On August 6, some two dozen members of the Asia Practice Committee enjoyed various high quality cuts of steak, lamb, and pork as well as a market table salad bar filled with a colorful palate of fresh and flavorful ingredients at the legendary Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse in Midtown West. Taking advantage of the great deals being offered during New York City Restaurant Week, the Committee gathered to dine and chat about its mission and upcoming events, including a joint event with Supchina on December 4, 2019. We connected with old and new friends and enjoyed an amazing and very filling dinner.
Thank you to everyone who attended this event. Thanks also to our Committee Chairs for their leadership: Conlyn Chan, Alex Yong Hao, Chris Kwok, and Jian Wu . To learn more about the Asia Practice Committee and to contact the Co-Chairs, click here.
SheLovesTech, partnered with SupChina, houses the world’s largest pitch competition for early-stage female-led/female-related tech startups. Thousands of eligible startups from around the world have applied at 20+ local rounds internationally.
SheLovesTech 2019 Global Pitch Competition — New York Semi-Final Round
5:30 – 6:00: Workshop with SheLovesTech Leadership Coach
6:00 – 7:30: Winner Announcement & Networking
Listen to semi-finalists pitch in front of our curated judge panel and an audience interested in female entrepreneurship or female-related businesses, network with investors and entrepreneurs who believe in the power of female entrepreneurs, and participate in our workshop on unconscious gender biases.
About She Loves Tech: Founded in 2015, SheLovesTech is a nonprofit and a global platform committed to building an ecosystem for technology, entrepreneurship and innovation that creates opportunities for women. The organization houses the world’s largest tech startup competition focused on women-led or women-related businesses.
By special arrangement with our friends at Supchina, we are able to offer AABANY members a code for free tickets to the event. If you are interested, please email [email protected] to get the code.
On Monday, July 15th, AABANY, along with SABANY, co-sponsored a panel on Careers in Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) at the JAMS office located on the 16th floor of the New York Times Building at 620 8th Ave. The panel featured Dr. Kabir Dhuggal, Senior Associate at Arnold & Porter, Robyn Weinstein, ADR Administrator at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Rebecca Price, Director of the ADR program at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Chris Kwok, mediator and arbitrator at JAMS, ADR Services. Chris Kwok is a Board Director of AABANY, Co-Chair of the Asia Practice Committee, and Chair of the Issues Committee. The panel was moderated by Amit Kumar, Managing Attorney at the Law Offices of William Cafaro.
After a brief introduction of the panelists, Kumar first asked panelists, “How did you become involved in ADR?” The panelists’ responses ranged from studying it early in law school to falling into the realm of ADR later. Price noted her background as a social worker in helping to make the transition to working in ADR more naturally. Kwok affirmed that and humorously added, “When I try to describe mediation, I sometimes tell people that I’m a psychologist with a law degree.”
The panelists also spoke on key skills for thriving in a career in ADR. These skills included patience, engaged listening, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a genuine passion for the work. Dr. Dhuggal especially emphasized the necessity of robust legal writing skills. He advised, “Legal writing is an art that needs to be finessed. Make every effort you can. A simple way to do this is to find a senior whose writing you particularly admire and tell them that you’d like to co-author a piece with them.” Everyone commented on the importance of meaningful networking as well—be it through organizations such as AABANY and SABANY to even organizing panels with professionals you’d like to reach out to.
Other topics discussed during the well-attended panel included improving diversity in ADR, domestic ADR vs. international ADR, and predictions on future trends in the career pathway. Afterwards, attendees munched on assorted snacks from Cafe Zaiya while networking—as discussed during the panel. Thank you to all of our accomplished panelists for sharing their valuable insights!
On Thursday, June 27th, AABANY held its 12th annual Summer Soiree, formerly known as the Wine Tasting and Networking Reception, at the Castell Rooftop Lounge located atop AC Hotel New York Times Square. The In-House Counsel Committee and the Corporate Law Committee once again co-organized this event, and around 130 senior in-house lawyers and senior law firm attorneys and partners attended this year.
Attendees networked with one another as they enjoyed an abundant selection of drinks paired with signature items prepared by the chef, with views of the Manhattan skyline from the terrace. To get our attendees to actively mingle and mix, we played an icebreaker game in which attendees had to find at least one other person in the room that matched them on various things, like where they went to school, what type of practice they are involved with, and where they have lived before coming to New York City. Congratulations to the two winners of the icebreaker, Gary Eisenberg of Perkins Coie and Jenifer Liu of JP Morgan, who each received a bottle of champagne, thanks to the generosity of Sabine Poisson.
The attendees represented 51 companies from a variety of industries, such as banking media, finance, and real estate, and 30 top global and regional law firms with offices in New York City.
