Again showing AABANY’s commitment to raising up the next generation of Asian American lawyers, the Government Service and Public Interest (GSPI) committee teamed up with the Student Outreach Committee (SOC) and Mayer Brown LLP to host the first ever “AABANY Students Meet Government and Public Interest Lawyers” event. The program was held on the evening of February 23 and was very successful, featuring a room packed with students and mentors, and two professional panels, followed by a networking reception.
The panels showcased how Asian Americans have succeeded as lawyers in government service and in the public interest. The panels featured:
Rahul Agarwal, Deputy Chief Counsel from the Office of Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall;
Sofia Khan, Director of the Family Law Unit from Legal Services NYC (LSNYC);
Belinda Luu, Staff Attorney from Mobilization for Justice’s (MFJ) Special Litigation Project;
Frank Ng, Deputy General Counsel from the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH);
Kwok Ng, Associate Court Attorney from New York City Civil Court;
Nakeeb Siddique, Director of Housing from the Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn Neighborhood Office;
Marti Weithman, Assistant Commissioner from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (DHPD); and
Annie Wang, Director of Immigrant Justice Project from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education (AALDEF).
The panels showed students what it is like to work in a variety of fields in government and public interest and what it takes for students to get a foot in the door.
The panel discussions were followed by a networking reception with more government service and public interest lawyers. In attendance were, Ernie Collete from MFJ, Kevin Hsi from DHPD (also GSPI Committee’s Co-Chair), Jonathan Rosen from New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), May Wong (Pro Bono & Community Service Committee Co-Chair) from DC 37 Legal Services. Also, in attendance were AABANY’s Executive Director Yang Chen, Vice President of Programs and Operations Beatrice Leong, and Treasurer and Co-Chair of the GSPI Committee Evelyn Gong.
Thank you to AABANY student leaders Stephanie Sun (Fordham Law) and Alex Lao (Pace Law), SOC Vice Chair Justin Lee (NYU Law), SOC Co-Chair William Lee (Associate, Mayer Brown LLP) and GSPI Committee Co-Chair Rina Gurung (Associate Court Attorney, Housing Court) for leading the charge.
Special thank you to Mayer Brown LLP for sponsoring and hosting this event.
To learn more about the GSPI Committee, click here. To learn more about the SOC, click here.
Thank you AABANY, VNS Chinatown Community Center, and our dedicated volunteers for joining us on January 14, 2023 at the Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic. Shoutout to Gary Yeung, co-chair of the Mentorship Program, for coming out to our clinics twice in a row!!!
We met with 15 clients who had questions about tort, family law/matrimonial, and housing.
Reading through our client satisfaction surveys, these are the remarks from our clients:
“Just appreciate your advice and services.”
“Made me more comfortable about my situation.”
For all law students/law graduates who are seeking to complete the 50 pro bono hours requirement, remember to reach out to us to get more information about the process and what other projects we have on hand at probono@aabany.org.
Please vist the AABANY’s Calendar and sign up for a listing of events and sign up for upcoming Pro Bono Clinics:
On January 7, 2023, the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), and dedicated volunteers staffed the Pro Bono Clinic at AAFE’s Flushing Community Center in Queens, New York.
The clinic met with 14 clients who had questions about tort, contracts, and housing laws.
Clients who filled out the clinic’s satisfaction surveys remarked:
“Hope there are more of these activities. Helps the community greatly.”
“Extremely grateful! Thank you guys very much.”
“Come frequently.”
Volunteering attorneys have asked clinic staffers about how to learn more about areas of law in which they do not practice. The best way to learn about new, developing areas of the law is from other attorneys. AABANY’s Pro Bono clinics are a great chance to connect with other attorneys.
For law students and law school graduates seeking to complete the 50 pro bono hours requirement, remember to reach out to clinic staffers to learn about the requirement fulfillment process and other ongoing projects at probono@aabany.org.
Thank you Eugene Kim, co-chair of the Pro Bono and Community Service (PBCS) Committee, for bringing the wealthy cupcakes (fat go) to share with the volunteers!
Please check AABANY’s Calendar for a listing of events and the upcoming Pro Bono Clinics:
The City of New York’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) is the nation’s largest central administrative tribunal, independent of the agencies that commence these proceedings. OATH conducts nearly 300,000 trials and hearings each year through its Trials Division and Hearings Division.
ADJUDICATIONS AT OATH OATH Trials Division conducts complex adjudications for a wide range of legal matters such as employee discipline, discrimination under the City Human Rights Law, NYPD vehicle seizures, zoning and landlord- tenant disputes under the Loft Law, professional license revocation, and City vendor contract disputes.
