From the Bench
Asian Pacific Americans
in the Georgia Bar
By Hon. Alvin T. Wong
DeKalb County State Court
I
was asked to comment on diversity in the legal profession
from the Asian Pacific American (APA) perspective in
Atlanta and across our state as we celebrate Asian Heritage
Month in May. Please understand this is my recollection of
events-life in my own rear view mirror.
When I was admitted to the Bar in 1976, Ted Chow was only
other APA lawyer practicing in Atlanta. Ted was a business
and immigration lawyer. He moved to New York shortly after
I became a lawyer. For better part of the next 10 years, I do
not recall ever seeing another Asian attorney in the various
courthouses I frequented.
When the Atlanta Bar Association published a minority and
women attorneys referral booklet in the late 80s, I complained
to Reese Smith, a long time Atlanta Bar board member, that
the publication only referred African American and women
attorneys. Several weeks later, Reese called to inform me
that I was to serve on the State Bar’s Women and Minorities
in the Profession Committee. He told me to “put your money
where your mouth is.” The committee was newly formed
and it was chaired by Judge Alice Bonner. That assignment
led to the opportunity for me to practice law at Gambrell &
Stolz (now Baker Donelson) where four members of the
firm served as State Bar Presidents - David Gambrell, Irwin
Stolz, Linda Klein and Bryan Cavan.
In those days, the judges were predominately white males.
It was not until Governor Zell Miller appointed a number of
African Americans to the bench to resolve the federal voting
rights litigation filed by Representative Tyrone Brooks was
there any significant movement in diversifying the judiciary.
In early 1993, upon her return from an ABA meeting, Paula
Fredrick who was the deputy general counsel for the State
Bar, called to ask if I was interested in forming an Asian
bar group. Paula introduced me to Natsu Saito who was
an associate at Troutman Sanders in their financial practice
group. She is now a tenured law professor at Georgia
State. Over lunch, Natsu and I poured over the State Bar
Directory looking for lawyers with Asian sounding names.
12 THE ATLANTA LAWYER
May 2015
We cold-called and boldly asked the not so politically correct
question whether they were Asians and would they be
interested in starting an Asian bar association. From those
phone calls, we gathered 13 signatures for a charter to start
the Atlanta chapter of the National Asian Pacific American
Bar Association (NAPABA). Last year, GAPABA (Georgia
Asian Pacific American Bar Association) celebrated its
20th year with its first Gala Dinner at the Trolley Barn. This
year’s Gala is scheduled for May 14, 2015, at the Fernbank
Museum of Natural History. By all indications, attendance
and the support from the legal community will far exceed last
year’s. I am proud to report the community of APA lawyers
have grown to a point that there are now several Asian
bar groups in addition to GAPABA - The Korean American
Bar Association (KABA), the South Asian Bar Association
(SABA), and the Vietnamese Bar Association (VABA).
One of the first projects undertaken by GAPABA was the
removal of an English proficiency exam requirement1.
Pursuant to the 1992 rules, in order to take the Georgia
Bar Exam, the applicant must pass an English proficiency
examination if the applicant was a graduate of a foreign
college even though the applicant had earned a law degree
from a U.S. law school. GAPABA brought this inequity to
the attention of the Georgia Supreme Court. On August 18,
1994, Justice Norman Fletcher wrote on behalf of the court to
advise that the English proficiency rule had been eliminated.
I believe that is still one of most significant accomplishment
of the chapter.
GAPABA also started a free legal clinic.2 We papered cars in
shopping centers on Buford Highway with flyers, rounded up
volunteer lawyers and interpreters, secured donated lunch
boxes and anxiously waited for the community to show up
at our monthly clinic at the City Hall of Chamblee. Because
free legal help was unheard of, attendance was spotty
at best but our enthusiasm remained high nonetheless.
The clinic was the precursor to the People’s Law School
developed by Albert Bolet who had just formed the Hispanic
Bar Association and GAPABA President Bobby Woo of King
& Spalding.
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association