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NY Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law and the NY Commission to Reimagine the Future of New York’s Courts 2021 Convocation: Watchdogs or Lapdogs? The Ethical Challenges Facing Government Lawyers

In our highly charged political climate today, government lawyers face unprecedented ethical challenges; they must often make decisions that clash between ethical rules and what their superiors demand. There is a growing consensus that rules are frequently unclear, but there is no agreement in how to revise them. 

On October 14th, 2021, 11:00 a.m-4:00 p.m ET, the New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law and the Commission to Reimagine the Future of New York’s Courts will be holding a virtual Convocation that will bring together outstanding professionals who have had decades of experience in government to address these critical issues and provide much needed reforms. 

The Convocation will kick off with Paul D. Clement and Neal Katyal, both leading members of the Supreme Court bar who have led the U.S. Solicitor General’s office. They will speak on the ethical challenges facing today’s government lawyers and whether the government lawyer can (or should) represent both the client and the public’s interest. Three additional panels will follow and will touch on a variety of topics. 

The first panel titled, “How are Government Lawyers Different from Their Private Sector Counterparts in Their Ethical Responsibilities? Let Us Count the Ways” will examine conflicts government lawyers may face when advising decision makers in the executive branch and/or the agencies they serve. The second panel titled, “The Right Recipe for Independent Candid Advice: What Should Get Thrown In? What Should Get Left Out?” will discuss what it means for lawyers to exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. The final panel titled “ Recalcitrant Clients: What to do When the ‘Client’ Rejects Your Advice (or Worse)” will dive deep into questions such as, “With whom does the government lawyer have an attorney-client privilege?” and “Whose confidential information should be protected?”

Please note that this event is free of charge. To register for the event please click here. 

To learn more about the Convocation, please click here. 

For more information regarding the Convocation Agenda, please click here. 

Please direct any questions to professionalism@nycourts.gov

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Federal Judicial Clerkship Opportunity with Hon. Dora L. Irizarry

The Honorable Dora L. Irizarry, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, is currently accepting applications for a Clerkship, starting in October 2021.

Qualifications:

  • At least two years of practice as an attorney prior to start date of clerkship.
  • Excellent grades.
  • Excellent research, writing, and analytical skills, although participation in Law Review or a Journal is not a prerequisite.
  • Military and/or other life/career experience is a plus.
  • Excellent organizational, administrative, and time management skills.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the delay in delivery and processing of U.S. mail, interested applicants must forward their application package in PDF format via email to irizarry_chambers@nyed.uscourts.gov.

Application package must include:

  • Cover letter explaining your interest in a clerkship with Judge Irizarry and career goals.
  • Resume.
  • Official law school transcript.
  • One writing sample of recent vintage, no longer than 15 pages. Journal or research articles will NOT be accepted.
  • Three letters of recommendation, including at least one from a recent employer.

The deadline for receipt of materials is May 17, 2021.

If you have further questions, please contact chambers at: 718-613-2150.

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NAPABA | Presidential Appointments in the Next Administration

The next President of the United States will need to appoint talented and dedicated individuals to high-visibility jobs, including Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, as well as mid- and entry-level positions. Although the selection of individuals for career positions and appointments for non-career positions is an ongoing process that will continue year-round, the elections mark a special point at which opportunities may become available and when individuals may become particularly motivated to seek positions in government.

NAPABA is committed to supporting its members who are interested in seeking appointments in the next presidential administration and to ensuring that individuals from diverse background are considered and appointed to positions at all levels of government.

The NAPABA Judicial and Executive Appointments Project is accepting applicants to recommend to presidential administrations for:
1) Article III Judicial Appointments and DC (state) Courts;
2) Executive Branch Appointments: Senate Confirmed (PAS) and Non-Senate Confirmed Presidential Appointments; and
3) Boards and Commissions.

Please note there are some offices that are bi-partisan that will require the applicant to be a registered Democrat, Republican, or Independent, e.g. U.S. Court of International Trade, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, etc.

Be sure to visit our website for more information.

SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

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Join AABANY in Supporting Portrait Project 2.0

A recent Law360 article entitled “Why Are Law Clerks So White” reported:

Take any five federal law clerks, and at least four of them would probably be white. And nobody can be certain why.

California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu has some guesses about the reasons black, Asian and Latino lawyers are largely shut out of these prestigious positions that can turbocharge a lawyer’s early career. But he says it’s impossible to pinpoint reasons or patterns because so little data exists.

“We actually don’t even know the most basic things about those opportunities,” Justice Liu told Law360. “It would be interesting if we could know even basic things, like do women judges get more women clerks? We have impressions of that, but we don’t know with any precision whether these things are true.”

The article went on to talk about how Justice Liu plans to address these questions in Portrait Project 2.0. AABANY is supporting this research as a Silver Sponsor. AABANY challenges its members to donate to Portrait Project 2.0. AABANY will match member donations up to $5,000. Join AABANY in advancing the work of Portrait Project 2.0. Read more at https://www.aabany.org/page/PortraitProject20

To read the full Law360 article go to https://www.law360.com/articles/1156019?utm_source=ios-shared&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=ios-shared

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Judicial Campaign Ethics Handbook

Judicial Campaign Ethics Handbook

For attorneys interested in or considering a campaign for elective judicial office, here is the link to the latest Judicial Campaign Ethics Handbook issued in November 2014 by the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics.