OATH Hearings Division conducts high volume adjudications involving:
Violations of law that protect and promote health, safety, and a clean environment, as enforced by agencies such as the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department, the Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Environmental Protection;
Violations of the City’s Health Code and related laws by restaurants and food vendors, as enforced by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene;
Summonses issued by the Taxi & Limousine Commission, the Port Authority of NY and NJ, or the NYPD, against owners and operators of taxis and other for-hire vehicles;
Consumer protection laws that prohibit sale of tobacco to minors and home improvement contracts, as regulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs; and
Violations under the Criminal Justice Reform Act, which authorizes issuance of civil summonses for certain low-level offenses formerly brought to criminal court and offers the option of community service in place of monetary civil penalties.
OATH’s Administrative Judicial Institute offers administrative judicial training and CLE classes citywide.
ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP Working within various divisions, including the Office of the General Counsel, interns will develop research and writing, communication, and analytical skills. Typical assignments include: preparing summaries of trial or hearing records; drafting appellate decisions based on the hearing record and relevant law; researching and drafting memoranda of law; analyzing proposed legislation and rules that impact OATH; drafting proposed rules; participating in policy discussions; and assisting counsel prepare the defense in challenges to OATH decisions in state or federal court. Interns will attend training workshops. Networking and social events are also planned.
APPLICATION PROCESS Interested law students should submit a cover letter explaining their interest, with a resume, writing sample (about 10 pages), and unofficial law school transcript. Applications should be submitted to Frank Ng, Deputy General Counsel, at fng@oath.nyc.gov. Deadline is March 6, 2023.
FUNDING The internship is a paid position. Any arrangements, paperwork, or information needed from OATH to receive outside funding, work study, or academic credit must be made before the start of the internship.
For more information about OATH, visit the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings website.
Each summer, the New York State Court System provides an excellent learning opportunity to students from all over the country through the Judicial Internship Program.
The 2023 Summer Judicial Internship Program for the Ninth Judicial District is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 5th, and last approximately six weeks until July 14th. Interns are expected to work Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. The internship encompasses the entire Ninth Judicial District (Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, and Dutchess Counties) and selected interns are placed in a location convenient for them. All interns will attend a detailed orientation on June 5th and weekly professional development lectures with guest speakers held in the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains. The summer internship is unpaid, and interns are responsible for paying parking fees.
The opportunity to intern in a Judge’s chambers provides a student with an insider’s view into the decision-making process and a chance to participate in that important process. Interns’ tasks will include conducting legal research, drafting memos and briefs, preparing decisions, observing court, and assisting chambers staff with the day-to-day operations of their part.
Interested law students and college students who would like to apply to the 2023 Summer Judicial Internship Program, should complete the employment application and email it, along with a cover letter (explaining why you are interested in the program, what areas of law interest you, and what County you prefer to be placed), resume, and official transcript to Stefanie DeNise, Internship Coordinator, at sdenise@nycourts.gov.
Interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis, beginning in January. All applications must be received no later than March 31, 2023. Note: the internship program is limited to 50 students.
If you are a law student and an avid writer, and wish to hone those skills over the summer, please note in your cover letter that you would like to be considered for a position with the White Plains satellite office of the Appellate Division, Second Department. Please also include a writing sample with your application materials.
Interns must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus by the start date of the internship, unless granted a reasonable accommodation due to disability or religion.
The New York State Unified Court System is an equal opportunity employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender (including pregnancy and gender identity or expression), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, membership in an employee organization, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.
On October 13, over two dozen law students and New York Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) braved the pouring rain for the Prosecutors’ Committee and Student Outreach Committee’s first-ever mixer. Pizza slices in hand, ADAs from across the five boroughs and Nassau County shared their wealth of experience and helpful advice with law students interested in following them into prosecutors’ offices.
Prosecutors’ Committee Co-Chair David Chiang made clear that the Asian American prosecutors at this meeting, whose roles ranged from bureau chiefs to brand-new ADAs, were there on a mission. “Asian Americans are incredibly underrepresented” in the prosecution field, Chiang told the room. While many prosecutors have mentors and networks that help them get ADA positions and rise up the ranks, Asian Americans may not have the same breadth of resources for doing so. Building support networks for career advancement in the ADA space was the reason why ADAs and Prosecutors’ Committee members met with law students that night.
