Violence Against Asian-Americans and the Portrait of Asian-Americans in the Law

Between March and December of 2020, the organization Stop AAPI Hate received over 2800 self-reported accounts of anti-Asian hate. Likewise, California has seen a recent uptick in hate crimes and violence against the Asian-American Pacific Islander community. In New York City, violence against Asian-Americans has seen an 847% increase last year. AAPI violence has continued to rise yet the discussion is scarce. What contributes to AAPI hate? Why is society slow to react? What role can Asian Americans in the legal profession play in addressing this issue? How do anti-Asian stereotypes affect Asian Americans pursuing a career in law?

Join the Illinois, Marquette, Arizona, Buffalo, Boston College, Berkeley, and UDC ACS Student Chapters, and the ACS At-Large Lawyer Chapter for a thoughtful discussion with Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court for a chance to answer these questions.

Introductions by:

Vikram D. Amar, Dean and Iwan Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law

Featuring:

Hon. Goodwin Liu, Appellate Justice of the California Supreme Court

To attend this event, please click here and use the Meeting ID and passcode pasted here below:

Meeting ID: 831 7980 2788

Password: ACS

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Speaker Bio:

Justice Goodwin Liu is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. Nominated by Governor Jerry Brown, Justice Liu was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments and sworn into office on September 1, 2011. He was retained by the electorate in 2014. Before joining the state’s highest court, Justice Liu was Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. His primary areas of expertise are constitutional law, education law and policy, and diversity in the legal profession. 

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Justice Liu grew up in Sacramento, where he attended public schools. He went to Stanford University and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1991. He attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a masters degree in philosophy and physiology. Upon returning to the United States, he went to Washington D.C. to help launch the AmeriCorps national service program and worked for two years as a senior program officer at the Corporation for National Service. 

Justice Liu graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, becoming the first in his family to earn a law degree. He clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then worked as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. He went on to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the October 2000 Term. From 2001 to 2003, he worked in the litigation practice of O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. 

Justice Liu continues to teach constitutional law as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute. He serves on the Council of the American Law Institute, on the Board of Directors of the James Irvine Foundation, and on the Yale University Council. He has previously served on the California Commission on Access to Justice, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, and the governing boards of the American Constitution Society, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Public Welfare Foundation.