On July 28, 2022, AABANY hosted its first-ever Membership Open House at King & Spalding LLP. With over 50 attendees, the Membership Open House gave new and prospective members the opportunity to speak with Board Members and Committee Chairs to learn about the work AABANY does and how new and prospective members can get involved.
Membership Director Christopher Bae in his introductory remarks welcomed attendees and thanked Board Members and Committee Chairs for coming. Former AABANY President Andy Hahn (2004) then highlighted the importance of getting involved with an organization like AABANY.
This AABANY Membership Open House spotlighted the Young Lawyers Committee, the Litigation Committee, and the Prosecutors Committee. Jasmine Chean from the Young Lawyers Committee, Lois Ahn from the Litigation Committee, and David Hsin-Tai Chiang from the Prosecutors Committee each spoke on why members should get involved with their committees.
Attendees were encouraged to network, enjoy food and drinks, and meet with the chairs of 23 committees that were present at the Open House. New and recent members were given the opportunity to participate in a raffle where two winners won either a Zoom or coffee meet-and-greet with former AABANY Presidents Andy Hahn (2004) or Brian Song (2019). Congratulations to Tian Chi Ma who won the raffle to meet Andy and to Stephanie Lu who won the raffle to meet Brian.
Thank you to King & Spalding LLP for hosting AABANY’s Membership Open House, and thank you to former AABANY Presidents Andy Hahn and Brian Song for volunteering for the new member raffle! Thank you to Co-Vice Presidents of Programs & Operations Joseph Eng, Jr. and Beatrice Leong, and Membership Director Christopher Bae for putting together this successful event!
We look forward to seeing everyone at the next Open House in October. In the meantime, if you have any questions about how to get more involved in AABANY and maximize your membership experience, feel free to reach out to the Membership Committee at membership@aabany.org.
As a young practitioner, I often found the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) to be a daunting and dizzying set of rules. How do I know if I need to file a summons or summons and complaint? When do I file a Request for Judicial Intervention? How do I establish jurisdiction under New York’s long-arm statute? What is the statute of limitations to commence an Article 78 proceeding? Before diving into electronic searches, my first stop was often to peruse the treatises in the firm’s law library or from the collections of more senior associates. While electronic research was the norm even when I was in law school, I still found flipping through the hard copy books to be beneficial. I advise the associates who now work for me to do the same.
Thus, I had a great deal of nostalgia when I opened the box containing the ten-volume set of hard-covered books (and one soft-covered index) of this treatise. They now take up a prominent and easy-to-reach location on my bookshelf. This is the Fifth Edition of this treatise that was first published in 1995 and last updated in 2015. The 156 chapters cover more than just the step-by-step practical advice for every phase of litigation. There are 64 chapters covering some of the most commonly encountered areas of substantive law in commercial cases, including contracts, securities, business torts, antitrust, and intellectual property. The authors of each chapter are a veritable “Who’s Who” of prominent practitioners and jurists. Each chapter begins with a “Scope Note” providing a brief overview of the chapter within and each chapter ends with “Practice Aids” usually consisting of checklists and sample forms. The chapters also contain helpful cross-references to other chapters within the treatise when they touch upon those subjects.
As someone who typically practices in federal court, I found the chapters that compare and contrast the various rules in federal and state court and outline the benefits and pitfalls of each forum particularly helpful. Naturally, Chapter 11 (Comparison with Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts) is a prime example with a checklist of key distinctions between the federal rules and the CPLR. It also outlines some important differences in discovery, including the blanket stay of discovery pending the determination of a motion to dismiss in state court and the somewhat piecemeal approach governing electronic discovery in state court as opposed to the federal rules. Similarly, Chapter 39 (Practice Before the Commercial Division) is a must-read to understand how the statewide rules of the Commercial Division differ and/or interact with the CPLR, especially in discovery. I have also relied on many of the substantive legal chapters as references. For example, Chapter 124 (Antitrust Litigation) provides a thorough overview of the Donnelly Act and the common threads between antitrust litigation in federal court and at the state level.
