Hyongsoon Kim Profiled by LA Weekly for Koreatown Pro Bono Representation
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As part of LA Weekly’s People 2013 feature, Akin Gump litigation counsel Hyongsoon Kim was profiled for his efforts in leading an Akin Gump team’s pro bono representation of Koreatown residents in a challenge to a City Council gerrymandering of that Los Angeles neighborhood.
Koreatown residents have brought suit in what they allege is a 2012 gerrymander by the City Council president, the Council and the redistricting commission to redraw City Council District 10 along racial lines. Kim notes, “Certain City Council members had a vision of what they wanted Council District 10 to be, and they got it. They weren't particularly concerned about what the residents wanted.”
The controversial redrawing has unified Koreatown, Kim says, in a way unseen since the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, adding “Not since then I have seen with my own eyes Koreatown come together. It has made me very proud to see that.”
He notes that the city could bring “substantial resources” to bear against the Koreatown suit, to which he says, “but I couldn't care less. We're doing this pro bono. We're not getting paid. We believe in this case.”
To read Akin Gump’s August 2012 press release on this pro bono representation, please click here.
To read the full profile, please click here.
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