On January 30, City & State published their 2023 power list of the 50 Over 50 in New York. As stated in the article:
The feature, which has become one of our most popular lists each year, recognizes the legacies of 50 accomplished individuals who are 50 or older. While many of our lists regularly track the rise and fall of politicians within different power structures, this annual undertaking has allowed us to take the longer view – and offer well-deserved accolades for leaders who have amassed a long list of accomplishments over the course of their entire careers.
AABANY is pleased to announce that its longtime member Kathy Hirata Chin has been named one of City & State‘s 50 Over 50. See:
On December 16, AABANY sent a letter to Governor Hochul calling on her to reject the New York City Bar Association’s “not well qualified” rating of Hon. Jeffrey K. Oing. AABANY was joined on the letter by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and the following New York bar associations:
Defense Association of New York
Filipino American Lawyers Association of New York
Jewish Lawyers Guild
Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York
The Women’s Trial Lawyers Caucus separately sent a letter to the Governor indicating its support for both Justice Oing and the call to reject the “not well qualified rating.”
All signatories were unanimous in calling on the Governor to reject the bizarre outlier rating given by the New York City Bar Association, with reference to the New York Law Journal article (subscription required) from Dec. 14 about the controversial and unusual rating.
AABANY stands by its statement released on December 12 endorsing Justice Oing as the most highly qualified candidate for the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals and continues to urge the Governor to nominate him as Chief Judge.
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.
NAPABA has announced its 2022-2023 Board of Governors. This board will be sworn in during the 2022 NAPABA Convention Las Vegas, Nov. 3-6. NAPABA’s strength comes from the many volunteers who hold leadership positions across its diverse membership. From its national Board of Governors to its local affiliate leaders, from its substantive committees and affinity network chairs to the chairs of its professional development programs, NAPABA is driven by the expertise, energy, and commitment of its membership.
AABANY is especially proud of AABANY member and Board officer Anna Mercado Clark for being elected as President-Elect for the 2022-2023 Board of Governors. Anna currently serves as an Officer for AABANY’s Board as Development Director. She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States as a twelve-year-old, graduating from Fordham Law School before interning for the Hon. Denny Chin. Anna is a partner at Phillips Lytle LLP and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School.
2022-2023 NAPABA Board of Governors
Executive Committee
President: Sandra Leung
President-Elect: Anna Mercado Clark
Treasurer: Annette Kwok
Secretary: Kristin Haugen
Immediate Past President: A.B. Cruz III
Executive Director: Priya Purandare
Directors
Director: Angela Lim
Director: Marty Lorenzo
Regional Governors
Central Regional Governor: Kristy Gonowon
Central California Regional Governor: Jen Won
Eastern California: Albert Montefalcon
Northeast Regional Governor: James Y. Lee
Northeast Regional Governor: Andrew Sarrol
Northern California Regional Governor: Mari Bandoma Callado
Northwest Regional Governor: Elisa Dozono
Southeast Regional Governor: Zarra Elias
Southern California Regional Governor: Arlene Yang
On June 30, 2022, New York Law Journal published an article interviewing New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) President, Vince Chang (a former AABANY President (2007)), on his insights about New York’s conceal-carry regulations. Chang suggests there’s a limited number of places where permit holders can conceal-carry their guns in New York.
Governor Hochul and other state legislatures convened in Albany late June to discuss the extent of regulating the concealed carry of firearms and their impact on the public safety of New Yorkers. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen has forced government officials, including Gov. Hochul, to act swiftly and address the likelihood of an increase in licenses and in the number of individuals who will likely purchase and carry weapons in New York State. The legislation is meant to strengthen New York’s gun laws to bolster restrictions on concealed carry weapons and still align with the ruling in Bruen.
Chang spoke in favor of regulating New York laws on conceal carry by stating that guns should be excluded from public areas including governmental locations, public transit, auditoriums, arenas, health care facilities, places where alcohol is served, and houses of worship. “We urge the legislature to implement laws to that effect, and we believe it probably will,” Chang said.
According to Chang, an individual’s right to property takes precedence over their Second Amendment right, and property owners have the right to exclude firearms from their property. Just as private property owners can welcome concealed carry permit holders, those property owners who do not want firearms on their premises can restrict them by placing signs prohibiting them on their private property.
