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.
AABANY is excited to announce that President Terrence (Terry) Shen was featured in the 2021 Power of Diversity list of New York’s Top 100 Asian American Leaders published by City & State on July 19, 2021. Terry was recognized as 53rd on the list.
City & State wrote:
As partner at the law firm Kramer Levin, Terrence Shen represents New York’s top corporate interest clients like MVC Capital in its merger with Barings BDC, which represents more than $1.5 billion of assets. Shen is also the president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York. Under his leadership, the association released Know-Your-Rights literature, hosted public forums on rising anti-Asian hate crimes and organized candidate forums for New York’s district attorney races.
Congratulations and thank you to Terry for representing AABANY among New York’s most influential Asian American leaders.
In addition to Terry, several others featured on City & State’s list have worked with or been associated with AABANY, as members, community partners, or sponsors. We extend our congratulations to them as well.
AABANY has had the pleasure of working with Grace Meng, number one on City & State’s list and New York’s first Asian American member of Congress. At the forefront of fighting anti-Asian hate by spearheading COVID-19 hate crimes legislation, she was a speaker 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 in February.
Among the others in the top 10, AABANY has worked with Ron Kim (2), State Assembly Member; John Liu (3), State Senator and first Asian American to serve on the City Council; and Margaret Chin (9), New York City Council Member.
AABANY also congratulates:
Sandra Ung (16), New York City Council Primary Winner for District 20 and former AABANY treasurer;
Shekar Krishnan (16), New York City Council Primary Winner for District 25 and former AABANY member;
Faiza Saeed (34), a Presiding Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a Gold Sponsor of AABANY for many years;
John Park (35), Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, one of our longtime community partners;
Margaret Fung (38), Co-founder and Executive Director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, one of our longtime community partners;
Preet Bharara (52), as the first AAPI United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, a regular speaker at our annual Prosecutors Reception and an honoree at our Annual Dinner in 2015;
My Chi To (54), Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Insurance Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services and former AABANY member;
Ruchi Shah (65), President of SABANY, a sister bar association and longtime collaborator with AABANY;
Justin Yu (80), Chair of the New York Chinese Chamber of Commerce, an AABANY partner of many years for our walk-in Pro Bono Clinic; and
Thomas and Jill Sung (88), Chair and President/CEO, respectively, of Abacus Federal Savings Bank. Thomas’s daughter and Jill’s sister, Vera, is currently an AABANY member.
AABANY is privileged and honored to have worked closely with so many of New York’s most influential AAPI leaders. Congratulations to everyone who made the list, and we look forward to continuing our collaborations and partnerships in the future.
The full City & State article can be found here, starting on page 17.
United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
July 7, 2021 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
There is one (1) upcoming full-time United States Magistrate Judge position vacancy at the Central Islip Courthouse of the Eastern District of New York at 1100 Federal Plaza, Central Islip, New York, effective February 24, 2022. The duties of the position are demanding and wide ranging, and will include: (1) conduct of preliminary proceedings in criminal cases; (2) trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases; (3) conduct of various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from the judges of the district court; (4) trial and disposition of civil cases upon consent of the litigants; and (5) assignment of additional duties not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.
The basic jurisdiction of a United States Magistrate Judge is specified in 28 U.S.C., section 636. To be qualified for appointment, an applicant must: (a) be a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands for at least five years; (b) have been engaged in the active practice of law for a period of at least five years (with some substitutions authorized); (c) be competent to perform all the duties of the office, of good moral character, emotionally stable and mature, committed to equal justice under the law, in good health, patient and courteous, and capable of deliberation and decisiveness; (d) be less than 70 years old; and (e) not be related to a judge of the district court. An applicant should have federal court experience and be knowledgeable in federal civil and criminal practices and procedures.
