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chin

 

Denny Chin is a United States Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was confirmed in April 2010 and took senior status in June 2021. From 1994 until his appointment to the Second Circuit, he served as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

 

Judge Chin graduated from Princeton University magna cum laude and received his law degree from Fordham Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Henry F. Werker in the Southern District of New York; was associated with the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell; served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; was a founding partner of the law firm Campbell, Patrick & Chin; and was a partner at a firm specializing in labor and employment law, Vladeck, Waldman & Engelhard, P.C.

 

Judge Chin and his wife Kathy Hirata Chin have written, produced, and presented, together with a team from the Asian American Bar Association of New York, a series of reenactments of historic cases involving Asian American litigants. He has taught Asian Americans and the Law at Fordham, Harvard, and Yale Law Schools, and he taught Legal Writing at Fordham for more than thirty years. He has also presided over two sessions of the Southern District of New York's RISE (Reentry through Intensive Supervision and Employment) Court, a program to help individuals with convictions reenter society after completing their prison terms.

 

Judge Chin is the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University, the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association, the Edward Weinfeld Award from the New York County Lawyers Association, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Judicial Friends, the Abely Award for Leading Women and Children to Safety from Sanctuary for Families, the Medal of Achievement from the Fordham Law Alumni Association, and the J. Edward Lumbard Award from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

 

Judge Chin was born in Hong Kong.