NAPABA Applauds the Confirmation of Judge Wesley L. Hsu to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

For Immediate Release: 
Date: May 4, 2023 
ContactPriya Purandare, Executive Director

WASHINGTON – On May 4, the Senate confirmed Judge Wesley L. Hsu to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by a vote of 53 to 43.

“NAPABA congratulates Judge Hsu on his confirmation to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California,” said Sandra Leung, president of NAPABA. “Judge Hsu, a 2005 NAPABA Best Lawyers Under 40 awardee, has shown strong leadership in his professional career and volunteer work with the AAPI community. We are proud to have supported Judge Hsu’s nomination and are delighted he was confirmed.”

Judge Hsu has an extensive legal career spanning nearly three decades. He previously served in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2017. Before he was appointed a judge, Hsu served for 17 years as the Executive United States Attorney and Deputy United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney in the Central District of California. He has clerked for the Hon. Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and he has experience in the private sector from his time at a private law firm.

“President Biden has appointed 19 out of the 52 AAPI active Article III judges,” said Priya Purandare, executive director of NAPABA. “Today, as we head into the 31st Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we celebrate a judiciary more reflective of the people it serves.”

In addition to his professional work, Judge Hsu is active in his community as a member of the Board of Governors for the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance, a Founding Member of NAPABA’s Government Enforcement and Compliance Committee, and NAPABA’s Data Security and Privacy Committee, and a Co-Chair of the California Asian Pacific American Judges Association. His service to the AAPI community has been recognized by NAPABA with its Best Lawyers Under 40. Judge Hsu has served as an adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount Law School and a writing instructor at the University of Southern California Law School and is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.

NAPABA thanks President Biden for nominating Judge Hsu and Senators Feinstein and Padilla for supporting and recommending his nomination.

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The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), represents the interests of over 60,000 Asian Pacific American (APA) legal professionals and nearly 90 national, state, and local APA bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting APA communities. Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of all backgrounds in the legal profession.

NAPABA President A.B. Cruz III Testifies before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property on the Importance of a Diverse Federal Judiciary

For Immediate Release: 
Date: July 12, 2021

Contact: Edgar Chen, Policy Director

Click here for Testimony.

WASHINGTON – This morning, NAPABA President A.B. Cruz III testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property at a hearing entitled, “The Importance of a Diverse Federal Judiciary, Part 2: The Selection and Confirmation Process.” President Cruz’s testimony on behalf of NAPABA highlighted the challenges that Asian Pacific American attorneys often encounter as they attempt to advance in the legal profession. According to the 2017 landmark study “A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law” (“Portrait Project”) published jointly by NAPABA and Yale Law School, the most often cited issues are lack of mentorship and role models, lack of leadership training, and work going unrecognized. President Cruz’s testimony also drew on the Portrait Projects finding that the selection process for clerkships or law firm promotion – often a prerequisite for judicial consideration, involves not only measures of objective criteria but also access to mentorship and subjective criteria which are often amorphous factors that decision makers rely on to determine whom they regard as their proteges. President Cruz was joined on the panel by his Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC) colleague and Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) President Elia Diaz Yeager.

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The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), represents the interests of over 60,000 Asian Pacific American (APA) legal professionals and nearly 90 national, state, and local APA bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting APA communities. Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of all backgrounds in the legal profession..

NAPABA HIGHLIGHTS: The Portrait Project: A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law

For Immediate Release
July 18, 2017 

                                                   For More Information, Contact:
                                                   Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
                                                   [email protected], 202-775-9555

WASHINGTON —
Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing minority group in the
legal profession for the past three decades, but they have made only
limited progress in reaching the top ranks of the profession, according
to a new report released today by the National Asian Pacific American
Bar Association and Yale Law School.

The report, titled A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law, is the first-ever comprehensive study of Asian Americans in the legal profession.

According
to the study, there are over 50,000 Asian American lawyers today,
compared to 10,000 in 1990. Asian Americans comprise almost 5 percent of
lawyers in America and roughly 7 percent of law school enrollment.
Asian Americans are the largest minority group in big law firms, but
they have the highest attrition rates and the lowest ratio of partners
to associates.

Asian
Americans comprise 3 percent of federal judges and 2 percent of state
judges, compared to nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population. Only three
out of 94 U.S. Attorneys in 2016 were Asian American, and only four out
of 2,437 elected district attorneys nationwide in 2014 were Asian
American.

The
two-year study — authored by California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin
H. Liu, recent Yale law graduates Eric Chung, Xiaonan April Hu and
Christine Kwon, and Yale law postgraduate associate Samuel Dong —
included a dozen focus groups and a national survey of over 600 Asian
American lawyers.

The
survey revealed that Asian Americans identify lack of access to mentors
and contacts as a primary barrier to career advancement. They also
report being perceived as careful and hard-working, but not assertive or
creative. “Whereas Asian Americans are regarded as having the ‘hard
skills’ required for lawyerly competence, they are regarded as lacking
many important ‘soft skills,’” the study found. More than half of the
Asian American lawyers surveyed said they “sometimes” or “often”
experience implicit discrimination in the workplace.

