On Wednesday, July 19th, 2023, AABANY hosted a highly successful Manhattan Pro Bono Legal Clinic at the AAFE (Asian American for Equality) Community Center, at 111 Norfolk Street, where compassionate volunteers offered their time and expertise to provide invaluable free legal services to the community. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee, AAFE, our community partners, and our dedicated volunteers! Throughout the evening, we had the privilege of meeting with 22 clients, engaging in discussions of various legal issues, including immigration, housing, and family law. This was a vast increase from last month’s clinic when we had 8 clients.
In partnership with AAFE Community Center and other community partners, we recognize that the success of the Pro Bono Clinic would not be possible without our volunteers’ unwavering dedication to serving the community. By offering services in both Mandarin and Cantonese, we aim to continue to provide support for those who may face linguistic or cultural barriers when seeking access to legal services. Together, we continue to make a difference in the lives of our community members.
Volunteer Attorneys:
Beatrice Leong
Pang-Mei (P.M.) Natasha Chang
Tiffany Ngeo
Yen-Yi Anderson
David Mou
Menglong (Anthony) Zhu
Yan Sin
Yuanyuan Li
Interpreters and Shadowers:
Daphne Mei
Anna Bao
Ruo Yang
Wendy Zeng
MengXi (Claire) Xiong
I-Kai Lee
Doh Yun (John)
Suzie Yu
Alex Hwang
AAFE:
Ling
Thanks to all the volunteers, AAFE, community partners, and PBCS Committee who made this Pro Bono Clinic possible. Please join the next Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic taking place on August 16th at AAFE Community Center. To volunteer, please register here by August 11th. For more information, please click here.
On June 21st, 2023, AABANY held its Manhattan Pro Bono Legal Clinic at AAFE (Asian Americans for Equality) Community Center where dedicated volunteers came together to provide free legal services to the community. Thank you to the Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee, AAFE, our community partners, and our volunteers! We met with 8 clients and discussed issues relating to immigration, housing, and contracts.
In partnership with AAFE Community Center and other community partners, the Pro Bono Clinic would not be possible without the volunteers’ dedication to serving all members of the community, in both Mandarin and Cantonese. It provides indispensable support to those who may face linguistic or cultural barriers in attempting to gain access to legal services.
The next Manhattan clinic will be on July 19th located at AAFE Community Center, 111 Norfolk Street, NY, NY 10002. You can sign up here to volunteer for our next Pro Bono clinic. For upcoming clinics, please check AABANY’s calendar and update your email preference in your account to receive our emails.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the volunteers who made this Pro Bono Clinic a success:
On June 3rd, 2023, AABANY held its Brooklyn Pro Bono Legal Clinic at Homecrest Community Services Bensonhurst Center where dedicated volunteers came together to provide free legal services to the community. Our volunteers met with 14 clients and discussed issues relating to identity theft, insurance benefits, fraud, divorce, and government benefits.
In partnership with Homecrest and other community partners, the Clinic provided a haven for community members with limited English proficiency to better understand the legal process, discuss potential legal solutions, and help clients understand their rights.
The Clinic was made possible by volunteers who generously donated their time and expertise to help those in need. It provides vital support to those who may face linguistic or cultural barriers in attempting to gain access to legal services. The volunteers’ dedication to pro bono work, aiding in both Mandarin and Cantonese, is emblematic of the Committee’s commitment to serving all members of the community.
The Pro Bono Clinic is organized by AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service Committee. To learn more about the Committee’s work visit here. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the dedicated volunteers who made the Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic such a success:
Volunteer Attorneys:
Andrew Wu
Ashley Shan
Francis Chin
Kwok Kei Ng
May Wong
Ming Chu (Judy) Lee
Ye Qing
Interpreters & Shadowers:
Anna Bao
Vincent Tsay
Please come and join our upcoming Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic on 6/21, starting at 6:30pm at e new location, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), 111 Norfolk Street, New York, NY. You can sign up to volunteer by completing this form by 6/16 at 12:00 PM.
On May 17, 2023, AABANY held its Manhattan Pro Bono Legal Clinic at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Our volunteers met with 17 clients and discussed issues relating to housing, fraud, and government benefits.
Some positive client responses: “I appreciate it so much.” “Good service. I will keep coming monthly.”
The Pro Bono Clinic is organized by AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service Committee. To learn more about the Committee’s work visit here. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the dedicated volunteers who made this Pro Bono Clinic a success:
Thank you AABANY, Pro Bono and Community Service (PBCS) Committee, VNS Chinatown Community Center, and our dedicated volunteers for volunteering on February 18, 2023 at the Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic! We met 24 clients and discussed issues relating to housing, divorces, and guardianships.
Clients’ surveys included the following feedback:
“These services are much in need for the non-English speaking community.”
“Very happy thx services I got.”
“The lawyers were very nice and professional! Thank you!”
Please consider joining us at our upcoming clinics:
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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:
On Friday, December 9, 2022, AABANY hosted its first in-person holiday party in three years since the COVID pandemic shutdown.
