Remarks by Richard P. Swanson Oct 23, 2025 Hong Yen Chang Award Ceremony

I’m Richard P. Swanson, NYCLA’s president.  Welcome to our Home of Law, now at 111 Broadway.  We used to be at 14 Vesey Street but now we’re located here, having sold 14 Vesey during the pandemic, and I love our space here.  

We’re pleased to welcome so many AABANY and SABANY members here tonight, for this award.  We’ve had a number of well attended events here over this past month, including a panel discussion on current constitutional issues raised during this administration; the MBBA’s Ida B. Wells awards: and last night, at Hughes Hubbard, the Hughes lecture delivered by Chief Judge Rowan Wilson.

As I said at the Metropolitan Black Bar event, for those of you who are here because you are members of the Asian American or South Asian Bar Association, but aren’t members of NYCLA, please consider joining NYCLA too.  We give persons who are members of most major affinity bar associations such as AABANY and SABANY a 50% discount on your NYCLA dues, as a sort of credit against your AABANY and SABANY dues, and a half-price NYCLA membership can easily be turned into a profit by taking advantage of our own member benefits and discounts such as life and health insurance, discounts on car rentals and gym memberships and FedEx and UPS and a whole host of other things you can see on our website.

You can also see on our website the many statements we have been issuing and the events we have been sponsoring and hosting in support of the Rule of Law when that very concept has been going through extraordinary challenges.  Our events are also planned in part around that same concept, including the panel on current constitutional issues which included Professors Akhil Amar of Yale, Burt Neuborne and Rick Pildes of NYU and David Rabban of UT Austin.

So, if you support our vision of the rule of law, or if you want to network or join one of our committees, if you want CLE, or even if you just want to take advantage of our member discounts and credits, consider joining us together with AABANY and SABANY.  We love our partnerships and joint events with organizations like ABBANY, and SABANY and MBBA, and we’re looking to strengthen them.

The person for whom this event is named, Hong Yen Chen, was the first Asian American lawyer admitted to the New York Bar, and probably in the entire United States of America, in 1888.  He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1886, was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1887 and took the bar exam that year, after filing a special petition for permission to do so, and was admitted the year following.  A supportive news editorial of the day was headlined “Give the Chinaman a Chance.” 

He was born in China, near Macau, and his parents sent him to the United States to study under a program established by the Chinese government during that time to enable their students to be educated in the United States.  Sound familiar given current events?  Educating foreign students who subsequently stay here and contribute to our economy and our society has always been an American strength, albeit one that is often questioned.  He graduated from Hartford Public HS, attended Phillips Academy to get ready for college, and then attended and graduated from Yale before going to Columbia for law school.  He almost failed in this educational effort because this was the period during which the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed.  Again, sound familiar?  History may not repeat, but it rhymes.

He subsequently moved to California, which prevented him from becoming admitted to the bar there, so being admitted to the New York bar wasn’t an end to all discrimination and struggle.  Instead, he worked as a banker and a diplomat at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, married an American and raised a family.  An extraordinary story.

Our award recipient tonight, Rahul Agarwal of Friedman Kaplan, has also had an extraordinary career.  He may not have faced all the same challenges as Mr. Chang…thank goodness…but they do share Columbia Law School in common, although 120 years apart.  He recently returned to Friedman Kaplan after 12 years in public service, mostly in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, but also with sometime in the Adams Administration here in New York.  He currently sits on the Civilian Complaint Review Board, among other things.  Rahul, I’ll note that Friedman Kaplan is the home to two of our most loyal board members, Scott Berman and Scott Henney.  Scott Berman is on our board and chairs our Foundation, and Scott Henney chairs our Appellate Courts Committee.  We hope you’ll consider joining NYCLA too!