“I want aspiring prosecutors to learn what it’s like to be in the office,” Devin Ly, a Kings County ADA, said. While the workload could be heavy and the demands sky high, he and his colleagues stressed that it’s worthwhile because of the good they were doing for their communities. For many of the prosecutors in attendance, their jobs felt meaningful not through tallying convictions or locking up their fellow borough residents. Rather, many AAPI prosecutors see their job as an opportunity to seek justice more holistically. Talking to students, these prosecutors shared stories, the philosophies of their offices, and how they work hard to do right by defendants and their communities. While the problems of incarceration should still be considered by prosecutors, a prosecutor’s job is ultimately to look beyond someone’s criminal record and the circumstances of the case and ask whether justice is best served by alternatives like social services or other pretrial interventions that would better serve the defendant and the community.
“It was awesome to meet all these prosecutors from all these bureaus!” Andy Xu, a second-year law student from Cardozo exclaimed. “It’s great that AABANY opens things like this up for us!” Justin Lee, a third-year law student from NYU, added.
The event was co-hosted by the AABANY Student Outreach Committee and the Prosecutors’ Committee. We would like to thank Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Cleary’s DE&I team for providing us with space as well as food and drinks for the event.
With these lessons in mind and with so many connections made between these future lawyers and mentors, and maybe even future colleagues, we can’t wait to see where this collaboration goes from here.
To learn more about the Prosecutors’ Committee please click here. To learn more about the Student Outreach Committee please click here.
The NYSBA Business Law Section would like you to know about their Speakers Bureau as well as the opening of this year’s mentorship program. Please see below for further details:
1. NYSBA – Business Law Section Speakers Bureau – The Business Law Section is creating a faculty of speakers that they can contact for their various programs during the year. They want to make sure they have diverse attorneys as part of that faculty. Please complete this link
2. Law Student Mentoring – The Business Law Section is kicking off its 2022 – 2023 mentoring program. Law students seeking a mentor, please sign-up via this link
The Robin Mangaser Tizon Memorial Law Scholarship is sponsored by the NFALA Foundation in collaboration with FALA New York. Robin Mangaser Tizon, Esq., MBA, was a beloved wife, daughter, sister and proud Filipina-American lawyer. Robin was born the third of four daughters, whose immigrant parents instilled in their children the value of education and service to one’s community. Throughout her life, Robin devoted herself in advocacy of many causes, including Filipino veterans’ rights, adolescents with cancer, and immigrants’ rights. She also had musical talent and a fine eye for design, enlivening any event with her singing, dancing, and keyboard skills.
After overcoming stage III ovarian cancer at the age of 23, Robin achieved her dream of becoming a lawyer, graduating from Rutgers School of Law-Camden in 2013 with a JD/MBA degree. Robin focused her practice on intellectual property law. She served as a valuable leader of NFALA and FALA New York where she found inspiring mentors and lifelong friendships. Indeed, as one of the first members and original Co-Chair of the Public Relations Committee since FALA New York’s inception, Robin was instrumental in establishing the FALA New York brand and lasting communications strategy. Throughout her long battle with cancer, Robin remained committed to her duties at FALA New York.
OVERVIEW
NFALA Foundation scholarship awards are given to law students who demonstrate exceptional aptitude for the study of law and strong commitment to serve or contribute to the Filipino-American community as future leaders in the legal profession. The Robin Mangaser Tizon Memorial Law Scholarship was established to honor Robin’s memory and supports talented law students who embody her spirit and commitment to service. Each scholarship recipient will receive $800 to $1,000, depending on the number of recipients selected in a given year.
ELIGIBILITY
NFALA Foundation scholarships are made available, on a competitive basis, to students who are enrolled in their Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), or Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) at an accredited U.S. law school (Fall 2022 first time enrollees should submit a statement from your law school certifying that you are a law degree candidate enrolled at least part-time).
The NFALA Foundation strongly encourages applications from applicants reflecting diverse cultural and experiential backgrounds, people with disabilities and of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds, work experiences, national origins, sexual orientations and ages.
CRITERIA
The Robin Mangaser Tizon Memorial Law Scholarship is awarded on the basis of:
Essay;
Resume;
Two (2) letters for recommendation (from persons not related to you);
Official or unofficial copies of your law school transcript (or for an incoming first-year law student, proof of enrollment); and
Any further submission showcasing the applicant’s creative talents, particularly in the field of visual arts or music (optional).
IMPORTANT DATES
April 15, 2022 The scholarship application is available
May 20, 2022 The application and supporting materials must be received by 5:00 PM Eastern Time
June 1, 2022 Scholarship Awardee is notified by this date
TBD Scholarship presentation at the FALA NY annual dinner to be held in June.
