The BBB Project is a culmination of luck, time, and reminders that we have much to teach one another. The foreword below explains how the Project came to be and why we are asking AAPI legal luminaries for their stories to publish into this compilation.

There are two inspirations for this project.  First, the Portrait Project published by Justice Goodwin H. Liu of the California Supreme Court and a group of Yale Law students in 2017 and updated in 2022.  This group dared to tackle questions that many of us were afraid to ask, let alone answer: why is it so difficult for AAPI lawyers to excel in the United States?  The Portrait Project attempted an empirical answer to an impossible question.  Wanting more, I found myself externing for Justice Liu for an entire summer.  Still, I was itching to learn about the people behind each data point and to learn the lessons of their stories.

Second, Practical Associate Trainings, or “P.A.T.”  My mentor at Wilson Sonsini, Victor Jih, somehow convinced me to be responsible for these virtual bi-weekly meetings where associates share recent mistakes and lessons they had to learn the hard way.  Victor started P.A.T. to create a safe space where there would be no shame in admitting mistakes, and associates could learn from each other without having to make the same mistakes.  Victor describes P.A.T as a “public colonoscopy” but I don’t think that’s true because associates come back every two weeks.  P.A.T. makes it possible to turn the horror of making a mistake into an opportunity to train others, build confidence, and develop authentic professional relationships.

These two influences came together as I spent the last year contemplating my own story of “beginning” in the legal profession.  By all accounts, I wasn’t supposed to be here, at Wilson Sonsini litigating cutting-edge cases.  I am the only child of two immigrants, a preschool teacher and a bus driver, and am the first in my family to go to college or work in an office. Getting to this point was hard, lonely, and peppered with disappointment from constantly figuring out (and failing at) doing everything from scratch.  I lived the challenges that one mentor studied in the Portrait Project and yearned for the lessons learned from other mentors and fellow journeyers who have guided me in P.A.T.

I originally wanted to name this compilation, “Breaking Bamboo Ceilings”, but Victor observed that not all AAPI lawyers want to achieve the same thing—breaking the metaphorical ceiling that prevents career advancement.  We agreed on “Breaking Bamboo Boxes” to reflect the pluralist reality that we may be headed in different directions, but regardless of where we are going, we may all face limiting factors like bias, prejudice, xenophobia, and racism.  That is the “Bamboo Box”.  At the same time, we all have wisdom and insight to share to one another’s benefit, and that is how we will break those Boxes.  The Bamboo Box Project seeks to tackle the same questions as the Portrait Project, but through narrative and storytelling rather than empirical evidence.  Looking closely at our individual stories told in our voices will hopefully reveal the practical lessons that have elevated the AAPI legal community thus far—and hopefully continue to do so even after we place someone on the Supreme Court, as Justice Liu says. 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to success and by no means does this book exhaust the wisdom needed to achieve it.  Still, it is important to start even if not perfect or complete.  This Project aspires to serve as both inspiration and guidance for all of us breaking out of our own Bamboo Boxes.  It has been a great honor to do my part.  It is my sincere hope that this work helps you break out of your own Bamboo Boxes, and for you to help others do the same.

— Kelly Hope Yin, BBB Project Manager