Press Release: Moon Festival Honoree Gala | Honorees Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 15, 2013

AABANY APPLAUDS NAAAP-NY’S SELECTION OF ALICE YOUNG AS THE 2013 CORPORATE LAW HONOREE AND YANG CHEN AS A 2013 COMMUNITY EXCELLENCE AWARDEE FOR FIRST ANNUAL MOON FESTIVAL HONOREE GALA

NEW YORK – October 15, 2013 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”) applauds the National Association of Asian American Professionals (“NAAAP”) New York’s selection of Alice Young as the 2013 Corporate Law Honoree and Yang Chen as a 2013 Community Excellence Awardee. 

NAAAP New York will recognize Ms. Young and Mr. Chen along with other honorees and leaders in the Asian American community during its first annual Moon Festival Honoree Gala to be held at Gotham Hall in New York City on Friday, October 25, 2013.  The Moon Festival Honoree Gala will honor New York’s most influential Asian & Pacific Islander Americans (“APIA”) in various professions, including media, public service, entrepreneurship, culinary arts and corporate (law).  Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was also named NAAAP-NY’s 2013 Public Service Honoree.  Proceeds from the event will benefit the NAAAP-NY Scholarship Fund, a program instituted over a decade ago to benefit APIA scholars in the greater New York metropolitan area.  The Honoree Reception will be hosted by Richard Lui, MSNBC Anchor.

“We congratulate Alice and Yang for being recognized by NAAAP-NY for their outstanding professional achievements and influence in the APIA community in New York.  Alice has been a consummate professional and a leader in corporate law for nearly four decades and Yang has quickly become a well-known and trusted leader in the greater APIA community,” said Mike Huang, AABANY’s President.

Alice Young is Special Counsel and Chair of the Asia Pacific Practice at Kaye Scholer. She advises multinationals and entrepreneurs on their business activities and investment considerations in the United States and throughout Asia, including complex cross-border transactions and sensitive legal and governmental strategies, and compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). She also assists clients in identifying potential Asian partners and resources. She has been lead advisor on projects in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. She has been in private practice for more than thirty-five years.

Alice has been based in New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo and speaks Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and French. She is a member of the Board of Directors and on the Executive and Examining Committees of Mizuho Trust & Banking Co. (USA); member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Axis Capital Holdings Limited (AXS); Lifetime Trustee of the Aspen Institute and The Asia Foundation and Give2Asia.  Alice is listed in Who’s Who, Crain’s “Top 100 Minority Executives” (one of only three corporate lawyers named), by Avenue Asia magazine as one of the five most influential Asian-American corporate lawyers in the United States, and by Harvard Law Bulletin as one of the top 50 women graduates of Harvard Law School.

Alice was in the first class of women graduates of Yale College, where she majored in East Asian Studies. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Alice was a member of the East Asian Legal Studies Program.

Yang Chen is the Executive Director of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), a position he has held since August 2009.  Mr. Chen is AABANY’s first Executive Director.  He has been active in AABANY for many years, having served on the Board and numerous committees, including the Judicial Affairs (now Judiciary) Committee, of which he was a chair.  Mr. Chen served as AABANY’s President in 2008. Before becoming AABANY’s Executive Director, Mr. Chen was a partner in the firm of Constantine Cannon, a law firm specializing in antitrust and complex commercial litigation.  He was among the group that founded the firm in 1994, which started as Constantine & Associates. Before joining Constantine Cannon, Mr. Chen was an associate in the New York office of McDermott, Will & Emery and before that he was associated with Breed, Abbott & Morgan (now Winston & Strawn).  Mr. Chen is admitted to practice in the State of New York, the United States District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.  He is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and Binghamton University.

###

The Asian American Bar Association of New York was formed in 1989 as a not-for-profit corporation to represent the interests of New York Asian American attorneys, judges, law professors, legal professionals, paralegals and law students.  The mission of AABANY is to improve the study and practice of law, and the fair administration of justice for all by ensuring the meaningful participation of Asian Americans in the legal profession.