INSTRUCTIONS
You may apply for the Robin Mangaser Tizon Memorial Law Scholarship by emailing a completed application (view here), along with supporting documents listed under Criteria, to RobinMangaserTizonScholarship@gmail.com by 5:00 P.M. (Eastern) on May 20, 2022. Applications must be submitted in one PDF file with the title “Robin Mangaser Tizon Scholarship Application – [Applicant Name]” that consists of all application materials.
Your essay should be no longer than 500 words. Of all the parts of the application, your essay carries the greatest weight. Please emphasize any experience you have that shows your commitment to serving the Filipino- American community, as well as your need for financial assistance.
Please submit two letters of recommendation (recommendation letters for law school admission or other programs and positions are acceptable). It is not necessary to submit more than two recommendation letters. If you submit more than two letters, the committee may only review the first two letters received. Letters may be sealed or unsealed and sent directly by the recommender or by the applicant. An application is not excluded from consideration if no letter of recommendation is provided, though it is highly recommended.
Creative submissions are optional only, but provide the applicant an opportunity to showcase creative talents. Applicants may either a) submit a link to RobinMangaserTizonScholarship@gmail.com with the content showcasing the applicant’s creative talents and provide any necessary permissions to view, or b) request an FTP link via that email for the applicant to upload materials. All creative works must be the applicant’s original work or composition, with recordings of performances or music compositions being no longer than five minutes and a maximum of 5 images (.jpg, .png, etc.) or original written works (maximum of 500 words).
On April 7, AABANY’s Student Outreach and Labor & Employment Committees hosted a panel on careers in Labor and Employment law. Topics included the types of lawsuits affecting employers and employees, the role of related government agencies and the impact of COVID on employment law. The panelists were:
William Ng, Shareholder at Littler Mendelson P.C.;
Chris M. Kwok, JAMS Mediator and Arbitrator;
John S. Ho, Chair of Cozen O’Connor’s OSHA Practice;
Yoojin DeNiro, Associate at Goodwin Proctor LLP; and
Jennifer S. Kim, Associate at Jackson Lewis.
The event was moderated by Jay Hawlader, AABANY Student Leader and a 2L at Brooklyn Law School.
The panelists provided a wide range of perspectives based on their different experiences. Students learned about career tracks at labor and employment law firms, companies with in-house practices, regulatory agencies and the courts. Panelists also concurred that labor and employment law is a downturn-proof industry with increasing demand and thus offers great opportunities for eager young lawyers.
Thank you to the panelists, moderator and attendees. To learn more about the Student Outreach Committee, please visit https://www.aabany.org/page/121. To learn more about the Labor & Employment Law Committee, please visit https://www.aabany.org/page/398.
On Saturday, September 4, 2021, the Student Outreach Committee and the Pro Bono and Community Service (PBCS) Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) returned to Asian and Asian American communities across New York City to promote PBCS’s newly-back in person Pro Bono Clinic and AABANY’s COVID-19 Legal Know-Your-Rights Resources as well as AABANY’s Legal Referral and Information Service (LRIS).
The Brooklyn Chinatown volunteers were led by May Wong, Judy Lee and Kwok Ng of the PBCS Committee, the Koreatown volunteers were led by Victor Roh and Will Lee, a key leader and organizer of last year’s event, and the Manhattan Chinatown volunteers were led by Nicholas Loh and Dianna Lam, another key leader and organizer of last year’s event.
This campaign built off the energy and momentum of the initial flyering campaign held last year over the July 4 holiday weekend, during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This year’s campaign saw the addition of another community, Brooklyn Chinatown, and included over 40 volunteers from AABANY and law schools across the Greater New York area.
The results were impressive. Over 1,000 flyers in Chinese, Korean and English were distributed to local small businesses promoting AABANY’s Pro Bono Clinic, Know-Your-Rights information, and the LRIS. Our student volunteers had meaningful opportunities to interact with small business owners who have been hit hard by a staggering two years of anti-Asian hate and violence, COVID-19 business disruptions, and the devastating impact on Asian businesses as a result of xenophobia and racism.
This event would not have been possible without the co-sponsorship of AABANY’s Student Outreach Committee, AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee, AABANY’s Young Lawyers Committee, Asian Americans for Equality, APALSAs from all across the Greater New York area and Mayer Brown.
Read more about AABANY’s PBCS Committee and Pro Bono Clinic, about AABANY’s LRIS service here, HEART here, and Know Your Rights info here. Thanks to all the organizers, co-sponsors, and — especially — all the student volunteers.
