Community, Culture, and Pro Bono Service: AALFNY and AABANY at Filipino American History Month Celebration in Little Manila

AABANY and the Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY) were proud to participate in the inaugural Filipino American History Month celebration at the Little Manila Parade & Block Party on Sunday, October 18, 2026, in Woodside, Queens. Co-hosted by the Office of Assemblymember Steven Raga and community partners, the event brought together community members, organizations, and local leaders to celebrate Filipino American history, culture, and service.

The celebration began with a parade from General Hart Playground and continued with an all-day block party featuring cultural programming, community resources, and recognition of outstanding community members for their service and dedication to the AANHPI community.

At the event, AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee (PBCS) hosted an information and resource-sharing table to connect community members with AABANY’s Pro Bono Legal Clinics. Special thanks to Yang Chen, Executive Director of AABANY; Gary Yeung, Co-Chair of PBCS; Arthur Lin, Vice-Chair of PBCS; and Nandar Win Kerr, AALFNY’s Pro Bono Project Consultant, for engaging with about 100 community members, sharing promotional materials with Pro Bono Clinic information, answering questions about available legal services, and informing community members about upcoming clinic sessions. 

The team also highlighted the AABANY-AALFNY and FALA New York joint pop-up Pro Bono Clinic, which took place on  October 27, 2026, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at Assemblymember Steven Raga’s Office , 60-14 Queens Blvd, Woodside, NY 11377. The clinic offered free 30-minute legal consultations with volunteer attorneys. Tagalog interpreters were available, in addition to the regularly provided Mandarin and Cantonese language support. The pop-up clinic was co-sponsored by Assemblymember Steven Raga, the Filipino American Lawyers Association of New York (FALA New York), Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund (FALDEF), and Mission to End Modern Slavery (MEMS).

Upcoming PBCS clinic information can be found below:

  • November 14 – Brooklyn
    Time: 12:30 PM–3:30 PM
    Location: CPC Brooklyn Community Services, 4101 8th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11232
    Volunteer registration: Register here
  • November 18 – Manhattan
    Time: 6:30 PM–8:30 PM
    Location: AAFE Community Center, 111 Norfolk Street, New York, NY 10002
    Volunteer registration: Register here
  • December 2 – Queens
    Time: 6:30 PM–8:30 PM
    Location: AAFE One Flushing Community Center, 133-29 41st Ave, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355
    Volunteer registration: Register here

Thank you to AABANY Executive DirectorYang Chen; AALFNY President Sylvia Chin, President of AALFNY; and PBCS Co-Chair Kwok Kei Ng for their tremendous support of this collaborative community outreach initiative.

– Written by Nandar Win Kerr, AALFNY’s Pro Bono Project Consultant

AALFNY and AABANY Connect with Brooklyn Community Members at RaisingHealth’s 11th Annual Health Empowerment Celebration

On September 19, 2026, the Asian American Law Fund (AALFNY) and AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee co-hosted a community outreach table at RaisingHealth’s 11th Annual Health Empowerment Celebration Event in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The event brought together community organizations and offered free health exams, hot meals, groceries, and other resources for local residents. RaisingHealth, formerly known as the Academy of Medical & Public Health Services, is a nonprofit health service organization founded in 2010 that supports underserved communities through culturally competent health, education, and community-building programs.

Community Outreach and Legal Resources

At the health fair, AABANY volunteers, including Kwok Ng, Co-Chair of the AABANY’s PBCS Committee, and May Wong, past Co-Chair of the PBCS Committee, along with Nandar Win Kerr, AALFNY’s Pro Bono and Grant Consultant, set up a table to pass out important resources, including:  

Public Charge Guidance

Throughout the fair, volunteers shared legal resources, flyers and Pro Bono Clinic promotional materials with more than 200 attendees. Volunteers also distributed Public Charge Guidance Info Sheets about the current changes to the public charge rule that took effect on September 18, 2026. A shout-out to the Asian American Federation (AAF), Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) and Issues Committee (Co-Chairs Vishal Chander and Rachel Lee) for providing training, toolkits and resources that helped volunteers share accurate information with the community members in their native languages. 

The Public Charge materials were provided by the New York Immigration Coalition and Asian American Federation. The materials are available in 13 Asian languages: Arabic, Bangla, Burmese, Khmer, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Hindi, Japanese, Karen, Korean, Nepali, Urdu, and Vietnamese. 

Community members seeking assistance can contact the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs’ hotline at (800) 354-0365 or by calling 311 or the New York State Office of New Americans Hotline at (800) 566-7636. For more information, please visit Public Charge Guidance Info Sheets.

Upcoming Pro Bono Clinics 

October 7th – Queens: Interested volunteers should register here. 6:30 – 8:30pm, AAFE One Flushing Community Center, 133-29 41st Ave, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355

October 21st – Manhattan: Interested volunteers should register here. 6:30-8:30pm, AAFE Community Center, 111 Norfolk Street, NY, NY 10002 

November 14th – Brooklyn: Interested volunteers should register here. 12:30 – 3:30pm, CPC Brooklyn Community Services, 4101 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11232

AABANY asks: Have you served as a judicial clerk?

Clerking is an invaluable experience that not only provides excellent practical skills training but also enables you to build close relationships with judges and fellow clerks. For the benefit of our members, AABANY will be holding two information sessions on judicial clerkships in October 2013, possibly one focusing on federal clerkships and the other on state clerkships (more details to come). We would like these sessions to be as robust as possible, and to that end, we’d like to compile a list of all AABANY members who are former clerks to create an informal mentoring circle and to invite to speak at the sessions. If you have clerked for a either a state or federal judge (not an internship/externship), please contact Lina Zhou at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for your help!

NAPABA Political Appointments Project

Many NAPABA members have expressed interest in serving in the second term of the Obama Administration. NAPABA has assembled information as an introduction to the process, and important information about how to facilitate pursuit of a position is included. Current NAPABA members should submit application materials as outlined here.