We would like to give special thanks to the following sponsors for helping us make this event a memorable success:
Summit Financial
Prosperian
Reed Smith
Davis & Gilbert
Perkins Coie
Consilio
Thank you to all our attendees, and we hope to see everyone again at next year’s Summer Soiree. To learn more about the Corporate Law Committee, go to https://www.aabany.org/page/128 To learn more about the In-House Counsel Committee go to: https://www.aabany.org/page/149
On Friday, June 28, 2019, AABANY’s Membership Committee and Young Lawyers Committee hosted a summer mixer with members, colleagues, and friends at Atwood in Midtown East.
Even with the whole mezzanine area to ourselves, we had no trouble packing out the spacious venue with over sixty young lawyers and law students who were eager to unwind from a long week, reconnect with old faces, and build new relationships. Members and non-members alike mingled over delicious platters of philly cheese egg rolls, chicken wings, fries, and grilled vegetables, all the while taking advantage of beer specials provided by the friendly staff at Atwood. Young lawyers shared their experiences with law firm and judicial interns who were eager to know what life after law school would be like. And colleagues caught up with one another regarding the work that they were doing in their respective fields, whether it be in-house, big law, smaller law firms, or working in government.
A special shout out to the crack team of Darley Maw, Cynthia Lam, and Ada Wang, co-chairs of the Young Lawyers Committee, who helped make this mixer a success. If you missed out on this great event, make sure to attend the next Membership Mixer on Thursday, July 18.
The next Membership Mixer will take place on July 18. It will be co-sponsored by the Government Service and Public Interest Committee and the Prosecutors’ Committee. For more information, please click here.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2019, AABANY’s Career Placement and Student Outreach Committees hosted the first Membership Mixer of the new fiscal year at Cajunsea on West 33rd Street.
Well over 30 attendees gathered and mingled while enjoying drinks, oysters, and snacks. The Membership Mixer is just oneof many events that AABANY’s Membership Committee is hosting to engage current and future members. Co-Chairs from the Career Placement Committee and Student Outreach Committee were present to meet with attendees and introduce them to the work of those committees.
Membership Committee Co-Chairs, Beatrice Leong and Christopher Bae, were on hand and made an announcement about upcoming events, which include an off-Broadway outing for “You never touched the dirt” and a Mets game at Citi Field. Please visit our calendar to learn more about our upcoming events by going to https://www.aabany.org/events/event_list.asp.
We thank everyone that braved the rain to attend the event and made it a great success.
On Thursday, March 14, 2019, the In-House Counsel Committee hosted a very successful networking event at the cozy and upscale Freds at Barneys Downtown. In-house counsel from numerous prominent companies gathered and mingled over drinks and light bites.
The attendees took the time to get to know one another and shared insights into what their work entails. The general consensus appeared to be that the in-house counsel legal experience is vastly different from that of any other practice area and to be successful in this role, one has to learn to be a jack of all trades.
We thank everyone that attended and made the event a great success.
We also thank our In-House Counsel Committee co-chairs Grace Fu, General Counsel at Barneys New York, and Blossom Kan, Assistant General Counsel at Metlife, for hosting this event. A special thank you to Grace Fu for arranging such a beautiful venue for the event.
On March 6, 2019, Margaret Ling, AABANY Co-Chair of the Real Estate Committee, presented the CLE entitled “Real Estate Fraud – Red Flags and War Stories” The CLE networking event took place at Knights of Columbus in Brooklyn and was co-sponsored by AABANY, KALAGNY, Northfield Bank and the Brooklyn Real Estate Board.
Pictured here from left to right: Debbie Lemma, Margaret Ling, Joanne Valerio, Geri Giancola, and Francis Chin of AABANY
Thanks to Margaret Ling for the write-up and photo for this post.
On September 26, 2018, AABANY’s Real Estate and Solo & Small Firm Practice Committees, with KALAGNY, Citrin Cooperman and HSBC, hosted a Fall Harvest Moon Festival Networking Event. Over 60 people attended the event at Citrin Cooperman’s Fifth Avenue headquarters. AABANY leadership in attendance included Margaret Ling, AABANY Development Director and Co-Chair of AABANY’s Real Estate Committee; Cary Chan, AABANY Co-Chair of Real Estate and Solo & Small Firm Practice Committee; Poonam Gupta, AABANY Immigration Committee Co-Chair; Beatrice Leong, AABANY Government Service and Public Interest Committee Co-Chair; and Vincent Chang, Former AABANY President. VIP Guests included Bridgette Ahn, President of the Network of Bar Leaders; George Xu, President of New Century Development; and Wellington Chan, Executive Director of Chinatown Partnership. Many thanks to our sponsors Ben Liu, CPA, Director at Citrin Cooperman, and David Lau, Retail Business Banking Relationship Manager at HSBC Bank. Everyone enjoyed the networking and the buffet, which included moon cakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Above: Citrin Cooperman Team and Margaret Ling
Left to Right: Bridgette Ahn, George Xu, David Lau,Margaret Ling, Ben Liu
Left to Right: Ben Liu, George Xu, Patrick Yu, Wellington Chan, Margaret Ling, David Fesser
Left to Right: Jane Chen, Jang Lee, Margaret Ling, Cary Chan
