Thank you to our July Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

July’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, July 10 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 41 volunteers who volunteered their time to help 43 clients.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/

AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the July Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers: 

Yvetta Scott

Breanna Andree-Couturier

Gaye L. Chun

Samantha Sumilang

Sae-Eun Ahn

May Kay Wong

Eun Hye (Grace) Lee

Beatrice Leong

Yan Sin

Bart Wu

Jean Soo Park

Satoshi Kurita

Gloria Tsui-Yip

Thomas Hou

Annie Tsao

Mirin E. Park

Shengyang (John) Wu

Christopher Chin

Kelly Diep

Chris M. Kwok

Francis Chin

Yifei He

Interpreters: 

Justina Chen

Henry Man

Ruth Poon

Shimeng (Fiona) Zhang

Weixi He

Yuchen (Fiona) Zheng

Min Chen

Vivian Chen

Sarah Lu

Special thanks to Coordinator Johnny Thach, Coordinator Jenny Lam, Technology Coordinator Roger Chen, Vice Chair Kwok Kei Ng, and Vice Chair Zhixian Liu for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Pauline Yeung-Ha, Karen Kithan Yau, Asako Aiba, and Judy Lee for their leadership. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. The next clinic will take place on August 14, 2019. If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected].

Thank You to our June Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

June’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, June 12 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 12 lawyers and 11 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 34 clients.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/

AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the June Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

Gaye L. Chun

Peter Bartlett Wu

Eun Hye (Grace) Lee

Yan Sin

Kelly Diep

Alex Tran

Miae Woo

Soichiro Ishita

Annie Tsao

Satoshi Kurita

Mayumi Cindy Iijima

Francis Chin

Interpreters:

Yuchen (Fiona) Zheng

Alva Lin

Ming Li

Tianlin Liu

Teresa Wai Yee Yeung

Fiona Zhang

Limeng (Charles) Tan

Justina Chen

Xiaoshi Zhang

Angela Cheung

Kenny Moy

Special thanks to Coordinator Johnny Thach, Vice Chair Kwok Kei Ng, and Vice Chair Zhixian Liu for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Pauline Yeung-Ha, Ming Chu Lee, Karen Kithan Yau, Asako Aiba, and Judy Lee for their leadership.

AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. The next clinic will take place on July 10, 2019. If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected].

Thank You to our May Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

May’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, May 8 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 14 lawyers and 6 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 15 clients.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the May Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

Christopher Chin
Francis Chin
Thomas Hou
Mayumi Cindy Iijima
Satoshi Kurita
Chris M. Kwok
Eun Hye (Grace) Lee
Beatrice Leong
Nelson Mar
Samantha Sumilang
Annie Tsao
Anna Jinhua Wang
Shengyang (John) Wu
Jiayun Zhang

Interpreters:

Carteneil Cheung
Tianlin Liu
Ruth Poon
Serene Su
Laura Tsang
Hao Zhang

Special thanks to Kwok Kei Ng and Zhixian Liu for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Judy Lee and Asako Aiba for their leadership.

If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Thank you to our April Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

April’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, April 10 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 20 lawyers and 8 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 32 clients.

At this month’s clinic, we also presented videos created in partnership with AARP to prevent immigration fraud. In the videos, former Immigration Law Committee co-chairs Susan Akina and Amanda Bernardo provided tips and advice on how to avoid being a victim of immigration scams. Scammers pretend to provide quality legal advice, help with paperwork, or other tasks involved in the immigration process. The scammer usually asks for an upfront fee, takes the money, and disappears immediately. Or worse, they provide ineffective or even harmful representation by filing the wrong paperwork, using fraudulent measures, or misrepresenting facts. Susan and Amanda stressed how important it is to only work with qualified immigration lawyers.

To see Susan’s and Amanda’s videos, click on the following links:

https://blog.aabany.org/2019/02/22/preventing-immigration-fraud-in-the-chinese-community/

https://blog.aabany.org/2019/02/22/preventing-immigration-fraud-in-the-filipino-community/

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the April Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

Kathy Yung
Beatrice Leong
Angela Wu
Gloria Tsui-Yip
Mayumi Cindy Iijima
Zhixian Liu
Anna Jinhua Wang
Eun Hye (Grace) Lee
Xianxiao Li (Emily)
Amanda Bernardo
Samantha Sumilang
Kevin Hsi
Barbara Hayes
Christopher Chin
Sae-Eun Ahn
Kwok Kei Ng
Pauline Yeung-Ha
Ming Chu Lee
Karen Kithan Yau
Asako Aiba

Interpreters:

Alva Lin
Justina Chen
Emily Arakawa
Derek Ting-Che Tai
Weiling Huang
Jessica Wang
Satoshi Kurita
Ruth Poon

Special thanks to Johnny Thach and Kwan Shun Jason Cheung for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy Lee and Asako Aiba for their leadership.

