AABANY Hosts Annual Holiday Party in Person at Cohen & Gresser

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!

AABANY Hosts Membership Open House At King & Spalding LLP

On July 28, 2022, AABANY hosted its first-ever Membership Open House at King & Spalding LLP. With over 50 attendees, the Membership Open House gave new and prospective members the opportunity to speak with Board Members and Committee Chairs to learn about the work AABANY does and how new and prospective members can get involved.

Membership Director Christopher Bae in his introductory remarks welcomed attendees and thanked Board Members and Committee Chairs for coming. Former AABANY President Andy Hahn (2004) then highlighted the importance of getting involved with an organization like AABANY.

This AABANY Membership Open House spotlighted the Young Lawyers Committee, the Litigation Committee, and the Prosecutors Committee. Jasmine Chean from the Young Lawyers Committee, Lois Ahn from the Litigation Committee, and David Hsin-Tai Chiang from the Prosecutors Committee each spoke on why members should get involved with their committees.

Attendees were encouraged to network, enjoy food and drinks, and meet with the chairs of 23 committees that were present at the Open House. New and recent members were given the opportunity to participate in a raffle where two winners won either a Zoom or coffee meet-and-greet with former AABANY Presidents Andy Hahn (2004) or Brian Song (2019). Congratulations to Tian Chi Ma who won the raffle to meet Andy and to Stephanie Lu who won the raffle to meet Brian.

Thank you to King & Spalding LLP for hosting AABANY’s Membership Open House, and thank you to former AABANY Presidents Andy Hahn and Brian Song for volunteering for the new member raffle! Thank you to Co-Vice Presidents of Programs & Operations Joseph Eng, Jr. and Beatrice Leong, and Membership Director Christopher Bae for putting together this successful event!

We look forward to seeing everyone at the next Open House in October. In the meantime, if you have any questions about how to get more involved in AABANY and maximize your membership experience, feel free to reach out to the Membership Committee at [email protected].

GSPI and Prosecutors Committees Co-Sponsor July Membership Mixer

On Thursday, July 18, 2019, AABANY’s Membership Committee, Government Service & Public Interest (GSPI) Committee, and Prosecutors Committee hosted a Membership Mixer with members, colleagues, and friends at Stout NYC on West 33rd Street. 

Members and non-members alike enjoyed reconnecting with familiar faces and building new relationships. We filled an entire side room in the cellar of Stout. The date of the mixer coincided with the birthday of former Prosecutors Committee Co-Chair Helen Ahn, who sadly passed away last November. To read the tribute to her in the Winter 2018 issue of The Advocate, click here. The Prosecutors Committee brought a birthday cake to mark the occasion and to honor Helen’s memory.

The Membership Committee held a special raffle. To be eligible for prizes, attendees had to follow AABANY’s Instagram account and post about the Membership Mixer. A special shout out to Jimei Hon and Melanie Rios for winning free memberships, and Abraham Lee for winning an international whiskey flight courtesy of BARO by Chefs Society.

To learn more about the GSPI Committee, go here. To learn more about the Prosecutors Committee, go here.

Join the Membership Committee and the Prosecutors Committee for an outing to watch a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium on August 16. To view the event, click here.

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On Tuesday, June 17, the In-House Counsel Committee and Corporate Law Committee held their 7th Annual Winetasting and Networking Reception at La Fonda Del Sol in Midtown Manhattan. Blossom Kan and Austin So, Co-Chairs of the In-House Counsel Committee, kicked off the event by welcoming all the attendees and introducing Dwight Yoo, Larry Wee, and Charlotte Kim, Co-Chairs of the Corporate Law Committee.

Following the welcomes, Clara Ohr, AABANY President, introduced and thanked all the sponsors for the event, especially the anchor sponsors, Planet Depos and Summit Financial Printing.

As part of the event, in-house counsel and corporate attorneys had the opportunity to network over hors d’oeuvres and wine. As an icebreaker, in-house counsel attorneys had an incentive to network with corporate attorneys; they had the opportunity to win an iPad Mini. Austin So, Co-Chair of the In-House Counsel Committee explained that the in-house counsel attorney with the most business cards from law firm attorneys would win the iPad Mini. Congratulations to Jean Lee, who won with a total of 59 business cards! Jean raffled off the iPad Mini amongst the attendees who dropped his or her business card in Planet Depos’ raffle bowl. Congratulations to Francis Chin, who won the raffle! Francis Chin generously raffled the iPad Mini amongst the volunteers who are also law students. Congratulations to Christina Nguyen! [Note: Christina is an AABANY Legal Intern and she wrote this summary – not on her iPad Mini, though, as far as we know.]

Thank you to our anchor sponsors, Planet Depos and Summit Financial Printing, our premier sponsor Perkins Coie, and other Wine Tasting sponsors, Archer & Greiner, Dentons, Haynes and Boone, Mayer Brown, Morgan Lewis, Paul Weiss, Reed Smith, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. We would also like to acknowledge all of our Annual Dinner sponsors, without whom the events throughout the year would not be possible.

The event was a great success and we hope to continue to enjoy the In-House Counsel Committee and Corporate Law Committee’s annual wine-tasting and networking reception. Thank you to all our sponsors, attendees, and volunteers. (Thanks to Kevin Wong for the photos!)

Exclusive to AABANY Members: Steinway & Sons | Win a Gift Certificate to Carnegie Hall

Exclusive to AABANY Members: Steinway & Sons | Win a Gift Certificate to Carnegie Hall

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Thanks to everyone who came out for the AABANY Holiday Party on Dec. 6 at Kristalbelli. Many members and friends gathered to kick off the holiday season, filling up nearly the entire space on the second floor. We kicked off the AABANY drive to 1,000 paid members campaign and collected donations for Typhoon Haiyan Relief. Donors received free tickets to the Joint Bar Holiday Party taking place that same night at Copacabana. They also had their business cards entered in a raffle drawing for two All-Access tickets to a Nets game at the Barclay Center in January. The prize was donated by our party sponsor, Hudson Court Reporting. Thanks to Hudson for sponsoring!  The Holiday Party ended around 9 pm and a number of the attendees headed over to the Joint Bar Holiday Party at the Copacabana, not letting the rain get in the way of continuing the holiday celebrations.

We wish everyone a happy holiday season!