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Asian judge poised to make history
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| By: Heather Harlan |
November 07, 2002 |
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| Downtown Express photo by Corky Lee Judge Doris Ling-Cohan, who is running unopposed this election day, is about to become the first Asian woman to be elected to the New York State Supreme Court.
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When voters in Chinatown and other parts of Lower Manhattan head to the polls this Tuesday, the odds are pretty good they will make history. On the ballot will be Judge Doris Ling-Cohan, who - if the four parties who nominated her have their way - stands poised to become the first Asian woman to be a justice of the Supreme Court of New York State.
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Running unopossed, Ling-Cohan, a Democrat, is also the nominee of the Republican, Liberal and Working Family parties.
Ling-Cohan's campaign for the state's top bench is the latest leg on a long journey through the world of New York's legal system that began when she was just 12 years old. Her mother, an immigrant seamstress from Canton, had been assaulted in Brooklyn, and her young American-born daughter was accompanying her on a confusing trip to a hearing in criminal court.
"All we knew was that we were told to be there on a certain day," Ling-Cohan recalls. "But no one told us where to go, when to come back. There were no translators. When it was over, we had no idea what had happened. That shaped me. It made me realize how important it is to have legal information."
Since then she has dedicated a good portion of her career as a lawyer and a judge to helping immigrants and the disadvantaged navigate the complexities of the courts.
After growing up in Chinatown with her mother and father, a laundryman from Guangzhou, Ling-Cohan headed off across the East River to Brooklyn College, where as a student in the turbulent early 70's she decided she wanted to "change the world". On campus she became active in New York Public Interest Research Group and after graduation attended New York University law school on a full scholarship. As a student, she worked at a legal services program that helped women who were victims of domestic violence.
"Because I could speak Chinese, I often went along to assist if the victim was Chinese," she says. The work made her aware of the particular problems facing Asian domestic violence victims.
"We had a client who had no place to go," she recalls. "But most of the shelters were not used to dealing with Asian American clients. There was the issues of language, different foods. It's very difficult for someone who is already battered to leave and go into a whole unknown and deal with a different cultural situation. It highlighted the need for a center for Asian women."
A few years later, Ling-Cohan founded the New York Asian Women's Center, the city's only non-profit center dedicated to helping Asian victims of domestic abuse.
Upon graduation, she got her first job as an attorney with Legal Services in Bedford-Stuyvessant, Brooklyn, and then worked with with a Legal Services project helping mentally-challenged clients. Later, she joined the N.Y. State Attorney General's consumer fraud protection unit where her connections in the Chinese community helped her bring scams against immigrants to the attention of fraud investigators. She remembers one case in 1986 where con artists promised immigrants quick access to free public housing if they sent a fee to a P.O. box number. Her office was interested in launching an investigation, but there was some concern among her colleagues that it would be a difficult case to prosecute.
"There was a stereotype that Asians wouldn't testify," she said. When Ling-Cohen started working on the case, searching for potential victims with the help of the local Chinese-language media, even she thought she would be lucky to find even a handful willing to come forward. But, she quickly discovered the opposite was true.
"We had people lined up down the halls waiting to testify at the grand jury hearing," she recalls. "It shattered the myth that Asians don't complain."
It's especially important for fraud cases like that to be prosecuted, she says, because otherwise new immigrants might be discouraged from seeking out real government services.
Although she credits the whole office in the successful prosecution of the case, she believes that as an Asian American, her presence was especially important and shows why it's vital to have Asian Americans in all areas of government. "When you come from a background where your parents are immigrants you have a certain kind of sensitivity, so you know to look for cases that affect immigrants," she said.
"It's important to have someone who is receptive to the complaint," she continues. "Before this case, consumer fraud was more about buying a bad car and things like that. This took the definition of consumer fraud into a whole new direction.''
A few years later, Ling-Cohan was appointed as a judge in New York Housing Court. In 1995, she was elected from Chinatown to New York Civil Court. It marked the first time an Asian American in New York City had been elected for public office other than school board. As a judge she has made demystifying the court system for immigrants and others a priority. In the past several years, she has co-authored three books, including one on how to represent oneself in court, and one giving advice to seniors about how to use the court system. She has conducted numerous workshops and outreach forums on law awareness and domestic violence for the Asian American community.
"I always try to focus on community outreach and education," she says. "I think that for the Asian community, a lot of times legal information is not channeled to you".
In her everyday activities on the bench, she says she always strives to maintain an awareness of the special needs of immigrants who appear before her. "The background of being Chinese and the child of immigrants sensitized me to the need to do something as simple as writing down on a piece of paper their next court date to make sure they understand it," she says.
"Or I stop and explain things for them so that they understand what the next step is. Being in court is scary - even for those who were born in this country."
Campaigning in Chinatown on a recent Sunday afternoon, Ling-Cohan and her election staff greeted passersby, registered voters, and urged them to go to the polls Nov. 5. Some said they weren't sure what to do once they got there. "We have to teach them how to vote," said Chester Lee, a campaign volunteer, after explaining to a middle aged woman in Cantonese the proper way to pull a lever in a voting booth. "These are recent immigrants. Where they are coming from it's a different process."
Ling-Cohan, if elected, will become one of two Asian American justices on the The Supreme Court, the state's highest trial level court. The other is Randall Eng, who represents Queens. Ling-Cohen will represent Judicial District 2, which covers Chinatown, the East Village and Soho and will sit at the court building at 60 Centre St. - just on the edge of Chinatown.
Ling-Cohan also lives Downtown, near Union Square, with her family.
Josephine Chung, co-chairperson of Ling-Cohan's election committee, said that this race is significant because there are no other Asian American elected officials in Manhattan - despite the sizable Asian Pacific Islander population in Chinatown. Besides some school board officials, she notes, there is only one other elected Asian in New York City - City Councilmember John Liu of Queens. "It's important to have representation to reflect our population," says Chung. "We also need people who understand our culture and background."
For Ling-Cohan, reaching the Supreme Court represents a new challenge.
"It's an opportunity to make history for the community," says Ling-Cohan. "Anytime you are able to shatter a glass ceiling it's important."
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©Downtown Express 2009
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