Tag: corporate law committee

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AABANY Pre-OCI Information Session: What Do Corporate Lawyers Do?

On Tuesday, July 22nd, AABANY’s Corporate Law Committee and Student Outreach Committee hosted an insightful Pre-OCI Information session, “What do corporate lawyer do?”, at Paul, Weiss. With more than 30 law school students and undergraduate students in attendance, Executive Director Yang Chen welcomed everyone and introduced the moderator, Terry Shen. 

The panel started with Terry introducing each distinguished panel speaker. The panelists comprised both in-house attorneys from top firms in the industry and corporate law lawyers at prestigious law firms, each with a different specialty practice area within the landscape of corporate law:  

•    Jasmine Ball, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

•    Parkin Lee, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, The Rockefeller Group 

•    Marianne Chow-Newman, Counsel, The Hearst Corporation

•    Lawrence G. Wee, Partner, Paul Weiss Rifikind Wharton & Garrison LLP 

•    Terry Shen (Moderator), Partner, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

Addressing the question “what do corporate lawyer do?”, the panelists talked about why they chose corporate law, their daily role as a corporate lawyer, the interaction and relationship with corporate clients, the kind of tasks a junior associate will encounter, and interview techniques for the upcoming OCI (on-campus interview) season on campus. 

First, the panelists explained five different subdivisions of corporate law: Capital Markets, Credit & Leverage Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Restructuring, and Investment Management. Different from litigation and what has been portrayed in the media, corporate lawyers rarely go to court or draft motions. Instead, corporate lawyers offer legal advice to corporations who attempt to operate and grow their business. Coming from an engineering background in his early career, Parkin Lee characterized his role as a corporate lawyer as “engineering with words.” The nature of corporate operation requires lawyers to write a tight contract, understand the needs of their clients and negotiate on their behalf, build trust between two parties who want to do business, and explain complicated deal structures to the client. Young lawyers need to have the capability to negotiate, conduct due diligence, and strengthen relationships with clients.  

The event concluded with a discussion of the deal team culture and “bro culture” in law firms. Although one does not need to thrive in the bro culture to succeed, Terry drew a connection between bro culture with the work ethic of a young lawyer, illustrating the reliability, can-do mindset and intellectual curiosity embodied in both deal team culture and bro culture.  

We would like to sincerely thank Larry Wee and Paul, Weiss for hosting the event by providing food, beverages, and an excellent space. We also thank the Corporate Law Committee and Student Outreach Committee for putting together this valuable and meaningful program for current or prospective law students.

To learn more about the Corporate Law Committee, please click here.

To learn more about the Student Outreach Committee, please click here.

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AABANY Summer Soiree

On Thursday, June 27th, AABANY held its 12th annual Summer Soiree, formerly known as the Wine Tasting and Networking Reception, at the Castell Rooftop Lounge located atop AC Hotel New York Times Square. The In-House Counsel Committee and the Corporate Law Committee once again co-organized this event, and around 130 senior in-house lawyers and senior law firm attorneys and partners attended this year.

Attendees networked with one another as they enjoyed an abundant selection of drinks paired with signature items prepared by the chef, with views of the Manhattan skyline from the terrace. To get our attendees to actively mingle and mix, we played an icebreaker game in which attendees had to find at least one other person in the room that matched them on various things, like where they went to school, what type of practice they are involved with, and where they have lived before coming to New York City. Congratulations to the two winners of the icebreaker, Gary Eisenberg of Perkins Coie and Jenifer Liu of JP Morgan, who each received a bottle of champagne, thanks to the generosity of Sabine Poisson.  

The attendees represented 51 companies from a variety of industries, such as banking  media, finance, and real estate, and 30 top global and regional law firms with offices in New York City. 

We would like to give special thanks to the following sponsors for helping us make this event a memorable success:  

  • Summit Financial
  • Prosperian
  • Reed Smith
  • Davis & Gilbert
  • Perkins Coie
  • Consilio

Thank you to all our attendees, and we hope to see everyone again at next year’s Summer Soiree. To learn more about the Corporate Law Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/128 To learn more about the In-House Counsel Committee go to: https://www.aabany.org/page/149 

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On June 24, AABANY held its 8th Annual Winetasting & Networking Reception for Law Firm Partners and Senior In-House Counsel. Thanks to Sonia Low, Board Director and General Counsel of the ONE Group Hospitality, we were able to hold the Winetasting at STK Downtown, formerly known as Tenjune. There were approximately 125 people present at this invite-only event, held by the Corporate Law Committee and the In-House Counsel Committee. Congratulations to each of the prize winners of the raffles and the icebreaker. 

We thank the sponsors of the evening:

  • Planet Data Solutions, Headline Sponsor
  • Prosperian Wealth Management, Headline Sponsor
  • Summit Financial Printing, Headline Sponsor
  • Perkins Coie LLP, Premier Sponsor
  • Haynes and Boone, LLP
  • Hudson Court Reporting
  • Mayer Brown
  • Reed Smith
  • RGP Legal

We also thank the organizers of the evening for their hard work in putting together this wonderful event: William Wang, President; Susan Shin, President-Elect; Marianne Chow, Vice President of Programs and Operations; William Ng, Vice President of Finance and Development; In-House Counsel Committee Co-Chairs Blossom Kan, Austin So, and Duane Morikawa; Corporate Law Committee Co-Chairs Larry Wee and Dwight Yoo, and their Managing Director of Programs George Hang; and Mentorship Program Coordinator David Sohn. Thank you as well to the volunteers, including former AABANY Intern Kevin Wong who provided us with the photographs. Finally, thank you to each and every person to attended.

Stay tuned for more news about the Mentorship Program, which will open applications on July 10, and our Fall Conference, which will take place on September 19, 2015.

We’re already looking forward to next year!

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