AABANY Pro Bono & Community Service Committee (PBCS)

 

Our Mission

 

The Pro Bono and Community Service Committee (PBCS) of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) encourages pro bono legal service among Asian Pacific American (“APA”) attorneys, informs the community of their legal rights, and works with not-for-profits to bring free/low cost legal services to the APA, immigrant, and other New York communities.

 

History & Pro Bono Legal Clinic

 

AABANY’s Pro Bono Legal Clinic opened in 2015 to provide members of the APA community who have limited English proficiency (“LEP”) meaningful access to justice. Mobilizing the skills and experience of AABANY’s diverse membership, PBCS has spearheaded the Clinic’s effort in helping nearly 2,000 LEP individuals in the vast yet underserved Asian American community in New York through its walk-in clinics in Manhattan’s Chinatown and Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhoods.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, AABANY suspended its walk-in clinic and operated a remote legal hotline, assisting over 400 callers as an emergency stopgap effort to provide LEP members of the Asian American community access to necessary information and available resources during the pandemic. 

As of August 2021, the Pro Bono Legal Clinic has reopened. For more information, please visit What We Do.

 

Who We Are

 

2024-2025

Co-Chairs:

  • Beatrice Leong

  • Gary Yeung

  • Kwok Kei Ng

  • Lina Lee

Vice Chairs:

  • Dianna Lam

  • Shirley Luong

Board Liaison:

  • Jasmine Ball

2023-2024

Co-Chairs:

  • Lina Lee

  • Kwok Kei Ng

  • Yan Sin

Vice Chairs:

  • May Wong

Board Liaison:

  • Beatrice Leong

2021-2022 

Co-Chairs:

  • Karen King

  • Judy (Ming Chu) Lee

  • Karen Lin

  • Kwok Kei Ng

Vice Chairs:

  • Eugene Love Kim

  • Olympia Moy

  • May Wong

2022-2023 

Co-Chairs:

  • Karen King

  • Eugene Love Kim

  • Kwok Kei Ng

  • May Wong

Vice Chairs:

  • Megan Gao

  • Johnny Thach

  • Meng Zhang

Board Liasion

  • Beatrice Leong

2019-2020 

Co-Chairs:

  • Asako Aiba

  • Pauline Yeung-Ha

  • Judy (Ming Chu) Lee

  • Karen Kithan Yau

Vice Chairs:

  • Zhixian Jessie Liu

  • Kwok Kei Ng

2020-2021 

Co-Chairs:

  • Asako Aiba

  • Judy (Ming Chu) Lee

  • Karen Lin

  • Karen Kithan Yau

Vice Chairs:

  • Zhixian Jessie Liu

  • Kwok Kei Ng

2017-2018 

Co-Chairs:

  • Pauline Yeung-Ha

  • Samuel Lui

  • Ariana Alcasabas Pabalan

2018-2019 

Co-Chairs:

  • Asako Aiba

  • Pauline Yeung-Ha

  • Judy (Ming Chu) Lee

  • Karen Kithan Yau

2015-2016 

Co-Chairs:

  • June K. Lee

  • Samuel Lui

2016-2017 

Co-Chairs:

  • June K. Lee

  • Samuel Lui

  • Ariana Alcasabas Pabalan

 

Supported By the Following Asian Pacific American Law Student Associations: Brooklyn, Cardozo, Columbia, Cornell, CUNY, Fordham, Harvard, Hofstra, New York Law School, NYU, Seton Hall, and St. John’s

A Special Thank You to Our COVID Student Leaders:
Alexander Hwang, Andersen Gu, Anthony Park, Diana Lam, Jenny Park, Jeremy Chu, Jing Chu, Long Dang, Meng Zhang, Taiyee Chien, Sejal Waghray, and Xinyi Shen

Student Leaders

 

Community Partners

Asian American Bar Association of New York
Pro Bono & Community Service Committee

Please feel free to contact us with any questions:

Address:

45 Rockefeller Plaza
20th Floor
New York, NY 10111

Email:

probono@aabany.org