennis Quinio, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer of the Americas at Allen & Overy. The program consisted of robust conversations about the meaning of diversity, and the personal experiences of attorneys who struggle with the complications of identity.
AABANY thanks the LGBT Committee for presenting this topical program and the speakers for sharing their insights. Thanks to Goodwin for hosting the event. To learn more about the LGBT Committee go here.
Deadline June 30 The Nominations and Elections Subcommittee is accepting nominations for Officer and Director candidates and applications for At-Large Board Member candidates for the 2022-23 NAPABA Board of Governors.
As the nation’s largest Asian Pacific American membership organization, NAPABA continues to grow exponentially—maturity, stature, and staff. The NAPABA Board of Governors is an oversight and governing body committed to the mission and purpose of NAPABA. The governing Board of 23 and national staff of nine complement and support each other—together focused on NAPABA’s mission through different perspectives and actions.
NAPABA is committed to having a governing board that reflects the diverse Asian Pacific American legal community and has the right blend of skill, expertise, community connections, and diverse perspectives as a whole. We seek outstanding individuals of high character and integrity with proven leadership and board governance skills and who have demonstrated a strong commitment to NAPABA. The deadline for Officer and Director nominations and At-Large Board Member applications is June 30, 2022 at 8:00 pm ET.
To be considered for a NAPABA Officer, Director, or At-Large position, candidates must be a current individual member in good standing as of the date that the nominations or applications are submitted.
In order to vote in the 2022-23 NAPABA Elections, you must be licensed to practice law in the United States or Canada (or have previously been licensed and now retired) and you must have activated your membership with NAPABA on or before July 1, 2022 at 11:59 PM ET. To check your status, please email [email protected].
In early September, Hurricane Ida made landfall in New York City and left countless individuals to suffer the aftermath of flooded basements. A closer look into the eleven basement-flooding deaths reveals that a majority of them were Asian residents. A number of factors played into this tragedy including a lack of affordable housing, climate change, and pandemic change. These issues are prominent among low-income Asian immigrants who resort to illegal basement apartments that are deemed to have unsafe living conditions.
“Realistically, a lot of these tenants would have family members, many who are clustered into very, very small rooms,” said Lina Lee, executive director of housing justice nonprofit organization Communities Resist. “When you have these natural disasters, there’s obviously going to be really a life-and-death situation, and when you have very limited or no access to leave your living space, these families really had no way out.”
Lee continues, “They cluster in small communities where they are able to access people who speak the same language, who are from the same culture and are living in the same conditions that they have to live in. For them, they have nowhere else to live with, except those small pockets in Queens.”
Punishing tenants is not an ideal solution. Lee said reporting landlords for housing violations enforces building codes which could prompt agencies to issue a vacate order and inadvertently force a tenant to move out.The Mayor proposes an emergency warning system for basement-dwellers but the victims’ families are not convinced.
Lina Lee will also be the moderator for a program titled “Fighting for Housing And Community Justice: The Role of Lawyers In The Movement” at AABANY’s Fall Conference on Saturday, October 23. Click here for more information.
On March 21, 2021, incoming AABANY President Terry Shen spoke at a Summit Community Programs event in Summit, NJ regarding AABANY’s recent Asian hate crimes initiatives. Incoming AABANY Vice President of Programs and Operations Joe Eng also attended the event. At the gathering of over 400 people, Mr. Shen discussed the causes and impact of the surge in Asian hate crimes since March 2020 alongside Summit Mayor Nora Radest, Summit Chief of Police Andrew Bartolotti and six City Council Members. Mr. Shen also discussed the solutions being actively pursued by AABANY to address this national crisis. The flag of the United States was flown at half-staff over Summit Village Green during the event.
Trump Administration Releases Guidelines to Restrict International Students
Over Fifty Percent of International Students are from Asian Countries
WASHINGTON — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) raises concerns about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guidance to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which provides matriculated international students in the United States who attend colleges and universities that are online-only this fall will have to transfer to a school that provides in-person classes or leave the country—or else face deportation. The Trump administration is citing the guidance is an effort to push colleges to reopen.
“We are alarmed at the administration’s misguided policy that inflicts great harm on international students during a worldwide pandemic,” said Bonnie Lee Wolf, President of NAPABA. “ICE’s new guidance is not supported by public health considerations and raises flags that it is motivated by animus toward immigrants and non-citizens.”