Under Chang’s leadership, NYCLA was the only bar association in the state to file an amicus brief supporting the New York state law at issue in Bruen. NYCLA recommended fingerprinting, background checks, mental health record checks, and training in firearms as a counter for the “conservative and reckless” Supreme Court decision. NYCLA’s letter to Gov. Hochul stated how the Bruen decision “effectively switched the burden of proof from the applicant who had to demonstrate proper cause, to the state, which must demonstrate, under deniable standards, that a license should not be granted.” Gov. Hochul’s new legislative package emphasizes the government’s priority to keep the public safe and prevent deaths and injuries by firearms. The law will take effect on September 1, 2022.
Read the full article here. (Subscription required.)
AABANY is excited to announce that on May 2, 2022, President William Ng and President-Elect Karen Kim were recognized by City and State’s 2022 The Power of Diversity: Asian 100. The Power of Diversity: Asian 100 identifies New York’s Asian American leaders from a wide range of backgrounds who are gaining political power and advocating for their community. President William Ng and President-Elect Karen Kim are recognized as 50th on the list, an increase from AABANY’s placement last year at 53rd.
City & State wrote:
William Ng took over as president and Karen Kim as president-elect of the Asian American Bar Association of New York in April. Ng is a shareholder at Littler, a major employment and labor law firm. A Brooklyn Law School alumnus, Kim has practiced law for over a decade and serves as counsel to QBE North America. In March, AABANY, together with like-minded organizations, filed a court brief addressing suspected racial bias in a ruling involving a Korean American individual.
AABANY has had the pleasure of working closely with Grace Meng (1), number one on the list and New York’s first Asian American member of Congress. In 2021, Grace Meng spoke at AABANY’s press conference following the release of our anti-Asian violence report, A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions.
AABANY also congratulates Assemblymember Ron Kim (3) and State Senator John Liu (4), who both spoke at AABANY’s May 31, 2022 press conference following the release of our second report on anti-Asian hate and violence in New York City, entitled Endless Tide: The Continuing Struggle to Overcome Anti-Asian Hate in New York.
Please join AABANY in congratulating these others AAPI trailblazers who made the list:
Sandra Ung (12), City Council member and former treasurer of AABANY;
Kevin Kim (17), Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services and former AABANY Board Officer;
Frank Wu (23), Queens College’s first President of Asian descent. AABANY honored Frank Wu with the AABANY Impact Award at our 2021 Virtual Gala: Uniting for Justice and Equity;
Joon Kim (29), Partner at longtime AABANY sponsor, Cleary Gottlieb, former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, and AABANY member;
Faiza Saeed (35), Presiding Partner at Cravath, a longtime sponsor of AABANY;
Wellington Chen (47), Executive Director of Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corp and AABANY community partner through CPLDC’s and AABANY’s collaboration on the creation of a dedicated team to address lawsuits under the Americans With Disabilities Act;
L. Austin D’Souza & Vidya Pappachan (64), President and President-Elect of the South Asian Bar Association of New York and AABANY members;
Justin Yu (78), Chair of The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York and AABANY community partner through his past support for our Chinatown Pro Bono Clinic;
Anna Mercado Clark (88), Partner at Phillips Lytle, NAPABA’s Northeast regional governor, and AABANY’s current Development Director, an Officer position on the Board; and
Elizabeth OuYang (98), Civil Rights attorney and leader of the APA Voice Redistricting Task Force of which AABANY is a member.
AABANY congratulates everyone who made the City & State Asian 100 list and thanks them all for the important work they do on behalf of New York’s AAPI community. To read the full article, please click here.
AABANY applauds Judge Shababudeen Ally and Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant’s election on February 15 as President and Vice-President of the Asian American Judges Association of New York (AAJANY). Both Judge Ally and Justice Pandit-Durant are AABANY members.
Judge Ally is a Supervising Judge of the Civil Court in New York County. He became the first Muslim male elected to New York City Civil Court in 2018 and the first South Asian Supervising Judge in 2020. Judge Ally began his legal career as a staff attorney with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. Judge Ally then went to work for the NYC Law Department as an Assistant Corporation Counsel. For a decade prior to his time on the bench, Judge Ally operated his own law practice specializing in family and criminal law.
Judge Pandit-Durant is a Justice of the Queens County Supreme Court. Judge Pandit-Durant became the first South Asian judge elected to New York State Supreme Court in Queens and the first South Asian woman judge elected in New York State in 2018. Judge Pandit-Duran began her career as a Prosecutor in the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, serving there with distinction for 25 years before being elected to New York City Civil Court in 2015, becoming the first South Asian to hold that elected office.
