Phila. private practice attorney to receive PBA's award recognizing work with minority clients

A private practice attorney who has dedicated his career to working with minority clients

will be honored by the Pennsylvania Bar Association next month.

Tsiwen Law, who runs Law & Associates in downtown Philadelphia, will be given the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award during the PBA’s upcoming 25^th Annual Pennsylvania Bar Association Minority Attorney Conference titled “A Vision for the Next 25 Years,” the association announced on Feb. 4.

Law will receive his award during a March 15 luncheon.

The conference takes place March 14 and 15.

The keynote speaker for the event will be William M. Carter, Jr., the dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes attorneys or judges who have demonstrated dedication to the legal profession and the minority community through civil, community or legal service, according to the PBA.

Higginbotham, who passed away in the late 1990s, was a civic leader, author, academic and federal appeals court judge who the PBA says fought tirelessly against racial discrimination.

Law, the PBA stated, is recognized the nation over for his work on civil rights, and his record of service to minority clients and the law profession spans many decades.

Law works mostly with Asian American organizations and the organized bar, which includes the Pan Asian Association, the Mayor’s Asian American Advisory Board, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

The attorney is a former member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Board of Governors, former chair of the PBA’s Civil and Equal Rights Committee, former member of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Board of Governors, former chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Civil Rights Committee and Public Interest Section, and he is a founding member of the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley, according to the PBA.

Law, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, is also a former member of the Environmental Justice Working Group of Pennsylvania, former chair of the Philadelphia Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, and a former board member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

He had also served on the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, according to the PBA.

The PBA’s two-day Minority Attorney Conference will feature speakers and panel discussions offering perspectives on immigration policy, racial profiling, the future of education, social media, criminal diversionary programs and expungements, and the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the PBA announced.