A Merit Selection Panel (appointed by Administrative Order 2021-16) composed of attorneys and residents of the district will review all applications and recommend in confidence to the judges of the district court the five persons whom it considers best qualified for each vacancy. The Court will make the appointments following FBI and IRS investigations of the appointees. An affirmative effort will be made to give due consideration to all qualified candidates, including women and members of minority groups. The salary of the position is, as of this notice, $201,112 per annum. The term of office is eight years.
Please note that the application form can be accessed on-line at the district’s website: www.nyed.uscourts.gov. Application forms also may be obtained from the Clerk of Court at 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York 11201. Applications must be personally prepared by potential nominees and must be received no later than August 8, 2021. A submission can be made by email in PDF format sent to [email protected] or submitted online at this linked address. Instructions are available on the court website.
Grace Jamgochian was elected to Partner at Shearman & Sterling on June 16th, 2021. She currently practices in Shearman’s New York office and, as stated in the Shearman & Sterling announcement, she “represents all aspects of mergers, acquisitions and investments for corporates and private capital investors. Her experience includes domestic and cross-border public company mergers, complex private transactions, and activism/defense, particularly in the TMT, infrastructure, and consumer products sectors.” Grace has also been a member of AABANY since 2019 and she currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Women’s Committee.
Please join AABANY in congratulating Grace Jamgochian and wishing her much success in all her future endeavors.
An eight-fold increase in reported hate crimes against Asians, racist rhetoric such as “the Chinese virus,” and insufficient media coverage of anti-Asian violence — these were among the timely issues discussed at a press conference hosted by the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) on February 11. The press conference centered around AABANY and Paul, Weiss’ co-authored report: A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions. Speakers of note included:
Chris Kwok, Board Director, Issues Committee Chair
Karen King, Vice Chair, Pro Bono & Community Service Committee; Counsel, Paul, Weiss
U.S. Rep., Grace Meng (D-NY)
Prof. Russell Jeung, Stop AAPI Hate
President Frank Wu, Queens College, CUNY
AABANY President Sapna Palla and Executive Director Yang Chen were joined by executive editors of the report Chris Kwok and Karen King, professors Russell Jeung and Frank Wu, and Congresswoman Grace Meng.
The report’s primary finding is that anti-Asian hate and violence surged in 2020. Between March and September of that year, the number of reported anti-Asian hate incidents related to COVID-19 exceeded 2,500.
At the press conference, Rep. Meng kickstarted the discussion of this grim reality by situating it against a backdrop of long-standing intolerance toward the AAPI community, which motivated the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Meng condemned some of the nation’s top government officials and social institutions for fanning the flames of this deep-rooted racism. As noted in the report, the xenophobic rhetoric of elected officials, paired with misinformation spread by the media, normalizes and fuels disease-based stigma against Asians. The subsequent uptick in violence against Asian communities motivated Meng to propose and help pass House Resolution 908 in 2020 denouncing all forms of anti-Asian sentiment. While Meng described the bill as largely symbolic, it has since been incorporated into President Biden’s presidential memorandum, which includes concrete measures to disseminate COVID-19 resources in different languages and improve the collection of data on hate crimes. Meng’s fight to amplify voices within the AAPI community thus lights the path forward. “We’ve taken a positive step — an initial step — but we must continue to speak out whenever and wherever anti-Asian sentiment rises,” said Meng.
A similar desire to spotlight the plight of AAPIs motivated Chris Kwok to serve as an executive editor for the report on anti-Asian violence. Since the onset of the pandemic, Kwok noted at the conference, there has not been a single prosecution or civil resolution for any incident of anti-Asian bias. A key purpose of the report is thus to show that Asian invisibility in the political and legal space has real-life consequences. Moving forward, Kwok hopes to inspire a constructive dialogue among Asians and other Americans alike. To that end, the report highlights seven initiatives that will help policyholders at all levels keep communities safe and hold perpetrators of violence accountable. These initiatives range from broad prescriptions, such as public education campaigns and collaboration among minority groups, to specific remedies, such as clear reporting mechanisms for victims and the more consistent prosecution of hate crimes.
