Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1828/

Confidence as a young Asian American woman

Working with the Japanese company where I was in-house counsel had been a great experience because I was a young Asian woman, but I was general counsel to one of the Hawaii's top 50 companies. And I was traveling around the world and being given primary responsibility on multimillion-dollar deals.

And so I and it's really amazing because I went from being an associate at the law firm I was at to being general counsel, then becoming the client representative. So all of a sudden the partners that used to assign me work were now my client, and they're like, “Oh, Sabrina, you know, Sabrina, can we do this? Can we do?”

And I was assigning work to major law firms throughout the world, and I was overseeing the work of major law firms, and I was overseeing these multimillion-dollar deals. So I learned a lot about law. I learned a lot about negotiation. And it gave me a lot of confidence as a young Asian American woman that I could do this.

And so when I became a judge, you know, I had all these seen, you know, older male judges, lawyers appearing in front of me. But I was not intimidated at all because I felt like I am just as able, if not more able to research and know what the applicable law is. And you're not going to be able to intimidate me, you know. So I think it um I think that experiences, my experiences really gave me confidence and helped me.


Asian Americans Asian American women Japanese Americans Japanese American women judges law firms women

Date: July 14, 2022

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Lana Kobayashi

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association

Interviewee Bio

Sabrina Shizue McKenna was born on October 7, 1957, in Tokyo, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an American father. Being half-Japanese, McKenna struggled with feeling either “too Japanese” or “too white.” Justice McKenna’s life was drastically impacted in 1972, when Title IX was passed. Title IX allowed McKenna to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii and play basketball. During her time at the university, she came to terms with her sexuality.

McKenna believes her sexual orientation might have altered her career path. After graduating from law school and working for law firms, McKenna became a law professor. Instead of running for government office, she became a judge. However, McKenna’s path to becoming a judge was not a smooth one. It wasn’t until 2011 that she was appointed to her current position as the Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Justice McKenna's story shows that members of the LGBTQ community can have successful and meaningful lives. (October 2022)

 

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.

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