Tag: committees

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AABANY Holds its 2023 Annual Meeting of Members at Paul, Weiss on February 15

On Wednesday, February 15, 2023, AABANY held its Annual Meeting of Members at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.  President William Ng called the meeting to order and established quorum. The main order of business was conducting the election for the 2024 Board of Directors and Officers.

President William Ng presented the Annual Report of the Board and thanked the Board members for their service during the past year. Treasurer Evelyn Gong and Membership Director Christopher Bae presented the reports for their respective offices.

Executive Director Yang Chen presented highlights of Committee activities. Following the reports, awards were presented to honor AABANY leaders and committees for their dedication to AABANY over the past year. While these presentations were occurring, Immediate Past President Terrence Shen and President-Elect Karen Kim tallied the votes.

The following awards were presented:

Committee of the Year: Intellectual Property Committee

The Intellectual Property Committee received the Committee of the Year Award for its outstanding contributions in promoting AABANY’s membership engagement and creating a vibrant community for IP law practitioners. The Committee successfully hosted several committee dinners and social events including their first concert event to see the ARKAI Duo.  At the start of 2023, the IP Committee started a new program called “Dumplings & Discussion,” the inaugural event featuring Andy Yoo, SVP & General Counsel of Savvas Learning Company.  The discussion covered topics including Andy’s role as general counsel, diversity, equity and inclusion, and his career path and trajectory.

Program of the Year: Inter-Bar Association Summer Family Day 

The Program of the Year Award was given to Christopher Bae, AABANY’s Membership Director.  On June 4, 2022, AABANY’s Membership Committee hosted an Inter-Bar Association Summer Family Day with the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York (KALAGNY) and the South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY). Over fifty members and their friends and families gathered at the Major R. Owens Health & Wellness Community Center in Brooklyn to participate in spirited sports games and enjoy snacks and refreshments.

Member of the Year: Jennifer H. Wu

The Member of the Year Award was presented to Jennifer H. Wu, for her outstanding leadership inside and outside of AABANY. Within AABANY, she co-chaired the Women’s Committee and helped to put on some excellent events. She was also active in AABANY’s Anti-Asian Violence Task Force, in addition to the pro bono work she had been doing to advise and assist survivors and victims of anti-Asian violence in New York over the past couple of years. On top of all that, she co-founded her own patent litigation law firm Groombridge Wu Baughman & Stone

Congratulations to all the honorees for the recognition of their achievements and hard work during the 2023 fiscal year.

After the presentation of awards, William announced the election results. The following officers were elected and will begin their term one-year terms on April 1, 2023:

Joseph Eng, Jr.

President-Elect

Beatrice Leong

Vice President, Programs and Operations

Jeffrey Mok

Vice President, Programs and Operations

Jasmine Ball

Treasurer

Shirley Bi

Secretary

Christopher Bae

Membership Director

Varuna Bhattacharyya

Development Director

The following candidates were elected as Directors to serve two-year terms starting on April 1, 2023:

Katherine Loanzon
P. Bartlett Wu

After the election results were announced, attendees stayed to network at Paul, Weiss.  We thank everyone who came and participated in the Annual Meeting and the election. Congratulations to all the Officers and Directors who were elected to the Board to serve in the 2024 fiscal year that begins on April 1, 2023. 

Special thank you to AABANY Director Larry Wee and the Paul, Weiss team for hosting AABANY’s 2023 Annual Meeting.

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AABANY Prosecutors, ADR and Women’s Committees Host Self-Defense Class

On November 19, 2022, the Prosecutors, ADR & and Women’s Committees teamed up to learn self defense at the NY Wutang Chinese Martial Arts Institute (“NY Wutang”) in downtown Flushing.

During these times of anti-Asian violence, AABANY members wanted to be prepared. Prosecutors Committee Co-Chair Joe Gim first taught members about the New York laws on the justification defense, particularly in connection with the use of physical force in defense of a person.

Next, the Master of NY Wutang and Prosecutors Committee Co-Chair Dave Chiang trained the attendees. Here, Dave wore his ADA hat as well as his Master Chiang hat.

Master Chiang taught the group that the first step is to be aware of one’s surroundings: “Don’t keep your head down looking at your phone.”  The group also learned how to quickly turn their camera on to try to capture photos or video of the perpetrator. 

Next, Master Chiang warmed everyone up with stretching exercises and the group practiced shouting, “Stay away! Leave me alone!” so that witnesses will know that you are not the initial aggressor.

The group then learned that the three weakest parts of an attacker are their eyes, throat and groin. Master Chiang taught attendees how to strike and target those body parts during an attack. The group practiced with each other and took away valuable information we will not soon forget. 

