ABA to present attorneys with Solo and Small Firm Lifetime Achievement Award
The American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division will honor Glenn Lau-Kee and Gary L. Anderson with its 2019 Solo and Small Firm Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes the efforts and accomplishments of outstanding solo and small firm practitioners as well as bar leaders and associations.
The award will be presented to Lau-Kee and Anderson at the Solo and Small Firm Awards Luncheon at 12:15 p.m. Friday, May 3, in the Library Room on the 8th floor at the New York Marriott Marquis during the 2019 Section of Litigation & Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division CLE Conference.
This award recognizes exceptional lifetime achievement by a solo or small firm practitioner who is widely accepted by his or her peers as having consistently achieved distinction in an exemplary way. The recipients are viewed by other solo and small firm practitioners as epitomizing the ideals of the legal profession and of solo and small firm practitioners.
Lau-Kee is a partner of the firm of Lau-Kee Law Group, PLLC, in New York. He began his law practice in 1975 at the international law firm of Coudert Brothers as an associate in the Hong Kong and New York offices, concentrating on banking and project financing matters. He joined his late father, Norman Lau Kee, in 1977 to form Kee & Lau-Kee. Kee & Lau-Kee has now become the Lau-Kee Law Group PLLC.
Lau-Kee is a former president of the 70,000-member New York State Bar Association, the first Asian-American to serve in that position. He currently serves on the New York City Mayor's Advisory Committee to the Judiciary, and chairs the board of trustees of the U.S.-Asia Institute, a nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Lau-Kee was a commissioner on the Commission on Human Rights of the City of New York from 1984-90, serving as vice chair. He served on the New York State Judicial Screening Committee, First Department, and the New York Housing Court Advisory Council. He has served as vice chair of the board of the YMCA of Greater New York, and as a board member of the New York County Bar Association, the Fund for Modern Courts, the New York Bar Foundation, Legal Services for New York City and the Queens Legal Services Corporation. He served as president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York from 1997-99, and was appointed by then Chief Judge Judith Kaye to serve on the Commission to Examine Solo and Small Firm Practice and the Committee to Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System. He was a member of the Commission on Statewide Attorney Discipline formed by former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman. He also served as the ABA Observer to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in Geneva.
Lau-Kee is a David Rockefeller Fellow of the New York City Partnership. He has been awarded the Dean's Medal from Albany Law School, the Jane M. Bolin Leaders in Law Award from the Judicial Friends Association and the Honorable George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award from the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of NYSBA. He is also the recipient of the Order of the Red Triangle from the YMCA of Greater New York.
He is a 1971 graduate of Yale University and a 1974 graduate of the Boston University School of Law.
Anderson began his career in public service in 1965 when he joined the Army. In 1968 he received his law degree from the University of Texas and served most of his time in the Army with the JAG Corps until his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in 1988. He served overseas in Thailand and Germany, as well as several duty stations across the country.
Anderson began his service in the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1990. In 1994, he transferred to the Civil Division. In 2001, he was selected for a detail at the executive office of U.S. Attorneys in Washington, where he coordinated employment litigation matters for EOUSA. He also supervised the administrative division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, coordinating the office's civil immigration litigation docket.
Anderson served as chair of the ABA Military Coordinating Committee, the ABA Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law and the Government and Public Sector Law Division. He served as president and later director of the San Antonio chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
Philadelphia attorney to receive ABA GP Solo and Small Firm Trainer Award
The American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division will honor Cynthia Sharp of Philadelphia with its 2019 Solo and Small Firm Trainer Award, which recognizes lawyers who have made significant contributions to educating lawyers or law students regarding the opportunities and challenges of a solo and small firm practice.
The award will be presented to Sharp at the Solo and Small Firm Awards Luncheon at 12:15 p.m. Friday, May 3, in the Library Room on the 8th Floor at the New York Marriott Marquis during the 2019 Section of Litigation & Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division CLE Conference.
As CEO of The Sharper Lawyer, Sharp works with motivated lawyers seeking to generate additional revenue for their law firms. She practiced law from 1982–2009, before embarking on a professional speaking and writing career. Recently recruited by Scott Counsel, PC, in South Jersey, Sharp has assumed a part-time role in the firm, which includes practicing in the areas of elder care and estate and disabilities planning.
Sharp, author of “The Lawyer’s Guide to Financial Planning” published by the ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division, is also a contributor to the division’s books “How to Capture and Keep Clients: Marketing Strategies for Lawyers” and “Staffing Your Law Firm.”
She has delivered nearly 200 live presentations over the past 25 years on behalf of the ABA, several state bar associations, the Million Dollar Round Table, Professional Services Marketing Association and other legal, financial and professional groups in addition to private seminars conducted for her clients.
Sharp also served as business development columnist for the ABA GPSolo eReport, Social Media Strategist for GPSolo and as a regular guest contributor to ALM’s publication, Marketing the Law Firm. In addition, she has written more than 120 articles over the past 30 years that have been published in various journals throughout the country.
In 2017-18, Sharp held positions on the GPSolo and eReport boards of the ABA Solo, Small Firm & General Practice Division, having previously served as chair of the Publications Board of the division and on the division’s council. She completed her term as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Speakers Association in June of 2015 and served as dean of the Speaker Academy the subsequent year. Sharp has also been an active member in the Association of Continuing Legal Education. In addition, she has a podcast featured on Solo Practice University.
DOJ Assistant AG Matthew Miner to speak at ABA health care fraud conference
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Miner of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division will deliver the keynote speech on Thursday, May 9, at the opening of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section’s 29th Annual National Institute on Health Care Fraud, May 8-10 in New Orleans. Miner, who supervises the Criminal Division’s Fraud and Appellate Sections. will speak at 9 a.m. CST to open the two-and-a-half-day conference being held at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.
Also Thursday, May 9, the keynote luncheon speaker will be Vicki L. Robinson, senior counsel for Policy in the Office of the Inspector General. She will speak on the topic of “Fraud and Abuse Law Developments in a Changing Health Care Environment,” beginning at 12:30 p.m.
The institute brings together health care attorneys, regulators, compliance professionals, state and federal prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys who will discuss current legal and ethical issues in health care fraud.
Program highlights include:
• “Government Enforcement and Compliance Matters: A Road Map for General Counsel and Compliance Professionals” — This session will examine issues and aspects of government investigations and best practices for in-house counsel, compliance professionals and outside counsel for responding to enforcement matters, and ethical issues and principals of professional responsibility common to these matters.
• “Government Enforcement Panel” — This panel of Justice Department attorneys, a representative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services and an administrator from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services will discuss the investigation roles and coordination between enforcement and regulatory agencies in health care fraud enforcement matters.
• “Fraud and Abuse in Nursing Homes” — Panelists will discuss from the government, relator and defense perspective hot topics in nursing home fraud and patient abuse cases. These will include criminal investigations and prosecutions in cases with allegations of patient abuse, investigations and False Claims Act cases involving allegations of substandard care and criminal and civil cases involving allegations of financial fraud and false claims by nursing home providers.
• “Federal and State Enforcement and the Opioid Crisis” — This presentation will examine the federal and state investigative and enforcement efforts for combating the nationwide opioid crisis. Panelists will discuss the criminal and civil enforcement strategies and goals and the forecast for future progress.
