IN THE BEGINNING

In the early 1970s, some of us "old-timers" of Chinese descent began to notice Asian American lawyers suddenly beginning to surface in numbers... in court, in a few government agencies legal staffs, at CEB programs, sometimes but rarely, at bar association meetings. What had been up to that time a few dozen Asian American lawyers was now a "bunch" of them.

Jerry Brown was the governor in 1976. His father Pat Brown had appointed Delbert Wong as the first and only Chinese American judge in California. When Jerry Brown appointed Elwood Lui to the Municipal Court in Los Angeles as the second Chinese American judge, Delbert and Dolores Wong gave a dinner to celebrate that appointment. Several Chinese-American lawyers including Hiram Kwan, Jimmy Yip, George Lee, Nowland Hong, Richard Quan, Michael Chang, others and myself attended the dinner. We discussed forming a bar association with other Chinese American lawyers. After several meetings, we decided to form our own bar association, independent of any existing bar association.

I was given the job of organizing. We had our first meeting at Golden Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown. There were about 45 persons at the meeting. Later I was honored to be selected as the first president.

I think Nowland Hong (the president after me, twice) and I were fortunate that George Lee, now deceased, was elected as Secretary. George contributed an enormous amount of energy and enthusiasm, pushing the board of governors and the members to keep SCCLA going. And with apologies to the past emcees, there was never a better or funnier one than George. Anyone who attended those early dinners would agree with me, I am sure.

After the formation of our organization (originally named Los Angeles Chinese Lawyers Association) several members received judicial appointments, e.g., Jimmy Yip, Harry Mock, Ron Lew. However, SCCLA was never formed to secure judicial appointments nor for political purposes. In those beginning years, several of the members were offered judicial and political appointments but declined for various reasons.

SCCLA was formed because we wanted to have a professional organization in which we could be comfortable with other members of common backgrounds, where we could socialize and get to know each other, where we could network with those of similar interests. We wanted an organization where we could foster the growth of its members into leadership positions and assist them in their professional development and advancement in the legal profession. It was not likely that an Asian American attorney could do so in the traditional bar associations that existed at that time.

For the new Asian American lawyers, the point of Asian American lawyers seeking personal satisfaction and professional respect in the legal profession by forming SCCLA and other ethnic bar associations, should not be lost. Recall with me that only 25 years ago, despite many qualified Asian American attorneys, there were only 3 Asian American judges in California and few Asian American partners in major California law firms. There were certain government agencies at which it was useless to apply.

The first annual installation dinner was held at Golden Palace Restaurant in 1976 in Chinatown. The first guest speaker was March Fong Eu, then the Secretary of State of California. The attendance at that first dinner was approximately 300 people, which we thought was terrific. Other installation dinner speakers in those early years were Circuit Judge Thomas Tang, Justice Harry Lowe, Attorney General Evelle Younger, to name a few.

The original Board of Governors was organized along guidelines that we hoped would keep us together. We wanted to satisfy old-timers and newcomers, to prevent either old or young lawyers dominating the organization, and to have the mix of new and experienced lawyers. Three board members were from lawyers admitted 0-5 years; 3 from the 5-10 years group, and 3 from the over 10 years in practice. The president and president-elect were automatic members of the Board.

Shortly after SCCLA was organized, Ed Fukita called me one day, borrowed our bylaws, and the Japanese American Bar Association (JABA) was formed, with Ed as their first president and later JABA's first appointee to the bench. In San Francisco, the Asian Bar Association was then formed. The bar presidents of the local minority bar associations including the Langston and Mexican American Bar Associations joined together with SCCLA and JABA to form the Minority Bar Association.

In our beginning years, we had monthly lunches at different restaurants, with a speaker who had some relationship with either the community or our profession. The years have passed along with my memory of their identities, but suffice it to say that the guests were everything: community leaders, media, politicians, and judges.

We were able to start the project of a Saturday legal clinic assistance project at the Chinatown Service Center in Chinatown. Past president Stewart Kwoh, a MacArthur Fellowship honoree, has taken that concept to incredible heights with his Asian Pacific American Legal Center, with its outstanding service to the Asian American communities. Past Governor Franklin Tom, who became Commissioner of Corporations of California, was a leading participant in the formation of the Los Angeles Chinatown Library. We succeeded in being certified as an independent bar association with the right to have our own delegates to the State Bar Convention. The late Judge Harry Mock deserves great credit for his effort in that achievement.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

In looking back over the past 25 years, I applaud our members who through their efforts have taken SCCLA to a level of success the original organizers would have had difficulty in imagining. I think of the support that SCCLA has generously received from members of the Board of Governors and presidents of the State Bar, the judiciary, the law firms of which our members have become partners and associates, and members of many governmental agencies of which our members are now an integral and sometimes outstanding part, and last but not least, the politicians. SCCLA is now a huge success, a credit to its members, to the legal profession, and to the community.

I hope that SCCLA and its members and supporters in this next millennium will continue to have and nurture their common interest in the Chinese-American community and Chinese culture, regardless of their ethnic origin. I hope that the members will continue to give guidance, assistance, counsel and comradeship to each other and to the community.

Finally, I hope that the members will continue to maintain the highest level of professionalism. We are all fortunate to have become lawyers, receiving respect from and having the responsibility to serve, our community and society. In my humble opinion, there are few finer things in life than to have the respect of and to be able to serve the community, and not necessarily in that order.