AOC believes that empowering people means empowering their communities. The stories below show what our advocacy looks like in practice — advocacy carried out alongside the people most affected in their communities and won for everyone who comes after them — from voting rights and workplace justice to empowering survivors.
- Voting rights
- Workers’ rights
- Survivor advocacy
- Community empowerment
AOC has stood with voters who have limited English proficiency since 2005 — first representing their interests in the federal lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice brought against the City of Boston, and later drafting, filing, and advancing a bilingual ballots bill once the lawsuit's settlement agreement expired.
In 2010, that effort became law: Boston now provides Chinese/English and Vietnamese/English ballots to voters who need them. Fully bilingual ballots mean that elderly naturalized U.S. citizens can read what they are voting on and cast their ballots freely and independently.
THE ARENA: At the ballot box
THE RESULT: 2010 bilingual ballots
OUTCOME: Voters with limited English can now take part fully in every local, state, and federal election in the city of Boston.
AOC partners with groups of low-wage Asian immigrant workers to address workplace issues, including minimum wage and overtime violations. Much of this work is done in collaboration with the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) Workers Center. AOC provides legal advice and representation, while the CPA Workers Center supports workers through organizing and direct-action campaigns. Together, we help workers recover unpaid wages, protect their rights, and improve workplace conditions.
One of the most common workplace issues these workers face is wage theft—when an employer fails to pay workers the wages they have legally earned. Wage theft commonly occurs when:
An employer allows a worker to perform their job but fails to pay them for all or part of their work.
An employer makes illegal deductions from a worker's wages or tips to cover business expenses that are the employer's responsibility, such as cleaning, repairs, or equipment.
AOC represented a class of more than 300 former Super 88 Market employees seeking compensation for unpaid minimum wages and overtime. Many reported routinely working 60-hour weeks for less than $5 an hour without receiving any overtime pay.
Through an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, AOC expanded its advocacy into the Vietnamese community, where many nail salon workers are misclassified as independent contractors. This misclassification can deny workers important legal protections and benefits, including unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, and employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare. AOC works with the Boston Public Health Commission's Safe Nails Initiative, the Fair Labor Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, and the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID) to help both workers and employers understand their rights and responsibilities.
AOC has also protected the rights of laid-off temporary workers to receive notice pay under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and has advocated for legislation to strengthen the rights of low-wage immigrant workers within the state's unemployment insurance system.
THE ARENA: In the workplace
THE RESULT: 300+ workers represented
OUTCOME: Even as cases move forward, these campaigns have already pushed wage practices in the Asian immigrant community in a fairer direction.
AOC works through a community-lawyering model: staff work hand-in-hand with groups of clients — workers, tenants, residents, voters — and with community organizations to reach goals the community sets for itself.
We also recognize that not every problem has a courtroom answer. Community groups can be just as effective through media, organizing, and lobbying. So AOC brings together clients and professionals from other fields to widen the range of tools a community can use — sometimes offering research and advice and sometimes litigating a case with implications far beyond a single client.
In one such case, AOC successfully defended CPA — the same organization whose Workers Center we partner with — against a defamation lawsuit brought by an aggrieved employer. Granting AOC's anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss, the judge affirmed CPA's right to leaflet, picket, and organize a public campaign.
THE ARENA: In the community
THE RESULT: SLAPP motion granted
OUTCOME: The court protected the right of workers and worker centers everywhere to speak up and organize.
Decades ago, AOC launched its Asian Battered Woman Project together with the Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund, in response to a series of murders of Asian women by their husbands or boyfriends.
AOC works closely with the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK): AOC trains ATASK's advocates and represents its clients, while ATASK provides shelter, safety counseling, and other support that helps AOC's clients live free of violence.
THE ARENA: For survivors
THE RESULT: Community partnership
OUTCOME: Survivors get both at once — a legal advocate fighting for their rights, and a safe place to rebuild their lives.
We rarely work alone. Much of what AOC accomplishes comes from working side by side with others — protecting our clients' legal rights and helping them become active members of the community. Our partners include:
- Community-based organizations
- National rights groups
- Government agencies
- Law schools
- Law firms
- Legal organizations
- Social service agencies
- Health centers
- Shelters
- Concerned residents