Our wonderful hosts and sponsors, Cohen & Gresser, along with their Counsel, Joanna Chan, welcomed over 120 AABANY Members and friends to a delicious menu of food, featuring cocktail shrimp, kimbap rolls, sushi rolls, sashimi, veggie pancakes, japchae noodles, bulgogi beef, marinated pork, Chicken Alfredo with penne pasta, Junior’s mini-cheesecakes, and macaroons. Cocktails with clever names such as “AABANY Founders” and “Ineffective Assistance of Counsel” were also on offer, mixed by professional bartenders.
President-elect Karen Kim welcomed the guests and shared her theme for her fiscal year, starting on April 1, 2023, which will focus on mental health and wellness for attorneys. Co- Vice President of Programs and Operations Beatrice Leong, who organized the holiday party, encouraged donations to support the Pro Bono Clinic through text to pledge. Attendees responded to the call by donating more than $1,000 to the Pro Bono Clinic.
We also held a gift raffle by drawing business cards provided by the guests. All winners of gifts were then entered into a Squid Games style final in which participants had to cut shapes out of cookies without breaking them. The winner of that game got a gift card valued at $50.
We thank our Annual Holiday Party 2022 sponsors: ● Cohen & Gresser ● Littler ● Fish & Richardson Special thanks to Membership Director Christopher Bae for ordering the food, and former VPPO David Sohn for his help with the party. Thanks to everyone who came. We hope you all had a wonderful time!
On December 3, 2022, AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee partnered with the VNS Health staff to hold a pro bono clinic in VNS Health’s Manhattan community center from 12:00 PM to 3:30 PM.
Overall, we met with 11 clients who had questions about topics such as immigration, housing, and divorce. With help from our many clinic attorneys and volunteers, AABANY’s PBCS attorneys were able to connect clients with AABANY’s Legal Referral and Information Service, a program that connects prospective clients from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community with qualified lawyers who are both linguistically and culturally competent.
AABANY’s PBCS intern Connor Li spoke about his experiences at Saturday’s clinic with great reverence for the work PBCS is able to do through these clinics. He said, “It’s always a pleasure to help out at the clinic. Whether it’s meeting members of the community or listening to experienced legal professionals, I always feel like I’m learning something at every point. And with the help of the amazing VNS staff, clients with urgent needs for legal advice regarding housing, immigration, and familial issues were checked in and assigned to attorneys with great expediency. We were even able to provide Cantonese and Mandarin interpreters at nearly every client meeting, though we could definitely have used the assistance of more Cantonese interpreters. I would definitely encourage more AABANY members or willing individuals from the general public who know Cantonese to come to these clinics. Your help would be appreciated!”
As with every clinic, free lunch was provided for all attorney and non-attorney volunteers by PBCS. We thank all 11 of our volunteers for coming to provide their invaluable assistance! As always, if you have any questions about upcoming clinics, please contact us at [email protected]. Thanks again for attending, and happy holidays!
Volunteer Attorneys
Interpreters & Observers
Beatrice Leong
Alexander Hwang
Francis Chin
Connor Li
Grace Pyun
Xiaoli Qin
Jackson Chin
Yuichi Hayashi
Jayashree Mitra
Yuting Xie
May Wong
Please make plans to join us as a volunteer at the next Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic on January 14, or please help us spread the word. More details here.
On November 19, AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Services Committee and Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) joined forces to hold a pro bono legal clinic at AAFE’s One Flushing Community Center in Queens.
This Saturday’s clinic used a multitude of digital and analog resources to provide top-notch services. We creatively used a hybrid Zoom call setup to bring in immigration attorneys (Jackson Chin and Judy Lee) and maintain a non-stop stream of consultations. One group of attorneys helped a client find actionable steps forward from his complex legal status, providing him with additional resources and referrals. AAFE generously made its printer and xerox machines available, which were critical in handling the larger-than-usual volume of Spanish-speaking clients we saw on Saturday. We were able to print out Spanish-language brochures about asylum, immigration eligibility for public benefits in New York State, and pro bono referrals.
AABANY Legal Intern Daniel Kang reflected on the work he witnessed at the Clinic: “Every attorney who volunteered their time on Saturday was deeply and professionally invested in the problems facing clients. I had the opportunity to shadow and complete intake forms for consultations held by Jackson Chin and Judy Lee. It was incredible seeing Jackson and Judy drill to the legal substance of each client’s case by asking the right questions and bringing their own legal expertise to the fore. I was also heartened by the presence of Spanish-speaking volunteer interpreters who successfully broke through the language barrier between volunteer attorneys and locally based clients.”
Not many of the attorneys who attended Saturday’s clinic practice immigration law or speak Spanish. Immigration law is a complicated practice area which changes with each Presidential administration. A 30-minute legal consultation may not help those in dire need of immigration legal services, but clinics like AABANY’s may be a client’s best hope. Immigrant clients come to AABANY consultations in their attempts at acquiring information about the legal process, updates in immigration policy, how to survive in New York, and legal referrals. As usual, AABANY welcomes any and all practicing attorneys across the city to sign up for future clinics—as well as non-attorney volunteers who can speak Spanish or Chinese. Free lunch is provided to all volunteers at our clinics.
AABANY thanks everyone again for coming to volunteer at Saturday’s clinic! Please join us at our upcoming clinics:
