Brief History:

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The Asian Pacific Law Student Association was founded by student Denny Chan in 2010. Denny Chan gave an account of APALSA's early history in an article from APSA:

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"In the law school, I founded APALSA here at UCI. APALSA stands for Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and it is the only organization at our school that is focused on issues facing Asian American communities, as well as issues facing Asian American law students. Through APALSA, we put on a symposium, which was called Reigniting Community: Strengthening the APA Identity. It was a one and a half day conference that looked at legal issues facing Asian Pacific Americans. We brought in law professors from all over the country, we collaborated very heavily with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in LA, and we even had someone Skype in. It was very much a national conversation about the challenges facing our particular community, and what can be done. I think this year is a very timely year to be looking at those sorts of questions, because it is the 30th anniversary of Vincent Chin’s death. It is also an election year, so there are a lot of things that our elected officials and those who are running for office should be talking about. I think one of the biggest things I was able to do here at UCI was start an APALSA chapter and put on the symposium. It wasn’t always easy, so it’s a very proud accomplishment of mine.

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There are other small things that we’ve done – we petitioned for more Asian American faculty and we are working closely with undergrads. For example, last year we were part of a campaign that tried to do something around the shark fin debate. The California legislature was in the process of approving a ban on shark fin in California restaurants. We were involved with APSA at the time to figure out what a UCI response would be. We also recognize that there are huge pipeline issues. When you go to law school, it’s not out of the ordinary that everyone looks and acts the same way and has the same background. A lot of people already have family members who are lawyers, a lot of them are white or Jewish, and a lot come with class privileges. One of the reasons why there’s a lack of diversity is generally because there are pipeline issues. That is to say, that people of color who want to go to law school don’t necessarily have mentors of color who they can talk to about things like the application process. They often don’t have the economic resources for LSAT preparation. There are barriers for people of color in admission to law schools. One of the things I’ve been involved in is looking at what we can do from an undergrad to graduate student perspective – mentoring students of color to give them the resources and information that we wanted to know when we applied to law school. The law school has a formal mentor program that I’m involved in, and there are also informal ways, like if I meet an undergrad at UCI that’s interested in law school, I try and act as much of a resource as possible. There’s also been a lot of collaboration with the Orange County Asian American Bar Association, as well as the legal center in LA. They run semi-monthly legal clinics in Orange County, generally in areas targeting low income communities all across the county. I try to get other law students involved, particularly because a lot of the people that go to these clinics don’t speak English, don’t speak English well, or aren’t comfortable with talking about potential legal claims in English. It’s really convenient and helpful to have some people who are able to speak some of the language, to at least act as a translator between the lawyer and the client. Law students are busy, but I try hard to get them involved in that program.

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Generally, for law school, you go to campus for class, and get sucked away for three years, and never do anything. You forget the reasons why you came to law school. One of the things I’ve tried hard to do is provide opportunities for other people who are similarly minded as I am, to remember why they went to law school. I went to law school because I knew I wanted to serve for the good of the community and wanted to address racial issues as applied to Asian Americans. In providing those opportunities to others, I’ve also been able to provide those opportunities to myself.

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In college, because that hate incident happened, it was more about community building. That is to say, politicizing other Asian Americans in knowing that we as a community still face issues, that we as a community still face discrimination, and we often don’t feel that way when we go to class, toting our backpacks going to lecture, but that it’s easy to get sucked away in the campus, and forget about broader social issues. I think in my time spent in college I was trying to help people realize that race still matters, and that being Asian American still to some extent does color the way that other people see you, and the way that you negotiate your life with your surroundings." (For more, see link).

  

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Mission Statement:

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"APALSA is a political, community service, academic, and social organization dedicated to serving the Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) communities at the UCI School of Law, in Southern California, and in the greater community at large."

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Website link

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