I have also tabbed the over 500 pages within Chapter 8 (Responses to Complaints) which expertly outlines the procedural steps and the myriad of tactical decisions that arise after a plaintiff files its initial papers. It is not limited to the issues faced by a responding defendant but also summarizes plaintiff’s options when facing a motion to dismiss. I recently relied on the discussion regarding general and specific denials to explain to a client, who is normally in a jurisdiction that permits a single non-specific denial of all allegations in the complaint, why specific denials were necessary in New York. I also used the overview of CPLR 3211 to explain how our approach to a motion to dismiss would differ in state court if we chose not to remove to federal court.
This latest edition adds 28 new chapters from the prior version addressing increasingly important issues to litigators today. These chapters cover a wide range of topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Comparison with Commercial Litigation in Delaware Courts, Fashion and Retail, Private Equity, and Third-Party Litigation Funding, to name a few. One new addition — Chapter 14 (Business Courts)—provides an excellent overview for proceeding in these specialized tribunals around the country. It lays out various pretrial procedural factors that a litigator should consider before commencing an action in any business court and highlights the practice in jurisdictions such as New York, California, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, and Arizona. With a large part of my practice involving litigation with foreign parties, I found Chapter 13 (Comparison with Commercial Litigation in Foreign Courts) and Chapter 23 (Cross-Border Litigation) as welcome additions. Chapter 13 sets forth a broad overview of practicing in two common law countries (England and Australia) and three civil law countries (France, Germany, and Russia). Chapter 23 offers an exceptional summary of data privacy issues from foreign jurisdictions and an overview of various forms of injunctive relief that should be considered to preserve or restore the status quo.
Finally, as a former affinity bar president and as someone with an active role in diversity and inclusion efforts within my firm, I was excited to see Chapter 83, the inaugural chapter on Diversity & Inclusion in commercial litigation in New York. The chapter amplifies many of the well-known reasons of why diversity is important to litigators: diverse and inclusive teams generate more innovative and creative results by bringing different perspectives to bear; diversity and inclusion is important to clients and judges; and, increasingly diverse juror pools connect better to diverse trial teams. It stresses the importance of intentionally including diverse perspectives in every aspect of litigation from pre-complaint through trial. While I wish there was more in-depth discussion of best practices, I appreciated the spotlight on the importance of implicit bias training and of firm management’s leadership of these efforts in order to improve the retention of diverse attorneys.
I have only scratched the surface of the numerous topics and features of this treatise. From my perspective, all litigators would benefit from this invaluable resource.
Brian W. Song is a Partner in the New York Office of BakerHostetler. He represents clients in complex commercial litigation and criminal matters in state and federal courts. Brian has particular experience in the areas of securities litigation and white collar criminal defense, where he has represented clients in connection with investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and state regulators. Brian is a former President of the Asian American Bar Association of New York.
AABANY is proud to launch its official podcast series, The Whole Lawyer Project, hosted by Jane Jeong, which showcases Asian American attorneys and leaders throughout the nation and the human stories behind their success.
For Jane, learning about the human stories — and sacrifices — behind our external success is a personal passion and mission. As a member of AABANY’s Young Lawyers Committee, Jane previously wrote about her pursuit of wellness in the legal profession on the AABANY blog, where she published The Ten Tips Our Asian Parents Never Told Us, Upside Down, and The (COVID) Days of Our Lives.
Most recently, Jane shared her story with Law360, in an article entitled The Pursuit Of Wellness In BigLaw: Lessons From My Journey (subscription required). In a heartfelt account, Jane opened up about mental health and wellness issues in Big Law — including her personal experiences with the pressures of the industry, the costs of perfectionism, reaching an emotional breaking point and, as a potential blueprint for others, how she has set boundaries and made changes to her daily routine to take care of herself. “I conflated sacrifice with success and exhaustion with excellence. I just continued to reach and reach — demanding that I become the perfect attorney I knew I was not, waiting for the day I could finally stop acting and just be,” she writes.
Together with Jane, AABANY is proud to further explore the human side of lawyering in The Whole Lawyer Project. The inaugural episodes of the podcast, which feature immediate past AABANY President Brian Song and AboveTheLaw Founder, David Lat, can be found under the tab for The Whole Lawyer Project on the AABANY blog. It can also be found on Spotify and iTunes. For anyone hoping to gain further insight into the human stories behind our external success, it is well worth a listen.
We are excited to present to you the AABANY Whole Lawyer Project, which highlights Asian American attorneys and leaders throughout the nation and the human stories behind their success. For our inaugural episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Song, a litigation partner at BakerHostetler in New York City, the former president of AABANY, and a Lieutenant Colonel for the Judge Advocate General’s Corp of the U.S. Army Reserve. Together, we explore Brian’s childhood growing up as the child of Korean immigrants in environments where he was often the only Asian kid, and how feeling “other” impacted his own views on his Asian American identity. Brian also provides insight into his storied careers in the army and in BigLaw — including the advice he has for young lawyers and tips on how we Asian American attorneys can better speak up for ourselves.
AABANY is excited to announce that Immediate Past President Brian Song and President Sapna Palla have been included in the 2020 Power List of the 100 Most Influential Asian Americans in New York Politics & Policy, released by City & State. Song and Palla are jointly recognized as 52nd on the list.
City & State wrote:
The Asian American Bar Association’s mission is to ensure “the meaningful participation of Asian-Americans in the legal profession.” It has made strides under Sapna Palla, a partner at Wiggin and Dana LLP, who is the president for the 2020-2021 term, and under her immediate predecessor, Brian Song, a partner at the top law firm Baker & Hostetler LLP. The organization recently surpassed 1,400 paid members.
Congratulations and thanks to Brian and Sapna to bringing AABANY to these new heights.
In addition to Brian and Sapna, several others among the honorees have worked with or been associated with AABANY, as members, community partners, or sponsors, to whom we also wish to extend our congratulations.
Among the top 10, AABANY has worked with Grace Meng, New York’s first Asian American US Congress Member; John Liu, State Senator and first Asian American to serve on the City Council; Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition; Ron Kim and Yuh-Line Niou, both state Assembly Members; and Margaret Chin, New York City Council Member.
Preet Bharara who, as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was a regular speaker at our annual Prosecutors Reception and an honoree at our Annual Dinner in 2015;
John Park, Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, one of our community partners;
Margaret Fung, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of our community partners;
Faiza Saeed, a Presiding Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a Gold Sponsor of AABANY for many years;
Honorable Denny Chin, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and past AABANY President (1992-93), who currently helps lead our trial reenactments project.
From 51 – 100 on the list, we extend our congratulations to
Jayasri Ganapathy, President of the South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY), one of our sister bar associations and past AABANY member;
My Chi To, Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Insurance Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services, and past AABANY member;
Nancy Yao Maasbach, President of the Museum of Chinese America, one of our community partners;
Wendy Cai-Lee, President and CEO of Piermont Bank, a Bronze Sponsor of the 2019 NAPABA Northeast Regional/AABANY Fall Conference; and
Justin Yu, Chair of the New York Chinese Chamber of Commerce, which has partnered with us for many years for our walk-in Pro Bono Clinic.
AABANY is privileged and honored to have worked closely with so many of New York’s most influential Asian American in politics and policy. Congratulations to everyone who made the list, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration and to partner in the future.
On April 1, 2020, Law 360 published an article co-authored by Immediate Past President Brian Song. The article is entitled “Responding To DOJ’s Increasing Int’l Antitrust Extraditions.”
The article discusses how the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice is increasingly using extradition to prosecute individuals alleged to have violated U.S. law. It discusses various recent cases where extradition has successfully been exercised, mainly from Italy and Germany, by the Department of Justice solely based on an antitrust charge.
The article notes that foreign nationals facing prosecution by the Antitrust Division have few choices of recourse. They include pleading guilty in exchange for the possibility for lower sentences, hunkering down in their home country and not traveling abroad, and seeking to have the charges dismissed on constitutional or statute of limitation grounds from abroad.