If you are interested in volunteering at next month’s Pro Bono Clinic on May 8, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Thank you to our March Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

March’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, March 13 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 21 lawyers and 11 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 31 clients.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the March Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

  • Samantha Sumilang
  • Kathy Yung
  • Beatrice Leong
  • Mayumi Cindy Iijima
  • Anna Jinhua Wang
  • Grace Pyun
  • Jonathan Hernandez
  • Ami Shah
  • Ricky He
  • Shengyang (John) Wu
  • Kevin Hsi
  • Kwok Kei Ng
  • Kelly Diep
  • Christopher Chin
  • Wei Li
  • Annie Tsao
  • Rina Gurung
  • Zhixian Liu
  • Pauline Yeung-Ha
  • Karen Kithan Yau
  • Asako Aiba

Interpreters:

  • Teresa Wai Yee Yeung
  • Eric W. Dang
  • Anna Chuen
  • Weiling Huang
  • Derek Ting-Che Tai
  • Satoshi Kurita
  • Bingzhen Song
  • Laura Tsang
  • Jessica Wang
  • Lindsay Hao
  • Justina Chen

Special thanks to Johnny Thach and Roger Chen for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy Lee and Asako Aiba for their leadership.

If you are interested in volunteering at next month’s Pro Bono Clinic on April 10, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Thank you to our February Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

February’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, February 13 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 14 lawyers and 6 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 27 clients.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the February Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

  • Gaye L. Chun
  • Zhixian Liu
  • Yan Sin
  • Xianxiao Li (Emily)
  • Wei Li
  • Soichiro Ishita
  • Kwok Kei Ng
  • Jonathan Hernandez
  • David Lu
  • Gloria Tsui-Yip
  • Pauline Yeung-Ha
  • Ming Chu Lee
  • Karen Kithan Yau
  • Asako Aiba

Interpreters:

  • JoJo Hwang
  • Frankie Lam
  • Satoshi Kurita
  • Hao Zhang
  • Derek Ting-Che Tai
  • Henry Man

Special thanks to Johnny Thach for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Ming Chu Lee, and Asako Aiba for their leadership.

If you are interested in volunteering at next month’s Pro Bono Clinic on March 13, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Thank you to our January Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

January’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, January 9 at 3 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 16 lawyers and 6 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 34 clients.

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the January Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

  • Gaye L. Chun
  • Jennie Kim
  • Eun Hye (Grace) Lee
  • Kwok Kei Ng
  • Thomas Hou
  • Francis Chin
  • Alexandra Lee
  • Poonam Gupta
  • Amanda Bernardo
  • Susan Thorn
  • Zhixian Liu
  • Suehyan Cho-O’Leary
  • David Lu
  • Pauline Yeung-Ha
  • Karen Kithan Yau
  • Judy (Ming Chu) Lee

Interpreters:

  • Alva Lin
  • Weiling Huang
  • Derek Ting-Che Tai
  • Teresa Wai Yee Yeung
  • Satoshi Kurita
  • Wenxin Natalie Lu

Special thanks to Johnny Thach for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Ming Chu Lee, and Asako Aiba for their leadership.

If you are interested in volunteering at next month’s Pro Bono Clinic on February 13, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Thank you to our December Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

December’s Monthly Pro Bono Legal Advice and Referral Clinic, held on Wednesday, December 12 at Asian Mutual Aid Group in lower Manhattan, brought out 16 lawyers, 7 interpreters, 2 logistics assistants, and 1 social worker. Together the volunteers helped 31 clients.

As you might know from a recent email to the AABANY membership, we are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected].

