Tag: diversity

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Manhattan Community Board Applications Are Open Now!

Interested in what gets built in your community and how government works to deliver services in your neighborhood? Apply to join one of Manhattan’s 12 Community Boards.

Every Community Board has 50 seats which are filled for two-year terms by volunteers, who are selected by the Borough President and local City Council members. Half the seats are up for appointment or reappointment every year.

Community Boards get a seat at the table in high-stakes land use, real estate, and zoning negotiations, and they work directly with city agencies to influence how government services are delivered at the neighborhood level.

If you’d like to serve as a member of your Community Board, apply online here! You can also print the application and drop it off by mail or in-person. The deadline is February 8, 2019.

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Meaningful Diversity: The Next Chapter of the ADR Story | New York Law Journal

Meaningful Diversity: The Next Chapter of the ADR Story | New York Law Journal

Congratulations to Chris Kwok, Director on AABANY’s Board and Chair of the Issues Committee and Co-Chair of the Asia Practice Committee, on being published in the New York Law Journal. Below is a quote from his article, which can be accessed by clicking the link above. Please note that to read the entire article, you must have a New York Law Journal subscription.

Given the historical exclusion of minorities from the legal profession, the lack of diversity in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is not surprising. The diversity and inclusion issue is magnified by the unique features of the ADR field. Neutrals with diverse backgrounds can help administer justice in today’s increasingly diverse society, as they are a reflection of the people they serve. Of course, mere diversity is not enough; the meaningful inclusion of those diverse candidates in the industry is the next chapter of the ADR story.

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AABANY Co-Sponsors: Information Session on Going In-House at AmEx

On October 16, AABANY co-sponsored an information session on going in-house at AmEx. The event began with a panel discussion moderated by In-House Counsel Committee Co-Chair Grace Fu that engaged in a lighthearted and candid discussion about what it is like to work in-house at AmEx. The panelists, which included AmEx General Counsel Laureen Seeger and Senior Counsel Ming-Hsuan Elders, discussed the various types of matters handled by the company’s legal department and shared their personal experiences to shed light on the company’s culture. The panelists also discussed issues like diversity and steps the company is taking to make the legal field more inclusive for minorities. After the panel concluded, attorneys in attendance were matched with Hiring Leaders at AmEx and given the opportunity to mingle and engage in a more personalized one-to-one discussion.

We thank AmEx’s General Counsel Organization’s Diversity Committee and in particular Cindy Huang, IP Counsel at AmEx, and John Parauda, Managing Counsel at AmEx, for working with AABANY to make this event possible. We thank all the attendees who came and hope that many good and helpful connections were made during the event.

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Judicial Mentor Program

Judicial Mentor Program

In an effort to increase diversity in the judiciary, the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission implemented a Judicial Mentor Program. The program provides mentors for attorneys interested in becoming judges through the appointment or electoral process. Click the link in the title to learn more.

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NAPABA Names WilmerHale as Its 2017 Law Firm Diversity Award Recipient

For Immediate Release

Sept. 20, 2017

WASHINGTON — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) has named WilmerHale as its 2017 Law Firm Diversity Award recipient. NAPABA created the Law Firm Diversity Award to recognize law firms that actively, affirmatively, consistently, and enthusiastically recruit, retain, and promote Asian Pacific American lawyers to equity partnership and firm leadership.

The award will be presented at the NAPABA Anniversary Gala at the 2017 NAPABA Convention in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4, 2017.

Commitment to diversity and inclusion starts at the top and cascades throughout WilmerHale. It is one of very few AmLaw 100 firms with a woman co-managing partner and an even smaller number of such firms that have had both a woman and a person of color as a co-managing partner. As an equity-only partnership, Asian Pacific American partners represent 6 percent of U.S.-based partners and partners of color represent 11 percent of the partnership.

WilmerHale’s commitment to diversity is also illustrated in its recruitment efforts. The summer associate classes over the past three years have averaged around 31 percent law students of color, with Asian Pacific American summer associates representing the majority of the diverse associates. Similarly, of the firm’s lateral partner hires over the past three years, diverse partners represented 24 percent and Asian Pacific American partners represented 10 percent.

In 2017, WilmerHale was recognized in The American Lawyer’s “A-List” for the 14th time. The “A-List” is an annual compilation that includes the 20 leading U.S. firms and honors overall excellence, including financial success, commitment to pro bono work, workforce diversity, and associate satisfaction.

NAPABA congratulates WilmerHale as its 2017 Law Firm Diversity Award recipient.

For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at202-775-9555 or [email protected], or Molly Nunes, WilmerHale Public Relations Director, at617-710-0590 or [email protected].