It is fully searchable online and contains links to published ethics opinions. 

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Congratulations to Hon. Doris Ling-Cohan

Justice Doris Ling-Cohan, a member of AABANY’s first Board elected in 1991, has been appointed to the Appellate Term of the First Department. This court hears appeals from New York’s Civil and Criminal Courts.

Justice Ling-Cohan is the first APA woman to serve on an appellate panel in New York state. In 2002, she became the first APA woman elected to New York State Supreme Court. In 2005, she authored the groundbreaking decision in Hernandez v Robles, becoming the first New York state trial judge to rule in favor of same sex marriage.

Please join AABANY in congratulating Justice Doris Ling-Cohan on this major milestone in her judicial career.

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Justices D’Emic, Chun appointed to administrative posts in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Justices D’Emic, Chun appointed to administrative posts in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti has announced the appointments of Hon. Matthew D’Emic as administrative judge for criminal matters in state Supreme Court, Kings County, and Hon. Danny Chun as Kings County’s deputy administrative judge for Criminal Matters.

AABANY congratulates Hon. Danny Chun on his appointment by Chief Administrative Judge Gail Prudenti to the position of Deputy Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters in Kings County. The appointment was approved by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and was made in consultation with Presiding Justice Randall Eng of the Second Department.

From the article:

Justice Chun’s judicial career began in 1999, upon his appointment to New York City Criminal Court, Kings County. He was designated an acting Supreme Court justice in 2004 and was temporarily assigned to the Kings County Family Court bench. In 2009, he was reappointed to New York City Criminal Court.

Judge Chun previously served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, where over his 12-year tenure he took on a variety of assignments, including the role of Criminal Court supervisor, with oversight for the office’s junior prosecutors. Judge Chun lectures on the subject of criminal law and taught classes in U.S. criminal procedure and trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Yonsei University School of Law in Seoul, South Korea. He earned his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law.

Please join AABANY in congratulating Hon. Danny Chun on this major milestone in his judicial career.

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PRESS RELEASE: NAPABA Celebrates Confirmation of Vince Chhabria to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 March 5, 2014

Contact: Emily Chatterjee                                                   (202) 775-9555

NAPABA Celebrates Confirmation of Vince Chhabria
to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

WASHINGTON — On March 5, 2014, the Senate confirmed Vince Chhabria by a 58-41 vote to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He is the first person of South Asian descent to serve as an Article III judge in California’s history, and only the third South Asian American federal district court judge nationwide.

“NAPABA congratulates Vince Chhabria on his historic confirmation and is proud to have supported him in the nomination and confirmation process,” said William J. Simonitsch, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). “We applaud President Obama, Senator Boxer, and Senator Feinstein for their continued commitment to diversity on the federal judiciary, and their support of this nomination.”

Since 2005, Judge Chhabria has served as a deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where he is the co-chief of appellate litigation. Prior to public service, Judge Chhabria spent several years working in the private sector in San Francisco. After law school, he clerked at all three levels of the federal courts, including clerkships with Judge Charles R. Breyer on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge James R. Browning on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Chhabria has distinguished himself during his career, receiving honors from the California Daily Journal, the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and NAPABA. He is a longstanding member of SABA-NC, an affiliate of NAPABA, which has strongly supported Chhabria’s nomination.

Judge Chhabria’s confirmation increases the number of active Asian Pacific American Article III judges to 22 nationwide: 4 federal appellate court judges and 18 federal district court judges.

Three more Asian Pacific American Article III judicial nominees are pending in the U.S. Senate: Manish Shah, nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; Indira Talwani, nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; and Theodore Chuang, nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. NAPABA urges the Senate to move quickly to confirm these well- qualified individuals.

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The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of over 40,000 attorneys and 67 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal service and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government. NAPABA continues to be a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network of committees and affiliates, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession.

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The 2013 NAPABA Northeast Regional/AABANY Fall Conference took place on Saturday, September 21, at the New York offices of Weil Gotshal & Manges. It started with breakfast and registration at 8:00 am. Panel session 1 began at 9:30 am, featuring CLE programs on “Office Politics 101 – How to Win the Popularity Contest at Work,” “Post-Hurricane Sandy: One Year Later and its Impact on the Northeast,” and “The Nexus of IP and Everything Else in the Universe.” The morning session of the Trial Advocacy Program (TAP) began with a lecture.

Panel session 2 followed at 11:00 am with CLE programs on “How to Get Disbarred: Avoiding Ethics Complaints and What to Do if you Can’t,” “Girlfriends: ‘Lean In’ – When, Where and How,” and “Bright Lights, Big Pharma.” TAP breakout sessions took place, allowing participants to engage in actual exercises based on the morning lecture.

At the same time, during the morning session, the In-House Counsel Forum, Judicial Forum, numerous pitch sessions and the AABANY Career Exchange were simultaneously going on. It was a busy morning.