Honorable Denny Chin

Adjunct Professor of Law; Lawrence W. Pierce Distinguished Jurist in Residence; Co-Director, Center on Asian Americans and the Law

Denny Chin is a Senior Judge on 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, Elias, & Engelhard, P.C.

Judge Chin has taught at Fordham Law School for forty years. He currently teaches Appellate Advocacy and Civil Rights and Asian American and the Law at Fordham. In 2021, upon taking senior status, Judge Chin was appointed the Lawrence W. Pierce Distinguished Jurist in Residence at Fordham and he and Professor Thomas H. Lee co-founded the Center on Asian Americans and the Law at Fordham Law School. In 2026, Judge Chin and Professor Lee published their casebook on Asian Americans and the Law. Judge Chin has also taught Asian Americans and the Law at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Law Schools.