Do Kim, one of UCLA School of Law’s earliest Critical Race Studies alums, is a highly-regarded civil rights attorney in Los Angeles. He started his own practice in Korea Town where he is currently working on several high-profile cases and is also a fast-action attorney for Black Lives Matter.
Two years ago, he created a Civil Rights Diversity Fellowship program targeting UCLA Law CRS and public interest law and policy students specifically because of the type of training he knows that they receive to do this type of work.
“I wanted to give law students an opportunity to learn what a civil rights attorney does,” Kim said. “One way is to get experience. Practicing is very different than law school and studying. I think that we need the entire legal community to be diverse and the civil rights field to be diverse as well.”
Kim said it was not easy getting to the place where he is now. Being a civil rights attorney is not a theoretical thing, he said. It’s personal.
“If I grew up and didn’t have any experiences with racism, I wouldn’t be in this line of work,” Kim said.
His firm currently has two UCLA Law civil rights fellows working 10 to 15 hours a week.
Being an attorney is actually Kim’s second career. Before attending law school at age 28, he launched a Gang Awareness Project in Korea town.
“It was all part of my community work at the time and my impetus to going to law school,” said Kim, who is now 51 years old, and president of a youth enter in Korea town.
He said tries to do what he can to help young people in his community and set a good example for them. To help them achieve their dreams, whatever that is.
“This is a great field of work,” Kim said. “It includes police misconduct work, prisoner abuse, wrongful convictions, employment discrimination — you get to do something great for people. Our work isn’t about money.”
You can read more about UCLA’s Critical Race Studies program in the Fall issue of preLaw magazine.