“Our
study shows that Asian Americans have a foot in the door in every
sector the legal profession,” said Justice Liu. “The question now is how
wide the door will swing open. Despite much progress, Asian Americans
still face significant obstacles to reaching the leadership ranks.”

“The
Portrait Project shines a light on the obstacles and challenges faced
by Asian American lawyers every day,” said Cyndie M. Chang, president of
the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. “While incredible
strides have been made over the past 25 years, much work remains to be
done to push past the stigmas and assumptions associated with Asian
Americans. The insights gleaned from this report will unquestionably lay
the groundwork for the road ahead.”

“This
project is timely and important — a must-read for anyone who teaches or
practices law,” said Heather Gerken, dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman
professor of law at Yale Law School. “Justice Liu is a trailblazer, and
it’s a testament to him that he is trying to ensure that other Asian
Americans have a chance to pursue their dreams going forward.”

“This
path-breaking project literally changes the face of Asian American law.
For too many centuries, Asian Americans have been the objects, not the
subjects, of American law: victims and litigants, not activists,
lawyers, or judges,” said Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling professor of
international law at Yale Law School and former legal adviser of the
U.S. Department of State. “This indispensable report finally provides
the facts behind the stereotypes, the deeply felt feelings behind the
faces.”

“The
Portrait Project provides important and necessary data on the advances
and areas for further improvement for Asian Americans in the legal
profession,” said Michelle K. Lee, former undersecretary of commerce and
director of U.S. Patent and Trade Office. “Much progress has been made,
but much work remains ahead. Particularly noteworthy are the
differences highlighted by the data along gender lines, which illustrate
the challenges faced by Asian Americans in the legal profession are
even more pronounced for Asian American women.”

“This
first-ever study of its kind is significant not only for its breadth
and the insights it provides on the so-called ‘bamboo ceiling’ in the
legal profession, but also because it provides a roadmap for how Asian
American attorneys can continue to break through and advance within the
profession,” said Ivan K. Fong, senior vice president and general
counsel of 3M, and former general counsel of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.

“This
new empirical study is a significant contribution to our understanding
of the challenges faced by Asian Americans in the legal profession,”
said Ajay K. Mehrotra, director of the American Bar Foundation and
professor of law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. “It
is only by first identifying the factors that have impeded the long-term
leadership success of Asian Americans that we can find potential
solutions to this vexing problem.”

“The
Portrait Project has confirmed the existence of the bamboo ceiling. It
also shows that the future success of the Asian American legal community
requires more leadership and mentoring,” said Don Liu, executive vice
president and chief legal officer of Target Corp. “The study will be
tremendously helpful in removing the professional obstacles that exist
for Asian American lawyers.”

“The
Portrait Project not only points out the flaws of the hiring and
promotion system of workplaces toward Asian Americans, but also shows
what Asian Americans can do to succeed,” said Bijal Vakil, partner,
White & Case. “Change requires both mentoring Asian American lawyers
on strategies to effectively navigate the status quo of law firms in a
manner as personally authentic as possible and to continue pressuring
law firm leaders for inclusive leadership.”

For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, 202-775-9555, [email protected]. Questions about the study may be sent to [email protected].                                                                              

The
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the
national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law
professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of almost
50,000 attorneys and over 80 national, state, and local Asian Pacific
American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large
firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit
attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government.

To learn more about NAPABA, visit www.napaba.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@NAPABA).

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association | 1612 K St. NW, Suite 510 | Washington, D.C. 20006 | www.napaba.org

Spread the word: Critical Race Theory Conference at Yale Law School

Critical Race Theory: From the Academy to the Community Conference

Yale Law School
127 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
February 8-9, 2013

 Registration is now live!
http://yalecrt.eventbrite.com/

Registration is free for members of the Yale community! 

Following the success of the last critical race theory conference held at Yale in 2009, Yale Law School is proud to host the ³Critical Race Theory: From the Academy to the Community² conference on Friday, February 8, 2013 and Saturday, February 9, 2013. The conference is sponsored by the Zelia & Oscar Ruebhausen and Debevoise & Plimpton Student Fund at Yale Law School and La Casa Cultural at Yale College.

The conference will convene scholars, legal practitioners, and community leaders to examine the ways in which critical race theory can be applied to scholarly work, legal practice, social justice advocacy and community based movements. Confirmed speakers include Devon Carbado, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Lani Guinier, Cheryl Harris, Tanya Hernandez, Charles Lawrence, Gary Peller, and Gerald Torres.

In 2009, Yale Law School hosted a highly successful 2009 conference that explored the insights of critical race theory, as applied to immigration law. We look forward to continuing these conversations and exploring the role of CRT in other contexts at this February¹s conference.

For more information about programming, travel, accommodations, and more, please visit our website at http://www.law.yale.edu/news/crt2013.htm. Any questions or comments may be directed to [email protected].