FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 26, 2017
Contact: Yang Chen, Executive Director
(212) 332-2478
NEW YORK – July 26, 2017 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (“AABANY”) congratulates Ona T. Wang on being appointed a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Wang is the first Asian American to be appointed a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York.
A partner at Baker Hostetler, Ona Wang has broad litigation experience in civil, criminal and regulatory matters. Ms. Wang has been deeply involved in complex litigation involving high-profile cases, with a particular focus in the past several years on the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Liquidation and the Michael Kenwood receivership cases in the District of Connecticut. She serves as the Vice Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee and is an active member of the New York office’s Diversity Committee and Women’s Committee.
As a volunteer with the Equal Justice Initiative, she represented inmates on death row in Alabama, seeking clemency in state and federal courts and litigating death penalty cases at all levels. In the past three years, she partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and most recently with the Human Rights Campaign and the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the national ACLU.
Ms. Wang is an active member of AABANY and currently serves as a co-chair of the Litigation Committee. Since 2003, Ms. Wang has been an active member in both the American Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association, having served in multiple committees for each. Since its inception in 2000, she has served as a member of the Federal Bar Council American Inn of Court, and most recently as a Master. As a deeply involved member of her local community, she has represented Team New York Aquatics, New York City’s LGBT+ aquatics team, at various national and international water polo tournaments and competed as an individual and relay swimmer in the International Gay Lesbian Aquatics Championships and the Gay Games and subsequently served as a volunteer coach and manager for the team from 2005 through 2010.
“As is apparent from her long track record of involvement in her legal and local communities, Ona Wang is a dedicated and highly qualified candidate to serve as a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York,” stated Dwight Yoo, President of AABANY. “Her experience as an accomplished litigator, coupled with her dedication to social justice, will serve her well as she serves the federal Court. We also recognize the historic nature of her appointment, diversifying the bench of one of the oldest and most venerable courts in the nation’s history.”
Ms. Wang received an A.B. cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, a Ph.D. in zoology from Duke University, and a J.D. cum laude from the New York University School of Law, where she served as a Staff Editor and Executive Editor for the N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change and as a research assistant for the Equal Justice Initiative. Upon graduation, Ms. Wang commenced her legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Deborah A. Batts in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Following her clerkship, she worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. In 2003, Ms. Wang joined the law firm of Baker Hostetler LLP as a litigation associate and was quickly elevated to partner in 2006.
For more information, please contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (212) 332-2478, or direct any inquiries to [email protected].
The Asian American Bar Association of New York is a professional membership organization of attorneys concerned with issues affecting the Asian Pacific American community. Incorporated in 1989, AABANY seeks not only to encourage the professional growth of its members but also to advocate for the Asian Pacific American community as a whole. AABANY is the New York regional affiliate of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).
###
Additional information about AABANY is available at www.aabany.org
Follow our blog at www.blog.aabany.org
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aabany
Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aabany
Find us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/aabany
