Congratulations To AABANY On Another Successful Annual Dinner

Which outstanding individuals did the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) honor at its recent annual dinner?

Last Wednesday, after doing a Supreme Ambitions book event at Yale Law School with Amy “Tiger Mother” Chua, I would have wanted to stick around New Haven a bit. But I had to rush back to New York for an event I could not miss: the 26th annual dinner of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), a glittering gala that honors outstanding members of the Asian-American legal community.

The sold-out dinner took place at Cipriani Wall Street, a most elegant venue. After welcoming remarks by the evening’s emcee, Richard Lui of MSNBC, outgoing AABANY president Clara J. Ohr took the stage to describe the organization’s achievements over the past year. Ohr noted that AABANY now has more than 1,100 members who work on more than 30 different committees. In the prior year, AABANY’s accomplishments included:

After Ohr’s speech, Jenny R. Yang, chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accepted the AABANY Women’s Leadership Award. Yang spoke about the role model she had in her mother, who went to law school full-time when Yang was still in elementary school. Her mother defied stereotypes — far from being passive, she confronted the New Jersey bar over its lack of diversity and served as a founding member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) — and eventually went on to serve as a judge in workers’ compensation cases. Yang urged the lawyers and law students in the audience to follow the example of her mother by challenging stereotypes, by working to foster more inclusive environments in the legal profession, and by talking about issues like discrimination and diversity with their children.

Following Yang’s remarks, Xerox general counsel Don Liu presented the Don H. Liu scholarships to two deserving recipients, in the amount of $15,000 each. The first went to Keli Huang, a student at Cardozo Law who came to the United States from China at age 8 and worked two jobs to put herself through school and help her struggling parents. The second went to Michelle Li, who also came to the U.S. from China as a child, and who worked 14-hour days as a waitress before graduating from Amherst College and matriculating at NYU Law, where she is now a 1L.

The evening’s next award, the AABANY Corporate Counsel Leadership Award, went to An-Ping Hsieh, vice president and general counsel at Hubbell Incorporated. In his acceptance speech, Hsieh cited the wisdom of his father, who told Hsieh that while you shouldn’t worry about what you can’t control, you control more than you think. Hsieh urged the audience to work harder at increasing the presence of Asian Americans in positions of corporate leadership.

The final honor of the evening, the AABANY Public Service Leadership Award, went to Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He began his keynote by joking that he misheard his assistant when he got the news of the honor: “I’m getting an award from Albany? I find that hard to believe.” (Bharara isn’t the most popular prosecutor in Albany right now due to his pending prosecution of former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.)

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Bharara thanked his colleagues, the women and men of the S.D.N.Y., and noted that when you surround yourself with smart, hardworking people, the awards and accolades will naturally follow. He then delivered a stirring oration about the greatness of America, noting that his father — who came from a small village in Punjab, didn’t always have running water growing up, and was the first member of his family to go to college — went on to see his two sons live the American Dream. Preet Bharara serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, one of the top jobs in the entire legal profession, and Preet’s brother Vinnie started Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com and Soap.com, which ultimately sold to Amazon.com for $540 million.

As I joined the standing ovation for Preet Bharara at the end of his excellent speech — as inspiring as his Harvard Law commencement speech, even if not quite as entertaining — I thought to myself that Bharara would be a natural for elective office. In my observation, U.S. Attorneys fall into two molds: the bookish, introverted types, who often go on to become judges, and the eloquent, extroverted types, who often go on to become politicians. Bharara belongs in the latter camp, and as the Obama Administration enters its final days, he must surely be giving some thought to what he might do next.

The evening concluded with remarks from William Wang, incoming president of AABANY. He cited Fresh Off the Boat, the new television comedy based on the bestselling book by restaurateur (and former lawyer) Eddie Huang, and the game plan of young Eddie on the show: “Get a seat at the table. Meet Shaq. Change the game.” Wang urged the law students and young lawyers in the room to take advantage of the networking opportunities offered by the evening, telling them that “there’s a Shaq at every table.” If younger and more-senior members of the Asian American bar join forces and collaborate, together we can change the game.

(Flip to the next page to see some photos from the evening.)

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