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 was born in Hong Kong. He was the first Asian American appointed a United States District Judge outside the Ninth Circuit and the first Asian American appointed to the Second Circuit. He served as President of the Asian American Bar Association of New York from 1992-1993.
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, Yale, and Columbia Law Schools.
In 2021, upon taking senior status, Judge Chin was appointed the Lawrence W. Pierce Distinguished Jurist in Residence at Fordham Law School and became a founding Co-Director of the Center on Asian Americans and the Law at Fordham Law School.