Berliner Cohen LLP is pleased to announce that the Santa Clara County Bar Association (SCCBA) has named Jennifer Y. Leung, distinguished employment law attorney, its recipient of the 2016 Unsung Hero Award. Each year the Diversity Committee of the Santa Clara County Bar Association presents the Unsung Heroes Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations in our community, regardless of ethnicity, who have demonstrated a long-standing commitment to encouraging the advancement of minorities in the legal profession or promoting equal access to the administration of justice for individuals. Ms. Leung who is a San Jose native, graduated from UC San Diego and went on to graduate from Santa Clara University School of Law during which time she served as Student Bar Association President and led fundraising efforts to send students to New Orleans for an “Alternative Spring Break” to perform legal work after Hurricane Katrina.
Ms. Leung has maintained a long-standing commitment to promoting diversity as a Board Member of both the Asian-Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley (APABA-SV) and its Charity Organization, as well as serving as the Co-Chair of the Scholarship & Fellowship Committee. Through APABA-SV, she has awarded tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving law students and post-bar fellows to work at the Asian Law Alliance and other public-interest organizations. She has also promoted the long-standing tradition of awarding the only scholarship of its kind in the nation: a joint scholarship between APABA-SV and the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) for students who demonstrate a commitment to both the Asian-American community and the LGBTQ community. This year, this commitment will expand to providing a one-year Fellowship to an individual wishing to work for a public interest organization with a commitment to the Asian-American community.
With the SCCBA, Ms. Leung is the co-chair of the Bay Area Minority Summer Clerkship Program, which seeks to expose minority law students to the legal field and vice versa. The objective is to establish a vehicle through representation of minority laws students in large law firms and other summer clerkship programs is increased with the long-term goal of increasing minority hiring. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the SCCBA Labor & Employment Executive Committee and is a member of the Diversity Committee. Previously, Ms. Leung was a law clerk in Sacramento for the Honorable Garland Burrell in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
Since 2013, Ms. Leung has served the legal needs of employers with Berliner Cohen’s Employment Law and Litigation group. She advises employers in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage disputes. She provides advice and counsel on issues such as leaves of absence, meal and rest breaks, employee classification, and reductions in force, in addition to drafting anti-harassment, wage and hour policies, and employee handbooks. Ms. Leung represents clients in state and federal court, and in mediation, before the California Labor Commissioner, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board and the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.
Please join us in congratulating Ms. Leung. To see the Santa Clara County Bar Association event click here. If you wish to attend the Reception for Ms. Leung on May 19, 2016, please email Irene Cortez at irene@sccba.com.