The Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY) is pleased to announce that recipients of its 2024 Public Interest Scholarships will now be entitled to receive up to $6000. Awards are given each year to up to 3 law students with a demonstrated commitment to serving the Asian American community in New York State and the greater New York metropolitan area.
The online application is available at https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/public-interest-scholarship-online-application/. Applicants should include a description of their proposed summer public service project, if applicable, and the name, email address and phone number of a supervisor at the public service organization or other organization that the AALFNY Scholarship Committee may contact. Confirmation of the public service project is not required at the time of the application but will be required before the award of the scholarship. Applicants are responsible for arranging their own projects. A list of organizations that have hosted students in the past is on our website https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/prior-community-scholarship-recipients/. The list is only provided as an example and no guarantee is made that the organizations will continue to host students in 2024 or that volunteering at one of these organizations entitles the applicant to a Scholarship. Each student is expected to volunteer at least 8 weeks, 35 hours per week, during the summer of 2024 at such project and to apply the award to the payment of law school tuition.
The purpose of the award is to assist law students with their tuition while encouraging them to use their legal knowledge and training to benefit the Asian American community in New York and to foster commitment by law students to public service in New York. Since 1997, AALFNY has funded more than 60 public interest scholarships to law students.
AALFNY was established in 1993 by the Asian American Bar Association of New York to create and support non-profit and charitable efforts to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and to defend human and civil rights.
A copy of our latest annual report may be obtained from AALFNY at P.O. Box 161, 41 Purdy Ave., Rye NY 10580 or from the NY Attorney General’s Charities Bureau website www.charitiesnys.com. Information may also be obtained from AALFNY at [email protected] or the NYS Attorney General at 212-416-8686.
AABANY is pleased to announce the launch of the Trusts & Estates Committee. This new committee serves as a professional and community network for AABANY members and non-members interested in the practice of Trusts & Estates law, which spans trusts, estates, and tax planning to Surrogate’s Court practice and litigation. The Committee is dedicated to providing a platform for networking, mentoring, and professional development, as well as opportunities for public service.
Pang-Mei Natasha Chang, Co-Chair of the Committee, is a member of Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP’s estates, trusts and private clients practice group, as well as its international France desk, and charitable, not-for-profit and religious institutions practice groups. She counsels both domestic and international individuals, businesses and charitable organizations in estate and trusts planning, and wealth transfer planning. She represents clients of all ages, and advises in insurance planning, IRA/retirement benefit planning and the use of trusts for not only estate planning but asset protection. She also serves on the Trusts, Estates and Surrogate’s Court Committee of the New York City Bar Association, where she has participated as a writer and presenter.
Yi W. Stewart, the other Co-Chair of the Committee, works at the firm Farrell Fritz as a trusts and estates litigation associate. She performs pretrial discovery, conducts legal research, and prepares motions and memoranda of law for litigated Surrogate’s Court proceedings. Prior to joining Farrell Fritz, Yi served as associate law clerk to the Hon. Rita Mella for three years in New York County Surrogate’s Court, where she assisted the Surrogate with decisions on typical contested probate and accounting matters, complex issues of will construction and reformation, as well as novel issues such as a fiduciary’s authority to administer digital assets stored in Google and Apple accounts.
To contact the Committee Chairs for this Committee, click “Contact Us” at the top of the AABANY website and fill out the form, and tell us in the Comment field what in particular you would like to know about the Committee and its activities.
$130,000 Investment will build the pipeline of future leaders in our community.
For Immediate Release: June 27, 2022 Contact:Mary Tablante, Associate Strategic Communications & Marketing Director
WASHINGTON – NAPABA and the NAPABA Law Foundation are proud to announce the expansion of the NLF Community Law Fellowship program to include a new two-year fully funded fellowship placement at NAPABA. The Community Law Fellow will work to serve the AA & NHPI community and build NAPABA’s capacity to support the membership’s commitment to public service and advocacy.
“We are excited to offer this opportunity to build the pipeline of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander attorneys with expertise and skill to create change in our communities through advocacy and policy,” said NAPABA Acting President A.B. Cruz III. “This fellowship is another example of the ways that NAPABA and NLF, along with our members and supporters, can create an active legal community that is willing, ready, and able to serve.”