On March 2, in an article entitled “Asian American judicial org. works to diversify bench,” the Queens Eagle wrote Asian judges are the “least represented racial or ethnic group on the bench,” making up 6 percent of Queens’s judiciary. In the Queens’s Family Court, “there is only one Asian judge and there are no Asian American judges in the Borough’s housing Court.” In comparison, “White judges account for around 66 percent, 17 percent of judges are Latino and 17 percent are Black,” according to the Office of Court Administration data cited by the Queens Eagle.
This lack of AAPI judicial representation is further exacerbated by the overall increase of Queens’s total population. Data cited by the Queens Eagle indicates that Asian Americans account for the largest population growth of 29 percent in Queens, “outpacing the borough’s overall 7.8 percent growth.”
Judge Ally told the Queens Eagle that though there is a lot of work left to be done, diversity efforts on the bench appear to be headed in the right direction. AAJANY’s board includes three other AAPI judges from Queens: Queens Civil Court Judge Changyong Li is the secretary, recently-elected Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term Judge Karen Gopee is the treasurer and Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term Judge Francis Wang is now a member of the Board of Directors. AAJANY’s Board of Directors also includes Hon. Lillian Wan, Hon. Meredith Vacca, Hon. Karen M.C. Cortes, and Hon. Shorab Ibrahim.
To read more about the AAJANY election, please click here.
Congratulations to Judge Ally, Justice Durant, and all the newly-elected Board members of AAJANY. Thank you for all you do to represent the AAPI community and to enhance diversity and inclusion on the bench.
AABANY President Terrence Shen and President-Elect William Ng have been recognized by City & State’s Law Power 100. The Law Power 100 takes an in-depth look at the legal professionals who aren’t simply influential in their field, but powerful in New York’s governmental landscape. This year’s list includes district attorneys, federal prosecutors, white-collar defense attorneys, public interest lawyers, law school deans and bar association leaders who have shaped New York politics and government.
President Terrence Shen and President-Elect William are 86th on the Law Power 100 for their leadership of AABANY. The publication applauds AABANY as an organization of more than 1,500 attorneys, judges, law students and academics which aims to improve the practice of law and to support Asian American legal professionals.
AABANY congratulates Terrence Shen and William Ng, as well as all the attorneys, firms and groups recognized. To read the full article, please click here.
The Asian American Bar Association of New York together with the New York City Bar Association ADR Committee and the New York State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section and partner bar associations are committed to increasing the selection of ADR professionals from historically underrepresented communities. To promote this goal, the partnering bar associations have created the New York Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Neutral Directory (“NY DEI Neutral Directory).
The directory is a list of ADR professionals who self-identify as a member of a historically underrepresented community including but not limited to: a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, as having a disability, or identify as a woman. Individuals seeking ADR professionals can search the directory alphabetically, by practice area, by language ability, and by other self-identifying characteristics. Individuals who wish to be included in the directory must be members of one of the partnering bar associations, and have filled out the Directory Questionnaire which is available here: https://bit.ly/3d1Nn3q Inclusion in this directory does not imply endorsement or recommendation by any organization
Directory Partners include the following bar associations: The Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association, Asian American Bar Association of New York, The Bar Association of Erie County, The Brehon Law Society, Caribbean Attorney Network, Dominican Bar Association, Hispanic National Bar Association, New York Chapter, LGBT Bar Association of New York, Macon B. Allen Black Bar Association, Metropolitan Black Bar Association, The Network of Bar Leaders, New York County Lawyers Association, Rochester Black Bar Association, South Asian Bar Association of New York, Puerto Rican Bar Association, Westchester Bar Association and the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York.
As a young practitioner, I often found the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) to be a daunting and dizzying set of rules. How do I know if I need to file a summons or summons and complaint? When do I file a Request for Judicial Intervention? How do I establish jurisdiction under New York’s long-arm statute? What is the statute of limitations to commence an Article 78 proceeding? Before diving into electronic searches, my first stop was often to peruse the treatises in the firm’s law library or from the collections of more senior associates. While electronic research was the norm even when I was in law school, I still found flipping through the hard copy books to be beneficial. I advise the associates who now work for me to do the same.
