Justice Goodwin Liu is one of five authors of a new study following up on a 2017 report that analyzed Asian Americans in the legal profession. The new paper — “A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law 2.0: Identity and Action in Challenging Times” — “canvasses Asian American attorneys for insights into law school enrollment, career advancement, and political participation.”
The study’s findings include:
- “Asian American attorneys indicated greater engagement with social and political issues, along with a desire to change and improve society.” “Almost as many survey respondents increased their participation in public protests or other forms of advocacy for issues important to Black Americans (26%) as for issues important to Asian Americans (27%) in the past five years.”
- “Underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the top ranks of the legal profession persists. But there has been notable progress in the appointment of federal judges and in the ranks of general counsel, and law school enrollment has rebounded somewhat from a 20-year low.”
- “Greater institutional support would likely reduce barriers to advancement and improve the professional lives of Asian American attorneys.”
Stephanie Francis Ward writes about the study in the ABA Journal — “As underrepresentation of Asian American lawyers in top jobs continues, more are speaking out, new study finds.” She quotes Liu as saying that anti-Asian racism “is not a comfortable topic” and that “there is a certain ethos in the community of just grin and bear it, keep your head down, don’t complain. Lawyers are no longer willing to grin and bear it and not complain.”
Also:
Alaina Lancaster in The Recorder — “More Asian-American Attorneys Are Basing Career Moves on Values, Assuming GC Roles.”
Jake Chang in AsAmNews — “Uptick in Asian American lawyer advocacy, study finds.”
Andrea Keckley for Law360 — “Despite Progress, Barriers Remain For Asian American Attys.”
Karen Sloan for Reuters — “More Asian Americans on the federal bench; progress lacking at Big Law.”
Related:
Justice Liu co-authors “A Portrait of Asian Americans in the Law”
Justice Liu co-authors study on judicial clerk diversity
Justice Liu talks about anti-Asian bigotry, including his own experiences
Justice Liu says more Asian American head prosecutors are necessary
Justice Liu: Asian Americans in the legal profession “are honorary Whites, until they’re not”
Chief Justice: “there’s still an implicit bias against Asian Americans”
