My first week at Asian Law Caucus

My first week at Asian Law Caucus

Last Tuesday and Thursday, I went to Asian Law Caucus (ALC) to start my practice experience. ALC is a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that provides free legal services mainly but not limited to low-income Asian Pacific Islander population in the area. Currently, the organization is particularly involved in advancing housing rights, worker’s rights and justice in the immigration process for the local low-income API Americans. I was filled with high expectations that I will be working directly with the attorneys there and that I will be making a significant change in one’s life by helping them win an important legal case. My 5 hr experience there was completely different from these expectations.

First, I was separate from the attorneys. The attorneys and civil advocates were busy working with the clients. Often they speak in Asiatic languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese if the clients feel more comfortable speaking in those languages. I was placed at a work station downstairs with the administration staff while all the attorneys were working upstairs on the first floor. Second, I learned that my major administrative task will be about filing all the case documents that have been settled or resolved. A stack of legal documents was put on my desk and I had to punch in all the data from the document into the database of the organization. This was to facilitate the attorneys’ resolution process in case the clients come back again with a new legal issue. It was truly mind-blowing to see so many legal documents that needed to be filed. Only the administrative staff and I were given the tasks to file these documents. The filing had mainly to do with immigration, housing and employment. Last week I focused on immigration which is usually about adjustment of status not deportation because the latter issue will require a prolonged effort of attorneys. This week, I will be working on filing the employment documents which have more bundles of testimonials.

What was shocking to me was the fact that I was not making a direct change in the clients’ lives. The documents I receive to file indicate that the legal cases have been resolved, not just started. The change in clients’ lives has been made already; I just had to make sure we keep that in our official history by filing them. This discouraged me a bit about my practice experience because I held such high expectations that I will be fighting for the clients’ lives at the court. In reality, I had to remind myself that this filing is part of the process to make it faster and easier for the organization to serve the clients and to get funding from the city.

Two other things I noticed. One aspect was that the organization lacked so much manpower for basic work. While legal representation and counsel are the essential part of ALC, administrative work from filing to assorting the documents and grant seeking needed more people. There were one fundraiser, one administrative staff and two volunteers including me who worked on these tasks which are fundamental to the well-functioning of the organization. I think this could be a unique hurdle for ALC or maybe it is a problem for many non-profit organizations in the United States today.

On the whole, while I was taken aback by the work of filing for various reasons this week, I will be working on different projects throughout my practice experience from rallying to helping with the actual cases. I guess doing the administrative work is the rite of passage for non-profit volunteers, learning to appreciate the ways in which works on the ground contribute to the workings of the organization.