Erica Lai

A D.C.-based C&G team comprised of Melissa H Maxman, Ronald F Wick, and Erica Lai helped secure a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that all workers are protected under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

Erica Lai has been elected President-Elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area for the 2019-2020 year.  Founded in 1981, APABA-DC has grown to a network of hundreds of lawyers, law professors, law students, and other interested individuals, and actively serves the needs of the Asian Pacific American community.  Erica will assume the Presidency next fall.

We are pleased to announce that 33 of our New York and Washington D.C.-based C&G attorneys have been recognized by Super Lawyers this year across a wide range of practice areas. Super Lawyers also selected C&G co-founder Mark S Cohen and partners Jonathan S Abernethy and Daniel H Tabak to its list of the top 100 lawyers in the New York metropolitan area, and partner Karen H Bromberg to its list of the top 50 women lawyers in the New York metropolitan area.

C&G helped secure a victory in a case alleging that President Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting benefits from foreign governments without seeking and obtaining congressional consent. C&G represents five legal historians who filed an amicus brief citing extensive historical sources demonstrating that the Founding Fathers shared the plaintiffs’ definition of emoluments. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in denying Trump’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, expressly stated that “[t]he Court appreciates the illuminating analysis provided by the amici,” and that “Amici Legal Historians soundly reject the President’s narrow definition of Emolument as inaccurate, unrepresentative, and misleading.”

The National Law Journal published a piece about the importance of our clients’ amicus brief, mentioning Cohen & Gresser’s role, and quoting Washington, D.C. Managing Partner, Melissa Maxman, linked here.

This is the second time a district judge has relied in large part upon our legal historian clients’ brief in construing the Emoluments Clause.

Christian R Everdell has been promoted to partner, and Joanna K Chan, Erica Lai, and David F Lisner have been promoted to counsel.

"Congratulations and thanks to each of these exceptional attorneys for their commitment to excellence, integrity, and superb client service. We are very fortunate to have them," said Managing Partner, Lawrence T Gresser.

Cohen & Gresser helped achieve a precedent-setting ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Jerry Reeves v. Fayette SCI, et al. (No. 17-1043), that clears the way for wrongfully convicted defendants to seek federal habeas relief where their trial counsel failed to present credible evidence of their actual innocence. There is a split among federal circuit courts over what type of “new evidence” of actual innocence is required before courts can consider the merits of untimely habeas corpus petitions that allege constitutional violations.  Some circuits consider evidence only if it is newly discovered after trial, while others permit evidence available at the time of the trial that defense counsel failed to present. The Third Circuit had not weighed in on the issue. Cohen & Gresser filed a pro bono amici curiae brief on behalf of the Innocence Network and the Innocence Project of Pennsylvania urging the Third Circuit to adopt the broader newly presented standard, because the narrower newly discovered evidence standard would cut off a pathway to exoneration for innocent individuals whose attorneys failed to present exculpatory evidence at trial. In a precedential decision on July 23, 2018, the Third Circuit agreed, vacating the denial of Mr. Reeves’ habeas petition and instructing the district court on remand to consider his newly presented exculpatory evidence.

C&G welcomes the associates who joined the firm in 2016. "Our new associates are excellent lawyers and wonderful additions to the firm," said Managing Partner Lawrence T Gresser. 

In this C&G Client Alert, Melissa H Maxman, Ronald F Wick, Erica Lai, and Danielle Morello discuss the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) announcement that it will now consider crediting companies for “robust” compliance programs at the charging stage of criminal antitrust investigations. This signals a reversal of the DOJ’s longstanding policy of allowing substantial penalty reductions only for “early-in” whistleblowers.

Erica Lai moderated a panel with three lead attorneys from the litigation that enjoined the U.S. Department of Commerce from adding a question to the 2020 decennial census that would have required respondents to identify the citizenship status of every member of their households. Plaintiffs brought claims under the Census Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act alleging that adding the question would cause a disproportionate undercount in states with high numbers of non-English speakers, immigrants, and people of color, resulting in an inaccurate and incomplete head count. The panel was put on by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area (APABA-DC), with the support of other local minority bar associations.

Erica Lai spoke on a panel with other counsel who represented or spearheaded amici briefs in the trio of watershed Title VII cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2019-20 term:  Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, and R.G. & G.R. Funeral Homes v. Stephens. The cases address whether Title VII’s prohibition on employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” encompasses discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The panel discussed the U.S. Supreme Court arguments held earlier in the day. Erica Lai and C&G’s Washington, D.C. office filed a brief on behalf of the National Women’s Law Center and 36 other women’s rights groups answering the question in the affirmative and in support of the employees.

On September 22, 2019, Erica Lai moderated a panel on economic justice issues facing Asian American and Pacific Islander women, including equal pay, occupational segregation, wage theft, pregnancy discrimination, and sexual harassment.  Speakers included Jenny R. Yang (Urban Institute senior fellow and former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair), Lisa P. Mak (Minami Tamaki LLP employment attorney), and Seri Lee (NAPAWF labor organizer).  The panel was part of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Power Up Conference, held in Washington, D.C.

On June 5, 2019, Erica Lai moderated a panel about birthright citizenship and other immigration issues impacting the Asian American community.  Speakers included John Yang (Asian Americans Advancing Justice), Karen Narasaki (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights), and Neal Katyal (Hogan Lovells and former Acting U.S. Solicitor General), as well as Shalin Nohria (Hogan Lovells).  Held at Hogan Lovells’ D.C. office, the event was co-sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area (APABA-DC) and other local minority bar associations. 

University of Pennsylvania Law School 14^th Annual APALSA Conference, Philadelphia PA 

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association 4^th Annual Convention, Washington DC