Justice Goodwin Liu is the co-author of a report released this week that presents “a comprehensive portrait documenting the rise of Asian Americans in the law, their distribution across practice settings, and the challenges they face in advancing to the top ranks of the profession.” The report — titled “A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law” and released by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and Yale Law School — concludes, “Asian Americans have penetrated virtually every sector of the legal profession, but they are significantly underrepresented in the leadership ranks of law firms, government, and academia.”
Related: Justice Liu is interviewed in The American Lawyer [subscription] in “Are Asian-Americans Fed Up With Law?”
Also related: the Supreme Court has acknowledged its past discrimination against Asian-Americans and has attempted to make amends by symbolically granting two posthumous bar admissions in the last two years. (Here and here.)
[July 23 update:
Justice Liu has an op-ed in today’s Sunday Los Angeles Times — “Asian Americans fill more lawyer jobs, but not at the top ranks.” He writes, “It is a chicken-and-egg problem: Given societal perceptions, it is difficult for many Asian Americans to envision themselves as leaders in law; without more Asian Americans becoming leaders, it is difficult to change perceptions.”
See also articles in the Washington Post (“Law schools are filled with Asian Americans. So why aren’t there more Asian judges?”) and the ABA Journal (“Asian-Americans are apparently losing interest in law school; report shows outsize enrollment drop”).]
