Yungsuhn Park
Age: 29
Attorney, Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Why she's influential: Because she fights for those who are left out. Yungsuhn Park is a passionate and progressive Asian American activist who has dedicated her life to fighting for socio-political/economic justice for immigrants and poor communities of color. Growing up in Los Angeles, she witnessed the calamities of the 1992 civil unrest, and after graduating from law school, returned to L.A. to focus on common issues impacting the APA community and beyond.
As a staff attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Yungsuhn has represented (and won) cases on behalf of Asian and Latino low wage workers who were denied their basic rights, low-income tenants forced to live in slum housing, and immigrant consumers with limited English-speaking ability who were defrauded by big businesses.
Most recently, Yungsuhn served as APALC's lead trial attorney in Kim v. Shin, where she represented four low-income tenants who were subject to severe uninhabitable conditions during a landlord-initiated condominium conversion. The tenants were awarded a judgment exceeding $572,000 in damages, restitution, and attorney's fees. At the end of the case, the trial court judge complimented Ms. Park in open court, recognizing that she was the youngest member of the trial team and calling her "the star" of the trial.
On top of all this, Yungsuhn mentors Asian American law students and young attorneys, and has worked tirelessly to educate Asian Americans in Los Angeles about why it's always important to speak out against injustice. According to her colleague Julie (among the many who nominated her), Ms. Park is "tenacious and fearless and blazing the trail for all young Asian American activists to follow."
See the rest of the 30 Most Influential Asian Americans Under 30 here.