Thus, I had a great deal of nostalgia when I opened the box containing the ten-volume set of hard-covered books (and one soft-covered index) of this treatise. They now take up a prominent and easy-to-reach location on my bookshelf. This is the Fifth Edition of this treatise that was first published in 1995 and last updated in 2015. The 156 chapters cover more than just the step-by-step practical advice for every phase of litigation. There are 64 chapters covering some of the most commonly encountered areas of substantive law in commercial cases, including contracts, securities, business torts, antitrust, and intellectual property. The authors of each chapter are a veritable “Who’s Who” of prominent practitioners and jurists. Each chapter begins with a “Scope Note” providing a brief overview of the chapter within and each chapter ends with “Practice Aids” usually consisting of checklists and sample forms. The chapters also contain helpful cross-references to other chapters within the treatise when they touch upon those subjects.
As someone who typically practices in federal court, I found the chapters that compare and contrast the various rules in federal and state court and outline the benefits and pitfalls of each forum particularly helpful. Naturally, Chapter 11 (Comparison with Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts) is a prime example with a checklist of key distinctions between the federal rules and the CPLR. It also outlines some important differences in discovery, including the blanket stay of discovery pending the determination of a motion to dismiss in state court and the somewhat piecemeal approach governing electronic discovery in state court as opposed to the federal rules. Similarly, Chapter 39 (Practice Before the Commercial Division) is a must-read to understand how the statewide rules of the Commercial Division differ and/or interact with the CPLR, especially in discovery. I have also relied on many of the substantive legal chapters as references. For example, Chapter 124 (Antitrust Litigation) provides a thorough overview of the Donnelly Act and the common threads between antitrust litigation in federal court and at the state level.
I have also tabbed the over 500 pages within Chapter 8 (Responses to Complaints) which expertly outlines the procedural steps and the myriad of tactical decisions that arise after a plaintiff files its initial papers. It is not limited to the issues faced by a responding defendant but also summarizes plaintiff’s options when facing a motion to dismiss. I recently relied on the discussion regarding general and specific denials to explain to a client, who is normally in a jurisdiction that permits a single non-specific denial of all allegations in the complaint, why specific denials were necessary in New York. I also used the overview of CPLR 3211 to explain how our approach to a motion to dismiss would differ in state court if we chose not to remove to federal court.
This latest edition adds 28 new chapters from the prior version addressing increasingly important issues to litigators today. These chapters cover a wide range of topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Comparison with Commercial Litigation in Delaware Courts, Fashion and Retail, Private Equity, and Third-Party Litigation Funding, to name a few. One new addition — Chapter 14 (Business Courts)—provides an excellent overview for proceeding in these specialized tribunals around the country. It lays out various pretrial procedural factors that a litigator should consider before commencing an action in any business court and highlights the practice in jurisdictions such as New York, California, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, and Arizona. With a large part of my practice involving litigation with foreign parties, I found Chapter 13 (Comparison with Commercial Litigation in Foreign Courts) and Chapter 23 (Cross-Border Litigation) as welcome additions. Chapter 13 sets forth a broad overview of practicing in two common law countries (England and Australia) and three civil law countries (France, Germany, and Russia). Chapter 23 offers an exceptional summary of data privacy issues from foreign jurisdictions and an overview of various forms of injunctive relief that should be considered to preserve or restore the status quo.
Finally, as a former affinity bar president and as someone with an active role in diversity and inclusion efforts within my firm, I was excited to see Chapter 83, the inaugural chapter on Diversity & Inclusion in commercial litigation in New York. The chapter amplifies many of the well-known reasons of why diversity is important to litigators: diverse and inclusive teams generate more innovative and creative results by bringing different perspectives to bear; diversity and inclusion is important to clients and judges; and, increasingly diverse juror pools connect better to diverse trial teams. It stresses the importance of intentionally including diverse perspectives in every aspect of litigation from pre-complaint through trial. While I wish there was more in-depth discussion of best practices, I appreciated the spotlight on the importance of implicit bias training and of firm management’s leadership of these efforts in order to improve the retention of diverse attorneys.
I have only scratched the surface of the numerous topics and features of this treatise. From my perspective, all litigators would benefit from this invaluable resource.
Brian W. Song is a Partner in the New York Office of BakerHostetler. He represents clients in complex commercial litigation and criminal matters in state and federal courts. Brian has particular experience in the areas of securities litigation and white collar criminal defense, where he has represented clients in connection with investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and state regulators. Brian is a former President of the Asian American Bar Association of New York.