Professor Russell Jeung continued the discussion of possible solutions to anti-Asian hate incidents while echoing his concern about the divisive effects of COVID-19. Drawing from data he helped collect for Stop AAPI Hate, Jeung said that among United States cities, New York City reported the second-highest number of hate incidents in the past year. Assessing the range of anti-Asian hate incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate, the report notes a concerning number of incidents involving verbal harassment, physical assault, and being coughed and spat on. Worse still, the youth and the elderly are the most common victims of racist attacks and consequent racial trauma. Among its federal recommendations to address this issue, Stop AAPI Hate proposes to expand civil rights protections for AAPIs experiencing discrimination, end the racial profiling of Chinese researchers, and mobilize a federal interagency response to anti-Asian hate amid the pandemic. As Jeung is quick to emphasize, this fight for the civil rights of Asian Americans is a fight to expand protections for all Americans. “Please stand up, speak out, build bridges, and together we can make good on the promise of a diverse democracy,” said Jeung.
In promoting the proposals of Stop AAPI Hate and the report, for which he wrote the foreword, Queens College President Frank Wu highlighted the importance of building multi-racial coalitions. Wu identified Black, Latinx, and other underrepresented communities as allies to the AAPI community. As emphasized in the report, stronger collaboration among such minority groups is especially critical in communities like New York City, whose diversity heightens the danger that hate incidents exacerbate racial politics. “It would be a mistake of principle and pragmatism to point the finger at another group and suggest that others are guilty by association,” said Wu. Instead, we must look to universal values and American ideals as forces for national unity. As Wu writes in the foreword to the report, “To be Asian American is to be American, to express confidence enough in an experiment of self-governance to participate wholeheartedly.”
President Frank Wu, Queens College, CUNY, wrote the foreword of the report.
Rep. Meng concluded the press conference by calling on all Americans, especially those raised in the United States, to identify and combat racism when it occurs within their own circles. Meng stated that too often, stories of victims from the AAPI community are left out of mainstream media and the public consciousness. Along with implementing the aforementioned policy recommendations, therefore, Meng emphasized the need for racial solidarity. Only then can Americans progress toward the shared goal of dismantling systemic racism in this country and advancing justice for all.
NEW YORK – February 10, 2021 – The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) is proud to announce the release of its report co-authored with Paul, Weiss, A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions. Executive editors of the report were Chris Kwok, AABANY Board Director and Issues Committee Chair, and Karen King, Vice Chair of AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee and Counsel at Paul, Weiss. The report is dedicated to Corky Lee, who passed away on January 27, 2021 due to COVID-19. Corky was a revered photographer in the Asian American community who had been documenting the effort to combat anti-Asian violence and harassment in the wake of COVID-19. Read more here.
To read A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions, click here.
On October 1, 2020, New York launched COVID Alert NY – the official Exposure Notification App created by the New York State Department of Health in partnership with Google and Apple. The app’s purpose is to help anyone 18+ living and/or working in New York fight against COVID-19 by getting exposure alerts, without compromising their privacy or personal information.
The COVID Alert NY app notifies users if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Upon receiving an exposure notification, the app will encourage users to contact their physician or the State Health Department hotline (1-833-227-5045) to get more information about quarantining and testing.
Anyone who downloads the app does not have to worry about being tracked, identified or having their personal information shared. The app is completely anonymous and does not track location or movement; no personal data is collected. The app instead uses Bluetooth proximity-enabled exposure notification technology provided by Apple and Google which is safe and secure.
The more New Yorkers using the COVID Alert NY app, the more effective it will be as a tool to fight against COVID-19. The COVID Alert NY app puts the power in the hands of New Yorkers to protect their neighbors, friends, family and community at large. Together, we can slow the spread of COVID-19.
The free smartphone app is now available for download in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
