<Begin Segment 16>

TI: And so when you think about today, I mean, so what has the impact been of things like the Asian Law Alliance and the Asian Student Alliance and things like that in terms of getting more Asian lawyers?

RK: I mean, if you look at even some of the big law firms now, they have Asian partners. Back in the '70s, you would never, there might have been one or two. Now, if you look at a lot of the big law firms, there are quite a number of Asian partners, which has changed, changed the face of the law, of lawyers, and for sure, a lot of the law firms actually look to, especially in terms of lawyers who can speak other languages, and they can do, help facilitate business or legal relationships with companies abroad. That's a pretty big deal now.

TI: And so what are the challenges now for the Asian Law Alliance? I mean, when you think of, early on it was to get more lawyers into the system and other, maybe judges and things like that, what do you think the challenges are now?

RK: Well, I mean, they're continuing challenges. There are a lot of, again, I think when we started the Asian Law Alliance, there was this kind of stereotype that the Asians that were here were engineers or professionals or what have you. And certainly there are segments of our community that are within those professions, but there are a lot of other people who are immigrants, elderly, who have a lot of different legal needs, whether they be in immigration, domestic violence, housing, what have you. Those issues are still there, and the community has grown, and so the challenges we see are continuing in those particular areas.

TI: And how would you compare, say, the San Jose or Bay Area in terms of, sort of, the Asian legal community, to other places with large Asian populations like Los Angeles or New York? I mean, do they have similar organizations or institutions there to do similar things?

RK: Right, in San Francisco, L.A., New York, there are very similar organizations to the Asian Law Alliance. So there have been these kinds of organizations that have mostly developed in the same period of time, late '70s, early '80s, who have continued to do this kind of legal work and advocacy.

TI: And do you guys work together?

RK: Yeah, there was cooperation around different issues like the census or other kinds of issues that are kind of a concern to all of us, whether it be immigration reform or other issues at that time.

TI: And what are some of the challenges getting a coalition of these different regions working together? When you think about getting L.A., San Francisco, San Jose, and New York, maybe Honolulu or Seattle, I mean, you have all these pockets. What are the challenges to working together?

RK: Well, I mean, the challenges are, lot of times it's the challenge of resource. In other words, you have a lot of local, individual concerns that need to be addressed, but then there are these broader issues that take this kind of collaboration. And as anything else, I mean, to devote the time you need to some of these collaborations, sometimes can strain an organization in terms of some of the other work that you're doing. So that's always a challenge.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.