Litigation and Direct Services

Since our founding in 1972, our legal team has not wavered in the fight for justice for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

In our first major case, Chann v. Scott, we successfully ended the unconstitutional arrests of teenagers in San Francisco Chinatown. We took on the case because our neighbors and communities were facing racial profiling and discrimination - and our strategy centered their experiences and voices to win policy change that protects residents throughout the city. That approach and a commitment to community lawyering remain at the heart of our local, state, and national legal work today.

We provide hundreds of new clients each year with free direct legal representation, from fighting wage theft and evictions to protecting immigrant community members from detention and deportation. Our legal clinics serve thousands of San Francisco and California residents and we empower communities with know-your-rights trainings and materials in dozens of languages. Through impact litigation, we’re driving systemic change at the local, state, and national levels, from expanding voting rights and workers’ rights to protecting affordable housing and challenging illegal and unjust policies that surveil, detain, and criminalize communities.