Legal professionals donate their time to fight anti-Asian hate

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Lia Reichmann – July 31, 2022

A recent report from Stop AAPI Hate found that more than 11,400 hate incidents were reported against Asian Americans between March 2020 and March 2022. Two nonprofit organizations are stepping in to help provide legal assistance to anti-Asian hate crime victims.

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association

Founded in 1988 after Vincent Chin’s murder, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) has worked for decades representing the AANHPI community. 

According to their website, NAPABA is the only national APA bar association. They represent “the interest of 60,000 attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students.”

NAPABA creates resources for victims of hate crimes and helping those who are affected. Navdeep Singh, the Interim Policy Director at NAPABA, said they have “in language” resources and toolkits for victims of hate as well as organized trainings to talk about hate crimes. They’ve also created a community service corps which is made up of member attorneys interested in providing pro bono work across the country. 

“I think one of the most exciting things that NAPABA has done, beyond our policy and advocacy work, is the mobilization that we’ve done within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander legal community and beyond, to combat anti-Asian hate and to help individuals get the assistance that they need in order to file a complaint about an act of hate and to get the legal representation that they need,” Singh said to AsAmNews.

“I’m particularly proud of the tool to report a hate crime or hate incident that we’ve created online on our website, NAPABA.org, to help connect individuals to pro bono, which is free legal assistance to victims and their families,” Singh added.

The Alliance for Asian American Justice

Another organization working to help victims of hate crimes is The Alliance for Asian American Justice, or the Alliance, a not-for-profit organization comprising a network of more than 90 law firms across the country. 

The Alliance was created last spring at a time when Asian American victims of violence may have needed legal representation. Jacqueline Chung, a lawyer with White & Case LLP in New York City, joined the Alliance during what she calls the “first phase of the Alliance.”

“The founders of the organization and the board came up with this idea that this organization, the Alliance, would provide pro bono free legal services to any victim of anti-Asian violence,” Chung said in an interview with AsAmNews.

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NSC Resources page: https://safetywalks.org/resources/