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the December Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

• Gaye L. Chun
• Wendy Li
• Soichiro Ishita
• Beatrice Leong
• Chris M. Kwok
• Eun Hye (Grace) Lee
• Zhixian (Jessie) Liu
• Francis Chin
• Wei Li
• Christopher Chin
• Sylvia Chin
• Lord Chester So
• Kwok Kei Ng
• Asako Aiba
• Judy Lee
• Pauline Yeung
• Karen Kithan Yau

Interpreters:

• Weiling Huang
• Emma Li
• Alva Lin
• Wai King
• Teresa Wai Yee Yeung
• Derek Ting-Che Tai
• Satoshi Kurita

Social Worker:

• Ann Hsu

Logistics Assistants:

• Johnny Thach
• Roger Chen

Special thanks to the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Ming Chu (Judy) Lee, Asako Aiba, and Pauline Yeung for their leadership, and Executive Director Yang Chen and President James Cho for their support.

If you are interested in volunteering at next month’s Pro Bono Clinic on January 9, 2019, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs at 3 Bowery Street, New York, NY 10002 every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Please Support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic

Dear AABANY Members,

Happy holidays!

In this season of giving, we count among our blessings being part of the great community that is the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY).  Our strongest asset is you, our members, and we are writing now to appeal to you for support of AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic.

From its beginning, AABANY has sought to serve the community and to advocate for it. In that spirit, AABANY started the Monthly Pro Bono Legal Advice and Referral Clinic. By leveraging expertise and language skills of AABANY’s active and diverse membership, the Clinic effectively expands access to justice and provides the Asian American community a way to receive high-quality legal services that are also culturally sensitive and linguistically competent.

Working with community organizations, the Clinic in the last few years has provided hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice.  These clients hail from all five boroughs, with some coming from as far as Yonkers, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Most of these clients are monolingual Chinese and Japanese speakers. This fall the Clinic began to systematically incorporate Know-Your-Rights training on topics such as employment and housing law.

The dry facts do not adequately convey the Clinic’s importance to the Asian American community, especially in these trying times. Let us share with you some recent cases that exemplify typical clients and the routine problems they face:

  • An elderly woman and her son were being harassed and evicted by their landlord. The mother and her deceased spouse had raised her entire family in her apartment, and her son had spent his entire life there. The basis for the eviction was that they declined to sign leases that their landlord suddenly demanded after allowing this practice for nearly 40 years. We provided them with an understanding of the holdover process and referrals to pro bono counsel and lawyers who charge on a sliding scale.
  • A woman recently was seeking a divorce from her husband who held all of their assets and frequently threatened to kill her and himself, if she ever left him. A light bulb went off in her head during the consultation when she first recognized the signs of domestic violence and abuse in her situation. Because of this community member’s cultural upbringing, she would have never termed her marriage abusive. At the Clinic, we referred her to a legal services office that specializes in representing survivors of domestic violence.
  • Just last month, we counseled an employee whose employer broke its written promise of a specified salary. This employee began to suffer from anxiety and depression due to this work-related stress and sought treatment. The same employer not only declined to move her assignment closer to her home to accommodate her disability but it also publicly disclosed her mental health status to her colleagues in violation of the law.  

At these monthly sessions, we are often outraged by the reports of flagrant violations of the law. We are gratified that numerous AABANY members volunteer as pro bono lawyers for two hours once a month to bring access to justice to many community members who otherwise would have continued to bear the brunt of these injustices and illegalities, without recourse or effective assistance.

The Clinic can only operate with the generosity of donors and volunteers. During this holiday season, please consider supporting this vital project that is close to our hearts by donating to the Clinic. The Clinic has grown in the last year to the point that we are sometimes seeing nearly 50 clients in a short two-hour span. Your donations will help to pay for much needed administrative support and supplies that currently come out of the limited budget allocated to the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee that is charged with running the Clinic.

AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate, the Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), is accepting charitable donations and can issue a tax receipt to you for your generous support. Any amount, large or small, would help, but if you can spare $25, $50, $100 or more, it would go a long way. The community members coming to the Clinic will greatly appreciate it!

When you go to the AALFNY website to make your donation, please be sure to indicate in the memo field that you are donating to the Pro Bono Clinic. Please take a moment today to visit this link and make a donation:

https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/

Best wishes to you and yours,

Yang Chen
Executive Director

Karen Kithan Yau
Pauline Yeung-Ha
Judy Ming Chu Lee
Asako Aiba

Co-Chairs, Pro Bono and Community Service Committee