Serving the Asian-American community in the greater Los Angeles area since 1965.
Lum Law Group spans two generations of attorneys in the United States. Its primary partners are father and son, Albert C. Lum and Albert Justin Lum (“Justin”), who, between them, have over 70 years of experience in the practice of law. The firm is located in Pasadena, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, and primarily focuses on Immigration, Intellectual Property, and business entity formation and representation. They are third and fourth generation Chinese Americans.
Albert Lum is a third generation Chinese American. In 1910, Charlie Lum immigrated to Mississippi from Xinhui, in Guangdong Province, China. It was there that he met Bertha Lum, who was born in Mississippi. They late moved to West Memphis, Arkansas and it was there that they raised a family of 4 boys and 2 girls. Albert C. Lum was the youngest child in the family. He was born on January 21, 1934. Albert Lum was one of the few Chinese Americans growing up in the southern United States. He and his siblings were the only Chinese Americans at their schools. During those years, Chinese-Americans would get together from surrounding states for parties and gatherings. Most were Cantonese, as was Albert. It happened more than once that Albert Lum had to travel over a few state lines to meet with other Chinese-Americans as a child.
In 1954, he joined the Army, where he served for years. He later attended Tulane University, a prestigious university 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 (IRS) as a tax auditor. Albert joined his sister at the IRS, also working as a tax auditor. At the same time, he began studying law, attending the University of Southern California (USC). In 1965, he obtained his J.D. and he passed the California State Bar in 1963, first becoming a California Attorney.
After one year of working for a small firm, Albert Lum started his own practice. He began his practice in Chinatown, 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. At one point, he represented the majority of the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. He acted as a business attorney for his clients with his education and tax training. Additionally, he did real estate law for his clients, based upon his experience at the IRS and his real estate broker’s license. Based on his clients’ needs, he also branched out into the area of immigration. Business immigration later extended to family immigration, which led to those families starting their own businesses. They brought over relatives and Albert Lum helped them, too. During his years of practice, he has also been involved in the Chinese-American community as a whole.
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. 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 to become the President of the United States 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, “This film does not intend to demean or to ignore the many positive features of Asian-Americans and specifically Chinese-American communities. Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any association, organization, individual, or Chinatown that exists in real life is accidental.”
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 various areas of the city.
Additionally, Albert Lum is a 40-year member of the Chinese-American Citizen Alliance and he was previously a member of the Lions Club. Moreover, he previously served as a lecturer at Pasadena Community College, East Los Angeles City College, and Los Angeles City College.
In 1993, his son, Justin Lum, joined his practice for a short time, and in 2011, father and son, along with a second son, Robert C. Lum, became partners in the current Lum Law Group (Robert C. Lum is currently not a partner).
Justin Lum, a fourth generation Chinese-American, attended the University of California at Berkeley as an undergraduate, graduating with Bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and Economics. He attended the Beijing Language Institute and Beijing University for a year and a half before attending the University of California at Davis King Hall School of Law, obtaining his JD in 1992. He began practicing in 1993, first with his father, Albert C. Lum, until 1997, then on his own until 2011, when he joined Albert C. Lum to form Lum Law Group. Father and son have been partners since 2011 to present.
Justin Lum has also been involved in the local community. He has been a past board member and served as the 26th President of SCCLA in 2001. He has been involved in the California State Bar Resolutions Committee and involved in the Asian Business League of Southern California promoting Asian businesses in southern California. He has also been a member of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association and the American Intellectual Property Lawyer’s Association.
Justin Lum has also been active in promoting Chinese interest in the community, and active in local politics. He is a supporter of Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congressman Ted Lieu, California Treasurer John Chiang, and State Assemblyman Ed Chau. He most recently co-hosted a fundraiser in June of this year (2016) for Treasurer John Chiang for Chiang’s campaign for California Governor in 2018.
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Contact us for any of the following Employment visa categories: E1 Priority workers, E2 Professionals holding advanced degrees or with outstanding abilities, E3 Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Unskilled Workers, E4 Certain Special Workers, E5 Immigrant investors. Read More
We can help you prepare, file, and follow up with any family-based immigration, both limited and unlimited. Read More
Lum Law Group has extensive experience filing asylum applications, as well as preparing for hearings. Read More
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Lum Law Group is a family business where, rather than mixing family with business, we treat business like family. We treat our clients like family, and we always put family first.
