BCNA Honored by the Lawyers Alliance for New York

BCNA Honored by the Lawyers Alliance for New York

This has been an exciting Spring and Summer for BCNA, with lots of news, and some great opportunities to meet with, and celebrate, with our peers in the CDFI community.

We were particularly pleased to attend the Lawyers Alliance for New York‘s 2016 Business Law and Leadership Gala, which this year honored BCNA’s Executive Director, Yanki Tshering, along with Laureen E. Seeger, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for American Express, and Carol Bellamy, Former Executive Director of UNICEF and founder of the Lawyer’s Alliance, which was originally known as the Council of New York Law Associates. The May 19th Gala, was attended by close to 400 leaders from the legal, financial, and non-profit sector, a terrific turnout for a terrific organization.

Accepting the award, Yanki thanked the Lawyers Alliance not only for the recognition, but for being one of BCNA’s most valued partners, providing counsel for over eighteen important projects since 1998. Most recently the Lawyers Alliance has advised us with a review of all of BCNA’s governance documents as well as with closing a loan of $1.25 million from the Small Business Administration (SBA) for BCNA’s loan fund. We are eternally grateful, too, for the over 400 hours donated by team of pro-bono lawyers from Debevoise and Plimpton, under the supervision of Attorney Ezra Borut, to help us successfully transfer assets from BCNA’s parent organization when it closed, and ensure the continuation of BCNA as a thriving organization dedicated to serving low to moderate income refugees and immigrant business owners in New York City.

By honoring BCNA, the Lawyers Alliance is highlighting their mission to provide pro-bono legal assistance to non-profits that are providing access to credit and financial education to under-served small businesses and low income New Yorkers.

We are grateful for the recognition and look forward to further collaboration to help New Americans – and all Americans – achieve the American Dream.