Asian students will undoubtedly be harmed disproportionately by this policy. In the 2018-19 academic year, there were over 1 million international students and more than 50% came from Asian countries. In 2018, international students also injected nearly $45 billion into our economy. Numerous universities and colleges across the country oppose the new guidance and it threatens to hurt higher education. NAPABA respectfully encourages the administration/ICE to withdraw this guidance immediately, so that international students can continue to fully participate in the educational system.
On Friday, March 8, 2019, AAARI, a CUNY-wide scholarly research and resource center on policies and issues that affect Asians and Asian Americans, is holding a talk, Asian/Asian American Scholars of Education: 21st Century Pedagogies, Perspectives, and Experiences, by Nicholas D. Hartlep & Daisy Ball from 6pm to 8pm, at 25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Room 1000, between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan.
The talk is free and open to the general public. To RSVP for this talk, please visit https://19-03-08hartlep.eventbrite.com. Please be prepared to present proper identification when entering the building lobby. If you are unable to attend the talk, streaming video and audio podcast will be available online the following week.
Nicholas D. Hartlep and Daisy Ball will discuss their book Asian/American Scholars of Education: 21st Century Pedagogies, Perspectives, and Experiences, which shares the knowledge and travails of Asian/American luminaries in the field of education. This unique collection of essays acknowledges the struggle that Asian/American Education scholars have faced when it comes to being regarded as legitimate scholars deserving of endowed or distinguished status.
Books will be available for purchase ($40 each, cash and credit card accepted) and signing after their talk.
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) opposes the proposed changes to “public charge” published Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We urge our members and affiliated bar associations to join NAPABA in submitting public comments opposing the proposed policy.
Public charge policy has roots in long-time efforts to limit the admission of ‘undesirable immigrants,’ such as Chinese in the 19th century. The proposed rule would re-define a public charge as an immigrant who would be likely to receive government benefits from an expanded list of programs, including nutrition and housing assistance programs for children. The proposed rule will make it easier to designate an applicant as a public charge, and deny their admission to the United States or reject their permanent resident application. DHS also proposes stricter guidance for weighing certain factors when reviewing visa applications, such as age, income, health, English proficiency, and employability. NAPABA is greatly concerned with how these changes will negatively impact Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants, working families, and children’s health.
The proposal has already had a chilling effect on Asian Pacific American communities. Due to reports of these proposed changes, some immigrant families—including those with eligible U.S. citizen members—have unenrolled from important public services for which they qualify. If implemented, the new public charge rules would undermine the safety, health, and security of immigrant families by denying them the support historically provided to new Americans. Asian Pacific American communities will be particularly hard hit, as over 31% of new green card recipients are from Asian and Pacific Island nations and as there is significant variation in average income amongst Asian ethnic groups.
Take charge by submitting a comment on the proposed rule before the DHS proceeds with its final rulemaking by the deadline, December 10, 2018. NAPABA will be submitting comments as an organization, but individuals are encouraged to submit unique comments here. To see available resources, please click here. For more information, contact Oriene Shin, NAPABA Policy Counsel, at 202-775-9555 or [email protected].
From the Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI) at CUNY:
Friday Evening Lecture Series
Please join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI) for a book talk on Incidental Racialization: Performative Assimilation in Law School, by Diana Pan, on Friday, April 20, 2018, from 6pm to 8pm, at 25 West 43rd Street, Room 1000, between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan. This talk is free and open to the general public.
Despite the growing number of Asian American and Latino/a law students, many panethnic students still feel as if they do not belong in this elite microcosm, which reflects the racial inequalities in mainstream American society. While in law school, these students-often from immigrant families, and often the first to go to college-have to fight against racialized and gendered stereotypes. In her book Incidental Racialization, Diana Pan rigorously explores how systemic inequalities are produced and sustained in law schools, and examines their significance in the legal profession and broader U.S. society.
China’s Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell it to Them
September 24 from 6 to 9 p.m. The Wyndham Garden Hotel Chinatown 93 Bowery, Manhattan
China’s economy represents a wave of growing middle class wealth and consumerism that has adopted the “gotta have it” mindset. Join us for an evening with co-author Savio Chan as he explores this birth of consumerism in China and how it will help shape the global economic future.
