Lorraine K. Bannai is Professor Emerita and Director Emerita of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law. After earning her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, Professor Bannai joined what is now the San Francisco firm of Minami Tamaki. While there, she served on the legal team that successfully challenged the infamous case of Korematsu v. United States, which had upheld the forced, mass removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

Prior to her 25-year career teaching at Seattle University School of Law, Professor Bannai directed the Academic Support Program at the University of California Berkeley Law School; taught at the University of San Francisco, John F. Kennedy, and New College of California Schools of Law; and was an inaugural faculty member in the Law and Diversity Program at Western Washington University.

Professor Bannai has written and spoken widely on the wartime Japanese American incarceration and its presentday relevance, including the need to uphold the rule of law, the danger of prejudice, and the importance of allyship. She has also written and presented on recognizing and avoiding bias in the practice of law.

She has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, raising the warning of the incarceration in opposing provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that permit the indefinite detention of individuals without due process.

She has also co-authored numerous amicus briefs in civil rights cases across the country, including one in Hedges v. Obama, a case challenging those same NDAA provisions, and in Trump v. Hawaii, challenging the Muslim travel ban.

She has co-authored the book Race, Rights, and National Security: Law and the Japanese American Incarceration, and authored an award-winning biography of Fred Korematsu, Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest for Justice. She has been interviewed about the Korematsu case on the podcasts More Perfect and Here’s Where It Gets Interesting.

Professor Bannai has served on the board of the Asian Bar of Washington (ABAW) Student Scholarship Foundation and as chair of ABAW’s Rapid Response Committee. She will receive ABAW’s President’s Award at the organization’s gala in October. She is a past board member of numerous other organizations, including the Northern California chapter of the ACLU, the Seattle and San Francisco chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission.