Serving Minorities

Victor Hwang

Victor Hwang is currently an Assistant District Attorney for the City and County and San Francisco. Prior to joining the DA’s office, Mr. Hwang served for six years as the managing attorney of Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, a legal nonprofit serving victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and elder abuse. Mr. Hwang has also worked as a staff attorney for the Asian Law Caucus and at the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office.

In the course of his sixteen years of practice, Mr. Hwang has litigated a number of high profile civil rights cases. His work includes authoring and coordinating the filing of an amicus brief on behalf of the Asian American community in support of marriage equality (Woo v. Lockyer), co-counseling litigation on behalf of a prisoner denied parole for engaging in nonviolent first amendment advocacy (Zheng v, Woodford), a class action against the San Francisco Housing Authority for its failure to protect Southeast Asians from racial violence (Truong v. SFHA), lawsuit for police killing based upon racial stereotypes (Kao v. Rohnert Park), class action on behalf of Hmong veterans denied food stamps (Yang v. Glickman), and the national class action challenge to implementation of the 1996 welfare reform law (Sutich v. Callahan). Mr. Hwang was also a national coordinator of advocacy and amici counsel to family in the case of U.S. v. Dr. Wen Ho Lee.

In addition to his legal work, Mr. Hwang has been an active in a number of community and bar associations. He was appointed to the San Francisco Elections Commission in 2006, served as a past co-chair of the Minority Bar Coalition, and past president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. Mr. Hwang also served on the State Bar Ethnic Minority Relations Commission from 2003 through 2006 and currently sits on the board of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

For his work, Mr. Hwang has been honored as a “Trailblazer” by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2007,recognized for services “Above and Beyond” by the San Francisco Adult Protective Services Department in 2005, named a “Local Hero” by the Chinese World Journal newspaper in 2005 and by the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2004, He has also received recognition from the Minority Bar Coalition, the Asian American Bar Association, and the Republic of China.

Mr. Hwang has taught as an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University and Berkeley schools of law. He is also the co-author of a book entitled “Anti-Asian Violence: Reflections by Asian Americans on Hate, Healing and Resistance,” and has authored a number of law review articles related to his work in civil rights.



Steven C. Owyang

Steven C. Owyang has served as an Administrative Law Judge with the California Office of Administrative Hearings since 2005. OAH hears a wide range of cases involving state, county, and municipal governments. From 1979 to 2005, Owyang worked for the Fair Employment and Housing Commission, first as Commission Counsel then as Executive and Legal Affairs Secretary. As ELAS, Owyang was the executive officer, chief judge, and principal legal advisor to the state civil rights commission. From 1976 to 1979, Owyang worked at Chinese for Affirmative Action, a San Francisco-based civil rights advocacy organization. Owyang is a 1976 graduate of Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) and a 1973 honors graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in History and East Asian studies. He has served on the Executive Committee, Labor and Employment Law Section, State Bar of California. Owyang has often been a host and panelist for visiting judges, lawyers, and legal academics from China, Vietnam and other countries. He has been a member of the boards of the ACLU of Northern California, Asian Law Caucus, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach (formerly Nihonmachi Legal Outreach), Chinatown YMCA, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, Northeast Community Federal Credit Union, Vanguard Public Foundation, and Wah Mei School. Currently, his primary volunteer activity is as a leader of the In Search of Roots Program at the Chinese Culture Center, San Franciso. Roots is a year-long program in which college age Chinese Americans learn about family genealogy and Chinese history and visit their ancestral villages in Guangdong province, China. Owyang’s interests include piano, guitar, cooking, travel, China, Cuba, Latin and Hawaiian music, and vegetable gardening. He speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.


Judge Carrie A. Zepeda

Judge Carrie A. Zepeda was appointed to the Superior Court Bench of Santa Clara County in September 2003. Currently she is assigned to the Civil Trial Department. She has previously handled general criminal misdemeanor, criminal domestic violence and family law matters.

Prior to her appointment, Judge Zepeda was a deputy county counsel for the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office where she handled civil litigation matters, dependency cases and the Educational Rights Project.

Judge Zepeda is a native of San Jose where she graduated from Yerba Buena High School before attending Stanford University and Hastings College of the Law.