<Begin Segment 17>

MC: Okay. We're reconvening now, continuing with the interview of Lori K. Bannai. This time it's Margaret Chon asking the majority of the interview questions. And we've just completed the early history, up to and including college, and just to recap, Lori, about dates. I think you graduated from high school in 1972?

LB: Uh-huh.

MC: Is that right? And then you graduated from UC Santa Barbara in '75.

LB: '76.

MC: '76. Okay. And did you start law school right afterwards?

LB: Right.

MC: So you started law school in 1976. And where did you attend law school?

LB: I went to the University of San Francisco School of Law.

MC: Uh-huh. And you had mentioned earlier that you had rejected the idea of attending Hastings, in part because of a possible perception that your father might be involved in the decision to have you admitted. Were there any reasons why you chose USF as the place where you wanted to go to law school?

LB: Well, at the time, my sister actually was at Hastings in law school. And I thought it'd be nice to go on up to San Francisco, and we'd be able to live together and be in the same city. So I did want to end up in San Francisco. USF was a smaller school, more intimate school, smaller class size. So I liked the feel of the place when I went to visit it.

MC: Did you know anything about Jesuit education before you started there?

LB: Not at all. I was actually really quite frightened by the fact that I might have to learn scripture or say prayers every day as part of my law school education, and turned out that was the, not the case. So it was actually a really good experience. The Jesuit tradition is very social justice-oriented, and I think that really came through in their curriculum. And I thought it was a pretty supportive place for going to law school and for being involved in issues of social change.

MC: What kinds of goals and ideals did you have when you first started law school?

LB: Well, I suppose I have a couple answers to that. One, probably I didn't have grandiose ideas about what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to get an education. I wanted to get a good education. I wanted to end up doing something good in society. So on one level, I didn't have any great expectations. On another level, since I did have the sense that law could be a vehicle for social change, I was looking for that in law school. I was looking for an experience that would be relevant to me, that would teach me perhaps how to be a lawyer and do some good in the community.

MC: Did you have any specific vision of what you might do right after you graduated?

LB: No. Not at all. At the point in time I started law school, I really had very little idea of what lawyers did, other than what I had seen on television like everybody else. So I had no particular vision. I knew that a lot of legislators were lawyers. I knew that a lot of influential people in society were lawyers. I didn't necessarily see myself becoming one of those types of people, but again, I think I just wanted to find the tools to be able to perhaps make a difference and help people.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.