Established by a generous gift from Paul W. Lee of Goodwin Procter LLP the NAPABA Law Foundation Partners and In-House Counsel Community Law Fellowship was launched in 2004 to address the need for attorneys working on behalf of the AA & NHPI populations. NAPABA’s support of the program will establish the 12th Fellowship.
“The Community Law Fellowship is one of the premier ways that the NAPABA legal community can make an investment in the future of public service,” said Juliet K. Choi, Chair of the NLF Fellowship and Scholarship Selection Committee and first NLF Community Law Fellow (2004). “We are proud that we can we leverage the power of NAPABA and NLF to serve the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community.”
The NLF Community Law Fellow placement at NAPABA is a two-year fellowship program designed for a recent law school graduate who is interested in pursuing a career in public interest law and policy. The Fellow will directly support NAPABA’s advocacy and policy program with a focus on supporting and leading initiatives within our anti-hate project. The Fellow will also support other NAPABA community engagement programs, educational programs, and legislative advocacy.
We encourage all interested applicants to apply and for others to share this with any prospective candidates.
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The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), represents the interests of over 60,000 Asian Pacific American (APA) legal professionals and nearly 90 national, state, and local APA bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting APA communities.Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equalopportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment and promotes the professional development of people of all backgrounds in the legal profession.
The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) congratulates Shekar Krishnan and Sandra Ung for being elected to the New York City Council. Both have been members of AABANY and continue to serve the AAPI community. The City Council made history by becoming the first New York City council with a majority of seats occupied by women (31 out of 51) and Adrienne Adams became the first black New York City Council Speaker on January 5th.
Sandra has been elected to represent the 20th District of New York which covers Flushing, Mitchell-Linden, Murray Hill, Queensboro Hill and Fresh Meadows. She has committed her entire career to serving the Queens community. Sandra was most recently the Special Assistant to Congresswoman Grace Meng where she assisted local residents of Queens in navigating the complex government bureaucracy. Sandra also serves in a leadership role on the congresswoman’s re-election campaigns and as the Executive Director of Grace’s At the Table PAC, a political action committee dedicated to expanding women and minority representation in politics.
Sandra’s government service and public interest experience includes: Special Assistant to the New York State Commissioner on Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation; Legislative Assistant to former New York City Comptrollers Bill Thompson and John Liu; Chief of Staff to former New York State Assemblyman Jimmy Meng; and staff attorney to Sanctuary for Families, a non-profit organization that assists those impacted by domestic violence. She also worked as an associate attorney at Dorsey & Whitney. Sandra had previously served on the AABANY Board as Treasurer.
Shekar has been elected to represent the 25th District of New York which covers Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. He made history by becoming one of the first South Asians elected to the New York City Council. Shekar co-founded Friends of Diversity Plaza. Located near Jackson Heights, Diversity Plaza has become a symbol of how public space can bring people together. It now serves a critical function in neighborhood organizing efforts and building solidarity across communities. Shekar has also engaged in inclusive political organizing and grassroots community dialogue in support of progressive causes.
Shekar is the co-founder of Communities Resist, a legal services organization that takes a community-rooted and intersectional approach to housing and racial justice in North Brooklyn and Queens. Shekar represents tenants and neighborhood coalitions in fair housing litigation and anti-displacement advocacy in some of the most gentrified neighborhoods in New York City. Shekar was an AABANY member and spoke on the Fall Conference panel: Fighting for Housing and Community Justice: The Role of Lawyers in the Movement.
Please join AABANY in congratulating both Shekar and Sandra for their election to the City Council. We thank them for their commitment to public service and we wish them every success as they begin their terms as City Council members.
Former AABANY Treasurer and longtime community advocate Sandra Ung has announced her candidacy for New York City Council for the upcoming 2021 election. Sandra, who has dedicated her life to serving the Queens community, hopes to use her extensive experience in and passion for law and public service to best support and represent the Flushing community.
Growing up, Sandra always knew she wanted to be a lawyer. “I’ve always believed that it’s important to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves,” she said in a recent interview. Sandra, who is ethnically Chinese, fled Cambodia during the genocide and immigrated to the United States when she was just seven years old. Soon after, she moved to Flushing, where she has called home ever since. But growing up as an immigrant presented many challenges.
“It’s not easy when you come to a country where you don’t know the language and have to start over,” she said. “But I quickly realized that we were not the only family on this path.” With this passion for community justice in mind, Sandra attended New York City public schools until graduating from Hunter College and then going to Columbia Law School to get her J.D. in 2001. She then worked at a law firm, where she learned detail-oriented writing and organizational skills that allowed her to really understand how to be a professional.
