4th Annual NAPABA Pro Bono & Public Interest Summit
Dear NAPABA members,
The Pro Bono Community Service Committee is pleased to invite you to the Pro Bono & Public Interest Summit on Thursday November 7 from 9-2 pm to kick off the 25th Annual NAPABA Convention. CLE credit is available.
This year’s Summit will feature panels on Health Care Reform and Immigration Reform and its impact on Asian Pacific American (APA) communities. We are pleased to have Delegate Mark Keam from the Virginia House of Delegates as our lunch speaker. Delegate Keam is the first APA immigrant to serve the General Assembly in Virginia’s 400 year history. He has a long history of community service, including a variety of local, state, and national organizations.
Pro bono is important to all of us. Each affiliate and each lawyer should be helping our communities in these efforts. Bar leaders are especially encouraged to attend. Even if you are not in bar leadership, this session will give you valuable insight into current issues, the state of the law and provide you with tools and knowledge to handle pro bono cases in your state. Many of you will want to have a clinic or other pro bono project this year—the Summit will help you accomplish that goal.
Attendance is free and lunch is available at a nominal cost. All lunch fee proceeds will be donated to Legal Aid of Western Missouri. Click here for more information on the Summit.
6th Annual NAPABA International Law Symposium
NAPABA’s International Law Committee invites you to kick off the 25th Annual Convention early at the 6th Annual International Law Symposium on Thursday, November 7, from 11:30 am – 10:00 pm. CLE credit is available.
The Symposium will commence with a keynote luncheon, followed by three exciting panels on key international legal developments impacting both practitioners and in-house counsel, and concludes with a networking cocktail reception and dinner where you can meet colleagues from Asia, Latin America, and North America.
The Symposium and cocktail reception are included in your registration fee for the Annual Convention. The luncheon and dinner are separately ticketed events. More information about the symposium can be found by clicking here.
WNYC News – Immigration Courts Closed Due to the Shutdown
WNYC News – Immigration Courts Closed Due to the Shutdown
Nassira Hamdi was supposed to walk out of an immigration court in Federal Plaza this week with an approval for a green card. But that court, like 14 others across the U.S., is closed due to the shutdown.
Tsui Yee, Partner at Guerrero Yee and Co-Chair of the Immigration and Nationality Law Committee, was recently quoted in this WNYC news article on the impact of the government shutdown on pending immigration cases. Tsui was quoted as follows:
In New York State, over 50,000 cases are currently pending. The Department of Justice, which oversees immigration courts, is currently only continuing hearings for immigrants who are detained. Hamdi’s attorney, Tsui Yee said several of her other clients’ appointments have also been canceled.
“We have been waiting for this day for months, if not years,” she said. “Each of my clients’ cases took, I would say on average, three to four years to make its way through the entire court process. … So it’s just very frustrating.”
AABANY Labor & Employment Committee in Formation
On Wednesday, October 9, 2013, sixteen Asian Pacific American (APA) attorneys attended AABANY’s general interest meeting for Labor and Employment Law practitioners to discuss the formation of a new committee to promote the education of work place issues affecting employees and employers in the Asian American community. The group also discussed ways to promote the professional development of APA lawyers practicing Labor and Employment Law through networking events, continuing legal education (CLE) programs and community outreach initiatives. The group will be planning a career panel for attorneys and law students interested in labor and employment law and a program to address “hot topics” in labor and employment law affecting employees and employers in the Asian American community.
Attendees at the meeting included attorneys representing employees/unions, employers/management, and federal, state and local government agencies, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board, and New York State Department of Labor.
AABANY thanks Dechert LLP for hosting and providing refreshments for the meeting and Littler Mendelson for providing dinner for the attendees. If you are interested in participating in the group’s next event or would like further information about how to get involved, please contact William Ng at [email protected] or Amy Luo at [email protected].
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After a full day of CLE sessions and other programs, attendees at the NAPABA Northeast Regional/AABANY Fall Conference enjoyed a cocktail reception, sponsored by Day Pitney. Attendees from AABANY and the northeast affiliates, including from Canada, met, mingled, connected and re-connected over drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
At the reception, the AABANY Law Review, which was launched at the 2011 Fall Conference, presented its first Scholarly Paper Prize to Greg Robinson (Professor of History at l’Université du Québec à Montréal) for his article, In Defense of Birthright Citizenship: The JACL, the NAACP, and Regan v. King. Prof. Robinson accepted the award and offered brief remarks about his published work, to be released in the upcoming issue of the AABANY Law Review.
Also during the reception, Key Sponsor Hudson Court Reporting and Video and Elite Sponsor Baker Tilly held drawings for prizes. Congratulations to the raffle winners, and thanks to Hudson and Baker Tilly for being such strong supporters of AABANY!
Following the reception, several committees hosted dinners: The Real Estate/Solo Small Firm Committees hosted their dinner at S Dynasty, sponsored by Bank of America. The Litigation/Young Lawyers Committees had a wonderful Italian dinner at Aperitivo. The Bankruptcy/Corporate Law Committees had their dinner at Banc Café, thanks to sponsors UBS and Donlin Recano. Thomson Reuters sponsored the Intellectual Property Committee dinner at Fusia.
Right after the committee dinners, energetic attendees convened at Rare View Rooftop for the afterparty. The attendees enjoyed drinks and each other’s company while admiring panoramic views of the New York City skyline, at least until the rain came down. Not to be deterred by the downpour, guests took the party downstairs to Rare Bar & Grill on the ground floor to continue their post-conference celebration.
We hope everyone who came to the 2013 NAPABA Northeast Regional/AABANY Fall Conference had an enjoyable and productive time. We hope to see you at the 2013 NAPABA Annual Convention in Kansas City in November!
Vince Chang Quoted in NYLJ on NYCLA Report about Judicial Budget Cuts
Vince Chang Quoted in NYLJ on NYCLA Report about Judicial Budget Cuts
AABANY Judiciary Committee Co-Chair and Past President Vince Chang was quoted in a front page article in the New York Law Journal, September 11, entitled: “NYCLA Sounds Alarm on Dire State of U.S. Judiciary Budget.” Vince was quoted as the lead author of the report warning about the harsh consequences of the judicial budget cuts to the Federal courts.
“For me the biggest difference between now and two or three years ago, is that there seems to have been a corrosive effect on the morale of the judges and the courthouse staff,” Vincent Chang, a partner at Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch, lead author of the report, said in an interview. “At first we thought this might blow over, but now that optimism no longer exists. There really is the sense that we are on the brink of a constitutional crisis if this is not reversed—and it might not be reversed.”
To read the full text of the report follow the link in the title.
NAPABA Seeks At-Large Board Member Candidates Submission Deadline Extended to September 15th
This year, the NAPABA Board of Governors will appoint two At-Large Board Members to serve a two-year term that will begin in the 2013-2014 bar year.
The NAPABA Nominating and Elections Committee invites all members in good standing to submit their names and statements as candidates for At-Large Board Member to Pia Rivera at [email protected] on or before September 15, 2013.
For additional information, click here to review the complete At-Large Members Guidelines.