If you want to take lessons at NY Wutang see:  http://wutang.org/

To donate to NY Wutang: http://Paypal.me/nywutang

Thanks to all the co-sponsoring Committees for putting together an informative and useful program on self-defense during these challenging times, and thanks to Prosecutors Committee Co-Chair Joe Gim for teaching us the law on self-defense and Prosecutors Committee Co-Chair (and Kung Fu Master) David Chiang for teaching those who attended how to protect themselves while following the law.


To learn more about the Prosecutors Committee, click here. To learn more about the ADR Committee, click here. To learn more about the Women’s Committee, click here.

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AABANY’s Co-Vice Presidents of Programs & Operations Host the Second Quarterly Committee Co-Chairs Meeting at King & Spalding

On July 28, 2022, Co-Vice Presidents of Programs & Operations Joseph Eng, Jr. and Beatrice Leong hosted the Second Quarterly Committee Co-Chairs Meeting at King & Spalding. The Quarterly Meetings are a chance for all Co-Chairs, whether new or well-experienced, to learn about their roles as leaders in AABANY, brainstorm on future events and CLEs, and learn best practices. 

The Co-Chairs were joined by the following Board members: President Will Ng, Membership Director Christopher Bae, Treasurer Evelyn Gong, Secretary Shirley Bi, Director of Technology Francis Chin and Board Directors Gigio Ninan and William Hao as well as Executive Director Yang Chen via video.

23 committees each sent a Chair to represent their group, share their thoughts, and collaborate with different committees. Immediately following the Committee Co-Chairs meeting was AABANY’s Membership Open House. To read more about AABANY’s Membership Open House, please click here.

Thank you to King & Spalding LLP for hosting AABANY’s FY2023 Q2 Committee Chair Meeting and Open House, and for providing food and beverages throughout the night!

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AABANY’s ADR and Litigation Committees Present an International Arbitration CLE with JAMS

On August 16th, 2022, AABANY’s Litigation and ADR Committees, along with JAMS, co-sponsored a CLE panel about international arbitration. AABANY ADR Committee Chair and JAMS Neutral Chris M. Kwok gave opening remarks, and AABANY Litigation Committee Co-Chair Aakruti G. Vakharia of Haug Partners moderated the panel. The panelists were Hiro Aragaki, JAMS Neutral and Professor of Law; Margaret Ives, in-house counsel at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Limited; and Dr. Kabir Duggal of Arnold & Porter. The panel discussed the differences between litigation and arbitration, the benefits of international arbitration over cross-border litigation, the challenges of arbitrating internationally, the mechanics of international arbitration, and best practices for what to include and what to avoid when drafting a dispute resolution clause. The panel encompassed neutral, outside counsel, in-house counsel, and academic perspectives

Thank you to everyone who worked on and attended this CLE. We greatly appreciate Niki Borofsky, Christine Smith, Alison M., Margaret Poppe, Todd Drucker, Jazmine Smith, Corey Taylor, and Matthew P. York of JAMS collaborating with AABANY’s Litigation Committee, co-chaired by Aakruti G. Vakharia, Jennifer Wu, Lois Ahn, and ADR committee, led by Chris M. Kwok (Chair) and May Li (Vice Chair), all of whom  put together this interesting and informative program.

To learn more about the Litigation Committee go to https://www.aabany.org/page/116. To learn more about the ADR Committee go to https://www.aabany.org/page/1083.

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AABANY Hosts Orientation and Reception for Committee Co-Chairs

On May 5, 2022, AABANY held a kick-off event for Fiscal Year 2023 at Allen & Overy. The new Fiscal Year began on April 1. Vice President of Programs and Operations Beatrice Leong, together with Executive Director Yang Chen, provided an orientation for new co-chairs and vice-chairs and a refresher for returning chairs on information and resources available to them to facilitate their work organizing programs and events for AABANY members and the broader community. (VPPO Joe Eng was unable to attend due to pressing work obligations.)

The 2023 cohort of Committee leadership learned best practices for being a leader of AABANY and learned how to plan and host events. AABANY’s Committee Chairs are ready to put on exciting events, panels and CLEs that all members look forward to. 

After the orientation, the attendees got to meet each other and mingle at Faces & Names Bar and Lounge, a few blocks north of Allen & Overy’s offices. 

We thank Allen & Overy for donating their beautiful space and for being a strong sponsor of AABANY. We also thank our Committee leaders for their dedication to AABANY. Special thanks to Kevin Hsi, Co-Chair of the Government Service & Public Interest Committee for his photos of the event. 

See https://www.aabany.org/page/CommitteesPage2022 for the list of all current Committee Chairs.

Please check the AABANY Calendar often to see the events being presented by our Committees. https://www.aabany.org/events/event_list.asp

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