About the Fellowship
The DM Public Interest Fellowship was started in 2007 by then Berkeley Law APALSA members. At its inception, the goal was for the Fellowship to honor the contributions of individuals who have served the public interest and social justice, raise money for young social justice and public interest attorneys in the form of a financial fellowship award, and connect generations of legal professionals in the API community. The founders of the Fellowship named it after Dale Minami, a 1971 Berkeley Law alum, whose innumerous contributions helped create and strengthen the API legal community at Berkeley Law, in the Bay Area, and nationwide.
Thanks to the incredible support of our sponsors, the Fellowship has awarded over $200,000 to Fellowship recipients, and established an endowment of over $200,000 for future awards.
About Dale Minami
Dale graduated from Berkeley Law in 1971. After graduating, Dale co-founded the Asian Law Caucus, one of the first nonprofit law firms in the country dedicated to API advocacy. As a litigator with the Caucus and beyond, Dale has litigated many significant lawsuits to enforce Civil Rights and pursue social justice for Asian Pacific Americans and other minorities. Perhaps one of the most widely known cases that Dale litigated was Korematsu v. United States, a lawsuit to overturn a 40-year-old conviction for refusal to obey exclusion orders aimed at Japanese Americans during WWII, originally upheld by US Supreme Court.
Dale helped organize and establish an API legal community in the Bay Area and beyond. Apart from co-founding the Asian Law Caucus, Dale also helped start the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Asian Pacific Bar of California, and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans. He remains a pillar of our community through his engagement with, support of, and dedication of time and resources to these and other organizations, and countless individual attorneys.
While this all just summarizes some of Dale's contributions, it's clear why the founders of the Fellowship saw fit to name it after him.
For Dale's full bio, please see his law firm profile..