She then worked for Sanctuary For Families, a New York non-profit focused on helping victims of domestic violence and related forms of gender violence. Domestic violence is not regularly or openly talked about in the Asian American community, and survivors often find it difficult to talk to counselors and attorneys, especially when they look nothing like them. When working with organizations like Sanctuary for Families and the Korean American Family Service Center, Sandra saw her Asian American clients slowly open up to her, and she realized how important it is to have a support system that truly understands you and, therefore, your needs.
Now, one of Sandra’s platforms is to provide greater assistance for domestic violence victims. The pandemic has revealed what people in the field already know: domestic violence is a real, pressing issue in every community, and it is not addressed well enough. Therefore, true domestic violence advocacy requires not only highlighting and funding service providers, but also providing ways for survivors of domestic violence to physically move-out, with better housing solutions, and become financially independent from their abusers.
Sandra has worked for the New York State Assembly as a Special Assistant to the NYS Commissioner on Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation; a Legislative Assistant to former New York City Comptrollers Bill Thompson and John Liu; and Chief of Staff to former New York State Assemblyman Jimmy Meng. Currently, she is the Special Assistant to Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Queens), leading the congresswoman’s re-election campaigns and running Grace’s At the Table PAC, a political action committee dedicated to expanding women and minority representation in politics. As the eyes and ears on the ground while the congresswoman is in D.C., Sandra is proud to represent the immigrant community and support them through the same challenges she faced growing up. She especially enjoys running free workshops that teach public speaking and career-based skills to young women who lack access to this knowledge, like she did when she was also growing up in an immigrant family. “We really understand that if you want to have a seat at the table, you need the basic skill set to get you to that table in the first place,” she said.
While serving as AABANY’s Treasurer, Sandra felt empowered by the inclusivity that AABANY created for its community. Due to the breadth and diversity of its members and leaders, AABANY showed Sandra the importance of having strong representation of Asian Americans in leading legal, public interest, and government positions, where they will truly advocate for the communities they serve.
Therefore, after over a decade working for New York state and years of working on other people’s campaigns, Sandra feels ready to tackle and win her own. “The recent national and local elections have shown that we are more divided than ever,” she said. “So, in campaigning, it is especially important to me to set a positive tone.” She hopes to focus on creating unity within the Flushing community, building a broad coalition as strong as their neighborhood.
Now more than ever, Sandra looks up to her mother, who was born in Cambodia and forced to leave her family during the genocide. While working in a laundromat all her life, Sandra’s mother taught her about perseverance and hard work; her parents continue to inspire her to give back to the country that gave them everything they have.
“The people around me have given me the courage to try and do this,” she said. “I believe in my community, I believe in myself, and I believe that I will be the best person for this job.”
To learn more about Sandra’s campaign and find out how you can get involved, please visit sandrafornewyork.com.
To hear more about the campaign from Sandra herself, please watch the video below.
To follow Sandra’s campaign on social media, please visit their Instagram,Facebook, and Twitter pages.
This member profile has been published for informational purposes only and does not constitute and should not be construed as a campaign endorsement.
On December 19, 2019, many were on hand to celebrate E. Grace Park being sworn in as a judge in the Manhattan 4th Municipal Court District of the Civil Court of the City of New York.
Judge Park was born in Seoul, Korea where she lived through the second grade when she immigrated to the United States to join her mother in Chicago, Illinois. Thereafter, Judge Park moved to Boston, Massachusetts for her high school years. She attended Dartmouth College, where she received her B.A. magna cum laude in Government & Asian Studies. Judge Park holds two Master’s degrees: the first in Regional Studies – East Asia from Harvard University and the second in Public Administration from Columbia University. Judge Park received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1999, where she served as Senior Editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law as well as President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. After graduating from law school, Ms. Park clerked for the Hon. Jacob Mishler in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, followed by five years in private practice. Judge Park then embarked on a career in public service with the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, representing children in Family Court.
Congratulations, Judge Park, for your hard fought election and well deserved induction ceremony. AABANY wishes you the best of luck in your new career on the bench.
AABANY congratulates My Chi To on her appointment as Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Insurance Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). In this role, she will oversee more than 1,400 insurance companies with $4.7 trillion in assets. My Chi To is an AABANY member and was a Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, in the Restructuring Group and Global Insurance Practice.
