Every year, Columbia APALSA worked with Honorable Judge Denny Chin and Kathy Chin to reenact a case that had a significant impact on the Asian American community. Together, they have revisited court documents, transcripts, and attorneys' files to create one-hour scripts of these cases. At the event, professors, attorneys, and law students play parts of trial attorneys, jurors, witnesses, and judges. The reenactment will be followed by a discussion with Judge Chin and Kathy Chin to provide a meaningful opportunity to reflect on issues that shaped the outcome of the case and issues that affect Asian American communities to this day. The trial reenactment will take place on February 2, 2023 (Thursday) at William and June Warren Hall (WJWH) Room 107. 

 

This year's case will be The Vietnamese Fishermen's Association v. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1981, the Ku Klux Klan launched a terror campaign against Vietnamese Americans to destroy their fishing businesses by burning their boats and threatening their lives. As the terror campaign escalated, many Vietnamese Americans decided to sell their boats and find shelter in another place. But Colonel Nam, a South Vietnamese colonel who took refuge in Texas after the war, persuaded his community to fight back and filed a lawsuit seeking an emergency injunction against the Klan. The lawsuit led to a historic decision upholding the refugees' right to fish without fearing violence. 

 

Please RSVP here.

Information Regarding New York CLE Credits:

Columbia Law School has been certified by the New York State Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board as an Accredited Provider of CLE programs. Under New York State CLE regulations, this traditional live classroom for non-transitional CLE Program will provide 1 hours of New York CLE credit in the Diversity, Inclusion, and Elimination of Bias category. This CLE credit is awarded to New York attorneys for full attendance of each individual session of the Program. Attorneys seeking credit must affirm arrival and departure times with a signature in the registers. On sign-out on departure, attorneys should also submit their completed Evaluation Form, furnished at the Conference. This attendance verification procedure is required by the New York State CLE Board. Please note the NYS Certificates of Attendance will be sent to the email address as it appears in the register unless otherwise noted there.