NAAAP New York is the founding chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP). The organization was founded over thirty years ago, and today has thousands of members in 27 chapters across North America.  As a 501©(3) non-profit organization, NAAAP is dedicated to developing and advancing Asian Americans across all industries and career stages by providing premier career-oriented and cultural programming.

Additional information about NAAAP New York’s 2013 Moon Festival Honoree Gala is available at http://naaapny.org/10-25-2013-moon-festival-honoree-gala/

 

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].

From our friends at AAF: SAVE THE DATE: ONE-ON-ONE WITH CARRION SET

Please join the Asian American Federation, Coalition for Asian Children and Families, and their membership agencies in meeting the top 3 Mayoral candidates.  Because of scheduling challenges, they are scheduling each candidate individually for 1 hour to hear each candidate’s vision for the city, the growing APA population and how he hopes to engage our community. 

The first meeting is Thursday, October 17th  at 2 pm at the Federation office, 120 Wall Street- 9th Floor. 

They are confirming the meeting with Joe Lhota for the following week.  Details will be sent out.

The format for all these meetings will be a roundtable discussion to learn more about his platform and will also give our community an opportunity to ask questions.  

As the leading social justice voices for New York City’s APA community, AAF and CACF encourage you to make the time to join them to hear what each candidate has to say so we can all be informed New Yorkers.  There will also be an opportunity for participants to ask questions of the candidate.  If there are specific issue areas that you have questions about, please send AAF and CACF the topics that you would like to discuss so that they can ensure that they will be able to cover as many diverse issues as possible.

They will be sending out additional information next week, but please RSVP to [email protected] or [email protected] as soon as possible.  

From our friends at KALAGNY: Pro Bono Clinics

KALAGNY’s Pro Bono Clinics

Volunteer Today, Help Us Help Our Community

KALAGNY is pleased to announce the start of our monthly pro bono clinic in New York City. This is in addition to our ongoing monthly pro bono clinic in Flushing. Please spread the word to your family, friends and neighbors in need of legal counsel.

Clinic details are as follows:

New York City – 2013

Wednesday, October 9, 20137 -9 p.m.
@ Korean American Association of Greater New York (“KAAGNY”)
149 West 24th Street, 6th Floor, NYC (between 6th and 7th Avenues) (map)

Wednesday, November 6, 20137-9 p.m.
@ KAAGNY

Wednesday, December 4, 20137-9 p.m.
@ KAAGNY

Flushing – 2013

Tuesday, November 5, 20137-9 p.m.
@ Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York (“KCS”)
35-56 159th Street, Flushing (map)

Tuesday, December 3, 20137-9 p.m.
@ KCS

New York City & Flushing – 2014

First Tuesday of Every Month, 7-9 p.m.
@ KAAGNY (NYC)
@ KCS (Flushing)

We are recruiting attorneys with a minimum of five (5) years experience related to a specific area of law including but not limited to: Immigration, Real Estate, Landlord/Tenant, Labor & Employment, Estate Planning, Family Law, General Litigation, etc. We are also recruiting law students to assist administratively and linguistically. To participate, you must be a KALAGNY member in good standing. Bilingual Korean & English is preferred but not mandatory.

If you wish to help us help our community, please click here to register to 
volunteer
.

KALAGNY’s Pro Bono Committee Chair will contact you once you register. Please do not show up to volunteer at our clinic without an invitation. Thank you!

Kyun Yi, KALAGNY President

From our Friends at CACF: Coalition for Asian American Children & Families Report Release

Join Us Thursday, October 10th!

