Brendan Wong

 Candidate for Director

Candidate Statement

My first involvement with NAPABA was the 2013 Convention in Kansas City. My friend had encouraged me for a few years to attend, promising “just go once, and you’ll keep going every year”. He was right. The overwhelming sense of community, passion for just causes, and unspoken sentiment of shared experiences struck a chord with me, and I have attended the convention every year since. At that time I had just joined the board of my local affiliate, the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (Ontario) (“FACL”). I later became President of FACL from 2015-2017, and remained on the board until 2019. In late 2018, I joined the NAPABA Board of Governors as a Northeast Regional Governor.

I am a Commercial Litigation a partner at Canada’s largest law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, with a practice focusing on anti-fraud litigation, shareholder and other corporate litigation, and international disputes. In addition to my work with FACL, I was a director and Chair of the board of Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Centre (“Access Alliance”). Access Alliance is a community health centre with three locations across the City of Toronto, and provides medical, settlement, and social services to new immigrants, refugees and their families.

Through my practice and community work, I have been fortunate to have gathered a wide range of skills that I believe will help me serve NAPABA effectively and carry out its mandate. This ranges from experience with specific subject matters such as governance, advocacy and finance, to soft skills such as consensus building, leadership, and fundraising. These skills assisted me in overseeing Access Alliance’s mandate, carried out by 75 full time employees and a budget of over $10 million, and growing FACL to new heights. To me, the privilege of serving on a not-for-profit board carries with it an obligation to take action, and I am proud that during my Presidency of FACL we doubled the size of our conference, tripled our sponsorship revenue, launched a new website, overhauled our social media presence, and expanded our lobbying efforts to reach all levels of government.

Looking forward, NAPABA’s advocacy should focus on the two seismic events currently rocking the foundations of our society – the COVID19 crisis and associated anti-Asian racism, and the Black Lives Matter movements and related wave of activism against systemic discrimination. NAPABA must continue to be a leading voice in combatting anti-Asian racism and systemic discrimination – indeed this is embedded within its DNA. It must ensure that it not only responds to issues as they arise, but identifies and gets ahead of these issues through its lobbying efforts, community outreach, and programming.

NAPABA cannot achieve this end without strengthening its relationship with its affiliates. Too often NAPABA is thought of simply as a Convention, despite being an association engaged in a wide variety of advocacy, research, lobbying, and professional education. NAPABA needs to reboot its connection with its affiliates and increase its relevance to them and their members well beyond four days in November.

In these new socially distant times, the Board of Governors and staff will need to be innovative in carrying out NAPABA’s mandate. At its heart, NAPABA is a community. The isolation brought by COVID19 cannot be permitted to make distant our membership, affiliates and partners. This means doing more than simply converting existing events and programming into Zoom chats. NAPABA should explore ideas and implement technology that can keep our community connected in interactive, engaging, and meaningful ways.
 
There is much to be done, and many challenges face the Asian bar and broader community on the road ahead. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work.

Candidate Bio

Brendan Wong is a partner in Borden Ladner Gervais’ Commercial Litigation Group. Brendan's commercial litigation practice includes a focus on fraud and injunction litigation, shareholder and partnership litigation, banking litigation (including insolvency litigation), and international disputes. He is fluent in English and conversational in French.
Brendan has appeared before all levels of Court in Ontario, various tribunals, arbitrators and the Barbados Supreme Court.

Fraud and Injunction Litigation – Brendan has extensive experience in bringing applications for urgent relief, typically within the context of fraud and/or insolvency litigation. Brendan has obtained Mareva Injunctions to freeze bank accounts, Anton Piller Orders to seize evidence which may be at risk of being destroyed, and orders for the recovery of property prior to trial. Brendan has acted for all manner of clients, whether major financial institutions or private investors, in recovering the proceeds of fraud, protecting trade secrets, and accessing property unlawfully withheld.

Cross-Border and International Litigation – Brendan regularly acts for U.S. and other international companies in enforcing foreign judgments and orders in Ontario. This includes the enforcement in Ontario of letters of request from foreign courts, as well as representation in Canadian insolvency proceedings and litigation.

Shareholder, Partnership and Joint Venture Disputes – Brendan’s practice has included working on multimillion dollar oppression remedy claims and other corporate litigation in a wide variety of business contexts.

Banking and Insolvency Litigation – Brendan regularly acts for major financial institutions and other creditors in connection with the enforcement of security, and insolvency and contractual disputes.

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*All work or organizational affiliations disclosed are for identification and disclosures purposes only, and do not constitute endorsements by those institutions.