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Important Information for Those Interested in Attending the Diversity Career Fair and Expo (DCF) at the 2017 AABANY Fall Conference

If you are planning to attend the DCF please note the following:

  1. The DCF is being held in conjunction with AABANY’s Fall Conference at Fordham Law School, on Saturday, September 23. To attend the DCF you must first be registered for the Fall Conference. You must also complete an intake form. DCF is scheduled to take place from 10:30 am to 4 pm. More details here on the Fall Conference website.
  2. Registration is open via the AABANY website at http://bit.ly/fc17reg
  3. If you are an AABANY member who has not paid to attend the Fall Conference, you can attend DCF – and only DCF – for free. You may NOT attend any of the programs at the Fall Conference, including the lunch session and the cocktail reception at the end of the day.
  4. To register to attend DCF for free as an AABANY member, click here.
  5. If you are not an AABANY member, you can join online and pay the appropriate membership fee at http://www.aabany.org/?page=J2.  Once you have done that, follow the instructions above in paragraph 4.
  6. If you are not an AABANY member and you are not interested in joining but you wish to attend DCF, then you must register for and pay to attend the Fall Conference at http://bit.ly/fc17reg.
  7. The deadline to sign up for onsite interviews passed on Sept. 7.
  8. If you have not already done so, please submit a copy of your resume to [email protected] by Thursday, Sept. 14. In the subject line, please list 2017 DCF, your name and “Informational Tables.” Your resume will be included in a resume book that will be circulated to participating employers.

If you have any questions about DCF, contact [email protected].

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A Message to NAPABA Members After Charlottesville

Dear Colleagues,

Racism, hate, and bigotry have no place in our country. Leaders do not equate individuals who support ideologies of hate with those who stand defiantly in support of diversity and inclusion, in support of our nation’s ideals. There is no moral equivalence between bigotry and tolerance.

As we said on Monday following the horrible hate on display by neo-Nazis and white nationalists and the tragic loss of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, “Our core values—acceptance, diversity, and inclusiveness—will overcome the forces of hate and racism.”

We cannot look away from this hate. We must challenge it. We must stand for our core values. This is not a time for ambivalence or equivocation.

We come together as Asian Pacific American attorneys. We have different personal stories, but we all come together as a community with a shared history. We come together because we recognize the power of our community and our profession. We have seen what happens when our communities or other marginalized groups do not have a voice in the law or in the public sphere.

We are leaders with the privilege and ability to ensure that these voices are lifted up and that these stories are told. Just as past civil rights leaders have done for us, we must speak up to advance our principles of justice and equality and to help heal our nation’s deep scars. We continue to draw on the strength and resilience of our history. We must protect civil rights and our vision of democracy.

I am proud to see law firms, law professors, corporations, organizations, and others affirm the commitment of the profession to diversity. I am proud to see individual lawyers stand in common humanity to drive away darkness.

Be a light that guides people to peace, understanding, tolerance, and inclusion. Provide pro bono legal services to the people and organizations opposing racism and violence. Call on your leaders to unequivocally and publicly denounce racism and all those who support it. Have the tough conversations with your families and friends to help them understand and process the events of these trying days.  

As lawyers committed to our values, we must be in the courts, the legislatures, and the community to protect the progress we have made since the civil rights era and move forward towards “a more perfect union.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “The arc of moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  

As lawyers, law students, and legal professionals, we must help bend it.

Sincerely,

Cyndie Chang
NAPABA President, 2016-17

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association | 1612 K St. NW, Suite 510 | Washington, D.C. 20006 | www.napaba.org

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New York Institutes a Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias CLE Requirement for Experienced Attorneys | Media Listing | NYC Bar

New York Institutes a Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias CLE Requirement for Experienced Attorneys | Media Listing | NYC Bar

Diversity brings diverse perspectives, and fairer representation for a diverse society. While the legal profession has publicly committed itself to diversity and inclusion, it has yet to become a model of inclusion itself, remaining largely homogeneous even as the population it serves continues to grow more heterogenous.

Beginning in 2018, a biennial requirement of one credit of Diversity & Inclusion CLE will be implemented in New York for experienced attorneys. In July of last year, the New York City Bar Association and 12 other New York bar associations issued a letter endorsing the institution of a D&I CLE requirement for New York State, in accordance with Resolution 107 passed by the American Bar Association in February 2016. That resolution emphasized education for lawyers around an expanded definition of diversity, meaning the inclusion of all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities. On September 14, 2016 and January 12, 2017, AABANY issued letters in support of the D&I CLE initiative, as an organization committed to the values of equality and social justice that the legal profession upholds and to breaking the obstacles of bias and discrimination that face the APA community within the profession.

The legal profession should reflect the diversity and the complexity of the society it serves, something that the Asian American community, which remains disproportionately underrepresented in the profession today, knows all too well. “Education and knowledge breed change,” Immediate Past President Susan L. Shin wrote in a letter to Hon. Betty Ellerin, Chair of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board, last year. “By recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusion as values of primary importance, the D&I CLE requirement directly addresses one of the most important criticisms of the legal profession.” As so clearly evidenced by A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law, the report published by NAPABA and Yale Law School on July 18, Asian Americans still face many barriers when it comes to being accurately represented and fairly treated, despite three decades of growth and progress in the legal profession. The implementation of a D&I CLE is a crucial step forward in promoting diversity in the legal profession, in finding solutions to the problems addressed by the Portrait Project, and in making the law more fair and just for those who work within it and for those it serves.

For more information on the D&I CLE, follow the link in the title.

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