According to the DFS Press Release which announced her appointment in November,
My Chi was awarded the Kathryn R. Heidt Memorial Award by the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. She also received the Best Lawyers Under 40 Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. An advocate for women in law and business, she is a member of the Steering Committee of the U.S. 30% Club, a group of business leaders focused on improving the representation of women at all levels of U.S. organizations, including corporate boards. My Chi will join New York state’s Committee for the Advancement of Women in Leadership in Financial Services, which was announced by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo in September.
She received an M.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She received an LL.L. and LL.B. in Civil Law and Common Law from the University of Ottawa and was a law clerk to the Hon. Claire L’Heureux-Dubé of the Supreme Court of Canada, the highest court of Canada.
Glenn Magpantay received the Brooklyn Law School Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service
On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Glenn Magpantay, the Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), was honored at Brooklyn Law School’s Public Service Awards Ceremony.
Glenn Manpantay (left) and AABANY GSPI Committee Co-Chair Kevin Hsi (right) at the Public Service Awards Ceremony
Glenn Manpantay, a former AABANY Board member and a current co-chair of the LGBT Committee, was presented with Brooklyn Law School’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service, in recognition of his incredible devotion to educating and fighting for LGBT equality, racial justice and immigrant rights.
Please join AABANY in congratulating Glenn Manpantay for this well-deserved award and honor.
We thank Kevin Hsi for providing the photos for this blog post.
From left to right: Yang Chen (Executive Director of AABANY);Chris Kwok (AABANY Board Director and Issues Committee Chair);Prof. Suzanne Kim (Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School and Academic Committee Co-Chair); Josh Hsu (Deputy Chief of Staff to Senator Kamala D. Harris); Marianne Chow (AABANY Board Director and Co-Chair of Professional Development Committee); Kevin Hsi (Co-Chair of Government Service and Public Interest Committee)
On March 15, AABANY and NYU APALSA hosted a conversation with Josh Hsu and Suzanne Kim in Furman Hall at NYU Law School. The discussion focused on Asian Pacific American attorneys’ engagement in public service.
Josh Hsu is the deputy chief of staff for Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA). The discussion was moderated by Suzanne Kim, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. Suzanne Kim is also a co-chair of AABANY’s Academic Committee.
Attendees filled a classroom at NYU Law School’s Furman Hall to hear Prof. Suzanne Kim in conversation with Josh Hsu on his experiences as an APA in public service.
Professor Kim interviewed Josh Hsu about various topics, including Hsu’s professional development, Hsu’s experience with working on the Hill and Asian American attorneys’ involvement in public service — mainly the lack thereof. Josh Hsu recounted how he received the clerkship offer from Judge Chin. As a law student, Josh drafted an article entitled “Asian American Judges: Identity, Their Narratives, & Diversity on the Bench” for Professor Mari Matsuda’s class, and to his surprise, he received Judge Chin’s comments on his draft, which is how Josh connected with Judge Chin and later received a clerkship offer from him. This experience made Josh realize that there is more than one way to make connections and enter into public service.
After the conversation, the floor was opened up for mingling. Attendees of the event actively engaged in more intimate and in-depth conversations with each other and with Josh Hsu.
Attendees continued the conversation after Prof. Kim and Josh Hsu concluded their conversation.
We thank Josh Hsu for sharing his insights and knowledge with us as an APA in public service and encouraging others to join him on his path. We wish him best of luck on the Hill. We thank Suzanne Kim for facilitating the conversation and NYU APALSA for co-sponsoring the event. Last but not least, we thank everyone who joined us on a Friday night and for sharing your enthusiasm about APA engagement in public service.
On April 9, 2019, Brooklyn Law School Public Service Law Center will host the Public Service Awards Ceremony in Forchelli Conference Center, Feil Hall, where Glenn Magpantay will receive a Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service in recognition for his outstanding contributions to public service.
Glenn Magpantay is the Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. He has been organizing in the LGBT community for over 30 years, and he is recognized as a vanguard of LGBT rights activism. In addition to being an activist, Magpantay is also a devoted educator. He teaches “Race & the Law” at Brooklyn Law School and “Asian American Civil Rights” at Hunter College/ CUNY.
We at AABANY have been fortunate to have Glenn Magpantay as a former Board member and current co-chair of the LGBT Committee. Please join AABANY in congratulating Glenn Magpantay on this well-deserved award and honor.
