MAPABA's mission is to promote improvements in the administration of justice, to advance relations between the legal profession and the public, to secure social equality for Asian Pacific Americans, to advocate the interests of Asian Pacific Americans in the legal profession, and to promote equality and social justice for all people.
History
Adopted from “A Thumbnail History of the Michigan Asian Pacific American Bar Association” by Roland Hwang, founding member and first Vice President of MAPABA
The Michigan Asian American Bar Association started as an idea among the volunteer attorneys of American Citizens for Justice (ACJ), the group that led the fight for justice during the Vincent Chin baseball bat beating death case and the subsequent civil rights trials. The ACJ attorneys, including “Chairman” Harold Leon, Roland Hwang, Jim Shimoura, and Liza Cheuk May Chan, wanted to switch hats and form a professional association of Asian American lawyers. The attorneys approached Nancy Galloway, Assistant Executive Director of the State Bar for Special Purpose Bars to undertake the steps for the State Bar of Michigan’s recognition the new bar association.
In 1985, then-President of the State Bar of Michigan Dennis W. Archer, along with Nancy Galloway attended the inaugural meeting of the Asian American Bar Association which was held at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Detroit’s Chinatown along Cass Avenue at Peterboro. The first members included: Harold Leon as its first president, Roland Hwang as vice president, Jim Shimoura, Perry Yun, Ann O. Lee, Richard O’Neill, Timothy Daines, Ben Liu, Haiki Hirata, and Liza Cheuk May Chan.
The early meetings were primarily social, networking events. A few years later, the bar association inaugurated seminars. The bar association has since hosted joint events with the Michigan Women Lawyers Association, the Wolverine Bar Association, the Straker Bar Association, Armenian-American Bar Association, and the Hispanic Bar.