However, since the options available to foreign defendants are limited, and given the success of recent extraditions, foreign defendants should consider their options very carefully.
To read the full article, click on the following links:
On April 1, 2020, AABANY held its first Monthly Membership Mixer virtually on Zoom. Over 25 people joined Brian Song, who became the Immediate Past President, and Sapna Palla, who officially became the President of AABANY on the same day.
Brian remarked how it had been a tremendous honor for him to serve as President of AABANY for the past year. He was amazed at how the year went by so quickly and thanked everyone for their support and dedication in making 2019 a successful year for AABANY.
Sapna next spoke about how pleased she was to be taking on the Presidency and how AABANY’s theme of “Stronger Together: Unity in Diversity” is extremely fitting in the current situation. Sapna noted that AABANY is an exceptional community, and by sticking together, we will definitely get through this tough situation. She also encouraged people to reach out to each other professionally and socially via online platforms like Zoom until things return to normal.
Chris Kwok informed attendees about an upcoming webinar he is working on with NAPABA taking place on April 3. The webinar will discuss the rise in racist attacks against Asian Americans fueled by misinformation surrounding the spread of COVID-19 and what we can do to counter them.
Yang Chen and Chris Kwok also discussed the stimulus bill that recently passed to provide economic support to millions of Americans and businesses that are suffering as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. AABANY is working on distilling the bill down to clarify who it covers and the type of relief they are eligible for under the new bill.
Lastly, the virtual floor was opened up to all attendees for a free discussion. Members discussed the current situation and what AABANY can do to engage its members and serve the overall Asian American community in this new normal.
Overall, our first meeting on Zoom was very lively and went smoothly. In the coming weeks, AABANY is planning on hosting more and more programs online, including CLEs and informative webinars. Stay tuned!
On Wednesday, November 20, 2019, AABANY’s Membership Committee held its Monthly Membership Mixer at Stout NYC – Grand Central. Over thirty attendees filled a section of the second floor that was reserved for our group, including our President, Brian Song, and many of our board members, as well as recent New York transplant, Michael Wu, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of Madewell, Inc. Our membership programs provide opportunities to network and to learn more about AABANY so keep an eye out for our future events including a lantern festival at Citi Field and a Lunar New Year celebration at a New York Knicks game. To learn more about the Membership Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/130 Thanks to Membership Committee Co-Chair Christopher Bae for the write-up and photos.
On Wednesday, June 12, the Network of Bar Leaders held its Presidents’ Dinner, a gathering to honor the Presidents of the Network of Bar Leaders’ member bar associations. The dinner was held at the Golden Unicorn in Chinatown, and AABANY was proud to be a Gold Sponsor at the event.
The program kicked off with opening remarks from New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Then, Hon. George B. Daniels, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, was honored, followed by his presentation of a keynote speech. As a multi-course banquet was served, some thirty-five Presidents from the Network of Bar Leaders’ member associations lined up to be presented with the President’s Awards by Hon. Jeffrey K. Oing, Justice of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
AABANY congratulates its President Brian Song and all the Network of Bar Leaders’ member association Presidents who were honored and recognized at the Presidents’ Dinner. Many AABANY Board Officers and Directors and Committee Chairs were in attendance to celebrate with Brian Song and other bar association Presidents and leaders in attendance.
On March 20, 2019, our Membership Committee held its last Monthly Membership Happy Hour of the fiscal year at Karaoke City in Midtown Manhattan. A crowd of AABANY members and future members gathered to meet and mingle over drinks, delicious Korean food, and karaoke.
Both Brian Song, President-Elect, and Yang Chen, Executive Director, gave a shout out to David Sohn, Membership Director and Membership Committee Chair, for all his hard work in putting together the Monthly Membership Happy Hours as a unique way to let prospective members learn about AABANY.
We thank the Litigation Committee and the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee for co-hosting this successful happy hour, with more than 30 attendees. If you are not already a member, we hope your attendance brings you closer to becoming a member or renewing your membership. And thanks to all the members who came out.
