Albert C. Lum, Esq.

It was in 1910 when Albert C. Lum’s ancestor, Charlie Lum, immigrated from Xinhui, Guangdong, China to the United States where he met his American born wife, Bertha Lum, in Mississippi. They later moved to West Memphis, Arkansas where they went on to raise four boys and two girls.

Born in 1934, Albert C. Lum became the youngest child of the family. Albert and his siblings were the only Chinese American students at their school in Arkansas. For this reason, they stuck together. They also realized they were some of only a few Chinese Americans in all of the southern United States, so Chinese Americans began making connections across state and city lines to empower their minority community.

During those times, it was common practice for Chinese Americans to get together from surrounding states at parties and gatherings. Most were Cantonese, as was Albert.  Albert Lum travelled over many few state lines to meet with other Chinese Americans.

In 1954, he joined the Army where he served for two years, and then he went on to attend Tulane University, a prestigious college located in New Orleans, Louisiana. After graduating from Tulane in 1958 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, he decided to go west to Los Angeles, California, where his eldest sister, Frances, was working for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax auditor. Albert joined his sister at the IRS, also working as a tax auditor.

As a third generation Chinese American, it was during this time that Albert C. Lum felt compelled to help the community when he realized that Chinese restaurant owners were largely unfamiliar with US law, and struggled to find common ground with other attorneys. With that realization, he began studying law, attending the University of Southern California where he went on to obtain his J.D. in 1965. Prior to graduating, he passed the California State Bar in 1963, becoming a California attorney.

After one year of working for a small firm, he went on to open his very first law practice in the heart of Chinatown and began his career as an attorney on behalf of the Asian-American community. He began his practice near downtown Los Angeles, the main hub for Chinese Americans in the 1960s. From the very beginning of his practice, he worked to help small Chinese business owners maneuver through the intricacies of the American legal system. He represented many businesses, including a majority of the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. With his education and tax training, he made for a fantastic business attorney.

Additionally, he handled real estate law for his clients, based upon his experience at the IRS and his real estate broker’s license. He later branched out into the area of immigration. Business immigration extended to family immigration, and those families started their own businesses. They also brought over other relatives, and Albert Lum helped them, too.

Throughout his many years of practice, Albert Lum has also been actively involved in the Chinese American community in other ways. He is a 40-year member of the Chinese American Citizen Alliance. He was a member of the Lions Club. He has previously served as a lecturer at Pasadena Community College, East Los Angeles City College, and Los Angeles City College. He was the president of the Los Angeles Chinese Chamber of Commerce. He was Chairman of the Chinatown Advisory Committee to the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).

In 1975, he was part of the founding group of the Southern California Chinese Lawyer’s Association (SCCLA), the first Asian American lawyer’s law association in the United States. The association was founded after he and other attorneys had a meeting where the late Judge Delbert H. Wong, the first Asian American judge in the United States, and a close friend of Albert Lum, suggested that it would be a good idea to have such an organization.  Albert Lum was the first president of SCCLA in 1976.

In the realm of government, he campaigned for Governor Jerry Brown during his first term as governor in. He supported Senator Feinstein in her unsuccessful campaign for governor, and then later, in her successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. He was a strong supporter of Michael Dukakis in his unsuccessful campaign for United States president in 1988, and was chairman of the support group of Chinese.

In 1985, Albert Lum was the lead attorney in the case of Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) v. _______, where the CCBA sued because of the inclusion of their name in a derogatory fashion in the film, “Year of the Dragon” which focused on Chinese gangs and needlessly created a connection between the CCBA and Chinese gangs. The movie was criticized by many for its racist and stereotypical portrayal of Chinese-Americans. The movie included a picture of the CCBA sign in Los Angeles, although the film ostensibly took place in New York. The suit resulted in a disclaimer being placed at the beginning of the film.

In the early 1980s, Albert Lum was the lead attorney in a case filed by his law firm in response to redistricting of voting districts by the city of Los Angeles in 1982.  Lum successfully forced the city of Los Angeles to redraw its redistricting plans after it was pointed out that Chinese communities and other Asian communities, notably the Korean community near downtown Los Angeles, had been carved up to reduce their political influence while enhancing others’ influence despite the growing numbers and concentration of Chinese and Korean residents in areas of the city.

When you reach out to Albert C. Lum, you can trust that he has your best interests at heart, integrity you can bet on, and the experience to take you through.