Asian Pacific New Yorkers Count

Presentation & Reception

When:             Thursday, October 10, 2013

Time:               5:00 PM–  7:30 PM

Where:             Sunshine Sachs

                          136 Madison Ave, 17th Floor

                          New York, NY 10016

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and the Fund for Public Ad­vocacy invite you to attend a presentation and reception for our Asian Pacific New Yorkers Count project on Thursday, October 10th from 5:00pm – 7:30pm, generously hosted by Sun­shine Sachs at 136 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor. 

The Asian Pacific New Yorkers Count project is a partnership effort to create awareness and action to support the fastest growing community in New York City, Asian Pacific Americans. At our October 10th event, we will present our report and recommendations for action from our comprehensive analysis of demographic data, a Community-Based Organization survey, data on New York City services, and information on funding for the Asian Pacific American commu­nity of over 1.1 million individuals.

We hope you will join us and other community leaders to share your ideas and support for the needs of the changing face of New York City on October 10th.

Please RSVP to Andrea Wu by Monday, October 7th.

Seating is limited!

For other questions and concerns, please contact Dabash Negash at [email protected] or (212) 669-4092

The Fund for Public Advocacy and the Coalition for Asian American Children & Families thank the Ong Family Foundation for generously supporting the Asian Pacific New Yorkers Count project.

WHIAAPI Forum on Faith-Based and Community Leaders: 9/21

Save the Date

New York AAPI Forum with Faith-Based & Community Leaders

Saturday, September 21, 2013

The City University New York Murphy Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10036

9:30 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders will convene federal officials and faith-based and community leaders in a day-long forum to share key Administration policies on economic growth, immigration, education, and civil rights. The forum will provide leaders and the broader AAPI community critical information and a better understanding of federal resources and services.

The focus of the WHIAAPI Community Forum is to accomplish three key goals:

1.    Establish a space where faith-based and community leaders can meaningfully engage and interact with federal officials; 

2.    Identify policy and programmatic areas of concern, receive feedback, and share local success stories and practices that benefit the AAPI community;

3.    Share opportunities for leaders to collaborate with the Obama administration.

’22 Lewd Chinese Women’ and Other Courtroom Dramas

’22 Lewd Chinese Women’ and Other Courtroom Dramas

Apex for Youth: Volunteer to be a Role Model for Youth this Fall!

Volunteer to be a Role Model for Youth this Fall!

Make a difference in the lives of underserved children in our community. 

Volunteer now or tell your friends about these opportunities to help.

Educational Programs

Reading to Children (10 Needed Now!) – Read to 1st & 2nd graders to grow their love of reading and improve their English skills.  Meets on Saturdays in Lower Manhattan from 10:30am – 12:30pm

Tutors for Math & English (20 Needed Now!) – Help 4th graders get into middle school by tutoring them for their statewide English and Math exams.  Meets on Saturdays in Lower Manhattan from 10am – 12pm.  

SAT Prep Teachers (10 Needed) – Help students get into college with a higher SAT score!  Meets 1.5 hours on Saturdays in Lower Manhattan from 10am – 11:30am or 11:30am – 1pm

Arts, Theater & Basketball

Art Mentors (10 Needed) Mentor children who have been affected by domestic violence through digital art therapy.  Meets on Saturdays from 10am-3pm from Oct. – Jun.   Mandarin language volunteers needed.

Theater Instructors (20 Needed Now!) – Direct 3rd – 5th graders who speak English as a second language to perform in a theater production and improve their English skills.  Meets on Saturdays in Elmhurst Queens from 12-3pm or in Lower Manhattan from 10-12pm.  

Basketball Coaches (10 Needed) – Coach elementary school students and teach them the game of basketball.  Meets on Saturdays in Lower Manhattan from 10:30am – 1:30pm or 12pm – 2pm.

Mentoring

One-on-One Mentors (20 Needed) – Mentor a 13-18 year old student to provide guidance and introduce him or her to new experiences.  Meet with mentees twice a month.

To volunteer, contact us at [email protected] or 212-748-1225 ex.105

No prior experience necessary.  Volunteers can sign up as a sub if they cannot attend all the sessions.