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At the 2013 NAPABA Northeast Regional/AABANY Fall Conference hosted by Weil Gotshal, a plenary session was held during the luncheon to explore the recent United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

The luncheon was sponsored by Kobre & Kim. Welcome remarks were given by Mike Huang, President of AABANY, Fred Green, Management Committee Member, Mergers & Acquisitions Partner and Sponsor to the Asian Attorney Affinity Group at Weil, and Wendy Shiba, President of NAPABA. Board member and past AABANY President Robert Leung presented brief remarks about AABANY’s newest committee, the Career Placement Committee, and invited broad participation in it.

The Program Chair for the plenary session was Sarah Seo, Co-Chair of the Academic Committee. She introduced the Hon. Pamela K. Chen, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, moderator of the panel.

Panelists included Khin Mai Aung, Director of the Educational Equity Program at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), who submitted an amicus brief in the Fisher case, and Hemmie Chang, Partner at Foley Hoag, who led her firm’s efforts in supporting AALDEF’s amicus filing in Fisher. Also on the panel were Michael Park, Partner at Dechert, and William Consovoy, Partner at Wiley Rein, who submitted briefs on Fisher’s side of the case before the Supreme Court.

The room was filled to capacity and many of the attendees had to go to the overflow room next door to watch the panel discussion on video.

The panel took several thoughtful and pointed questions from the audience during the Q&A portion.

Thanks to our Key Sponsor Hudson Court Reporting and Video for taking video and transcription of the plenary session.

AABANY asks: Have you served as a judicial clerk?

Clerking is an invaluable experience that not only provides excellent practical skills training but also enables you to build close relationships with judges and fellow clerks. For the benefit of our members, AABANY will be holding two information sessions on judicial clerkships in October 2013, possibly one focusing on federal clerkships and the other on state clerkships (more details to come). We would like these sessions to be as robust as possible, and to that end, we’d like to compile a list of all AABANY members who are former clerks to create an informal mentoring circle and to invite to speak at the sessions. If you have clerked for a either a state or federal judge (not an internship/externship), please contact Lina Zhou at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for your help!