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.
AABANY is proud to announce that last week James R. Cho, Immediate Past President and Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of NY, and Linda S. Lin, Past President 2011 and Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at QBE North America, were presented with the 2019 CUP Law Catalysts award at the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) 10th Annual Lawyers Forum and Law Catalyst Recognition Ceremony. The ceremony was held at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP on November 12, 2019.
The CUP Law Catalyst award honors and celebrates the accomplishments of diverse legal professionals who are achieving extraordinary professional success while making significant and impactful contributions to their community.
James and Linda’s dedication to promoting diversity in the legal profession, their leadership as Past Presidents at AABANY, and service to the overall Asian American community make them highly deserving and outstanding recipients of this recognition.
This is not the first time that AABANY members have been honored with the CUP Law Catalysts award. Below is a list of ABBANY members previously recognized by the Council of Urban Professionals:
November 2018 Alice Hsu, AABANY Member
November 2016 Steve Chung, Past AABANY Board Member Sonia Low, Past AABANY Board Member
October 2015 Austin So, Past In-House Counsel Committee Co-Chair
October 2014 Jean Lee, Past AABANY President 2012
October 2013 Dwight Yoo, Past AABANY President 2017
October 2012 Vincent Chang, Past AABANY President 2007
Please join us in congratulating James, Linda, and all the
other AABANY members that have received this tremendous honor.
Also, please join us in congratulating the other 2019 CUP Catalysts in Law:
Adam Banks, Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Tia Breakley, Managing Director & Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Compliance Officer – The Infrastructure Group, The Blackstone Group Sarah Dodds-Brown, EVP & Managing Counsel, American Express Stuart Downing, Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP Chinyere Ezie, Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights George Fatheree III, Partner, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP Karen Hsu Kelley, Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Jessica Lee, Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP Clarence A. Nesbitt, General Counsel, National Basketball Players Association Marianela Peralta, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Allegis Global Solutions, Inc. Pamela Rosado, Senior VP and Chief Counsel-Litigation, MetLife Kimberly Spoerri, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP Camelia Valdes, Prosecutor, Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office
We congratulate Karen King, AABANY Member and Counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, on being presented NAPABA’s Pro Bono Award during the Gala at the NAPABA Convention in Austin, Texas on Saturday, November 9, 2019.
This award recognizes an attorney for outstanding achievement in Pro Bono service that involves impact litigation to advance or protect civil rights and provides direct legal services to individuals in furtherance of the administration of justice.
One of the pro bono cases that Karen was recognized for lasted for over 10 years and involved bias and discrimination in the promotion practices of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority against Asian American Police Officers. Karen found her work on the case to be very important for Asian Americans and rewarding for herself. In her video accepting the award, Karen remarked that young lawyers need to look for and seize opportunities to advance their careers “… and pro bono is an excellent way to do that.”
We are extremely excited and pleased that Karen received this prestigious honor. Please join us in congratulating her.
We commend Paul, Weiss on emphasizing, supporting, and encouraging their lawyers to engage in Pro Bono work and for being a Gold Sponsor.
On Tuesday, July 22nd, AABANY’s Corporate Law Committee and Student Outreach Committee hosted an insightful Pre-OCI Information session, “What do corporate lawyer do?”, at Paul, Weiss. With more than 30 law school students and undergraduate students in attendance, Executive Director Yang Chen welcomed everyone and introduced the moderator, Terry Shen.
The panel started with Terry introducing each distinguished panel speaker. The panelists comprised both in-house attorneys from top firms in the industry and corporate law lawyers at prestigious law firms, each with a different specialty practice area within the landscape of corporate law:
• Jasmine Ball, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
• Parkin Lee, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, The Rockefeller Group
• Marianne Chow-Newman, Counsel, The Hearst Corporation
• Lawrence G. Wee, Partner, Paul Weiss Rifikind Wharton & Garrison LLP
Addressing the question “what do corporate lawyer do?”, the panelists talked about why they chose corporate law, their daily role as a corporate lawyer, the interaction and relationship with corporate clients, the kind of tasks a junior associate will encounter, and interview techniques for the upcoming OCI (on-campus interview) season on campus.
First, the panelists explained five different subdivisions of corporate law: Capital Markets, Credit & Leverage Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Restructuring, and Investment Management. Different from litigation and what has been portrayed in the media, corporate lawyers rarely go to court or draft motions. Instead, corporate lawyers offer legal advice to corporations who attempt to operate and grow their business. Coming from an engineering background in his early career, Parkin Lee characterized his role as a corporate lawyer as “engineering with words.” The nature of corporate operation requires lawyers to write a tight contract, understand the needs of their clients and negotiate on their behalf, build trust between two parties who want to do business, and explain complicated deal structures to the client. Young lawyers need to have the capability to negotiate, conduct due diligence, and strengthen relationships with clients.
The event concluded with a discussion of the deal team culture and “bro culture” in law firms. Although one does not need to thrive in the bro culture to succeed, Terry drew a connection between bro culture with the work ethic of a young lawyer, illustrating the reliability, can-do mindset and intellectual curiosity embodied in both deal team culture and bro culture.
We would like to sincerely thank Larry Wee and Paul, Weiss for hosting the event by providing food, beverages, and an excellent space. We also thank the Corporate Law Committee and Student Outreach Committee for putting together this valuable and meaningful program for current or prospective law students.
To learn more about the Corporate Law Committee, please click here.
To learn more about the Student Outreach Committee, please click here.
The New York Law Journal recognized Jennifer H. Wu on October 10, 2018 with a Rising Stars Award, given to 29 of the region’s most promising lawyers under 40. Awardees are acknowledged for their influence in their practice areas in New York and beyond, developing unique practice niches, employing creative uses of technology, amassing robust books of business, demonstrating strong leadership qualities, showing expertise in litigation or transactional work, contributing to the improvement of their institutions, and committing themselves to pro bono, charitable and professional volunteer work.
Jennifer is a partner in Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP’s Litigation Department and focuses her practice on patent litigation matters. Jennifer frequently goes to jury and bench trials in federal district courts and trials before the International Trade Commission. She also represents clients in appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. She has litigated patents in a wide variety of technical areas, with a particular emphasis on pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Jennifer’s work on biologics includes litigating issues of first impression as to the BPCIA, and her patent litigation experience also extends to GPS devices, DNA sequencing technology, and medical devices.
Jennifer directs Paul, Weiss’s first pro bono project expressly for Asian Americans, helping parents of special-needs children obtain services from the New York City Department of Education. Jennifer has also worked with the Innocence Project for over a decade, including on eyewitness misidentification, death penalty, and Shaken Baby Syndrome issues. She is a Board member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association; co-chair of the Women’s Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York; a Board member of Friends of UNFPA, which supports the work of the United Nations reproductive health and rights agency; and an Advisory Board member of the NYU Law Alumni of Color Association.
For more information on this award, please click here (subscription required).
Please join us in congratulating Jennifer Wu on this well-deserved honor and recognition.
