Monday, December 1, 2014

New York's Asian-American Judges and Learned Hand

Two upcoming events sponsored by the Historical Society of the New York Courts are of especial interest to legal historians.  The first is the 2014 Stephen R. Kaye Memorial Program, Asian-Americans and the Law: New York Pioneers in the Judiciary, to be held Monday, December 15, 2014, 6:30 - 8:15 PM, at the New York City Bar Association (42 W. 44th Street, NYC).  It will consist of  a “presentation on Asian-American legal history featuring historic photographs,” by Hon. Denny Chin, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. and Kathy Hirata Chin, Esq., Partner, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP; and a conversation with the first three Asian American judges in New York: Hon. Randall T. Eng, Presiding Justice, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York State Supreme Court; Hon. Peter Tom, Associate Justice, Appellate Division, First Department, New York State Supreme Court; and Hon. Dorothy Chin-Brandt, New York State Supreme Court, Queens County Criminal Court.  Judge Chin will moderate.

The second event, jointly sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society, is The Legendary Learned Hand Up Close and Personal: 15 Years on the District Court and Beyond, to be held on Thursday, April 23, 2015, at 5:00 PM at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse (40 Centre Street, NYC). “This program will provide a unique look at the life and career of the celebrated jurist Learned Hand,” including “The Influence of Judge Hand,” by Hon. John M. Walker, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and “Judge Hand's Life: As told through his personal letters,” by Constance Jordan.  Jordan is Professor of English & Comparative Literature Emerita at Claremont Graduate University, editor of Reason and Imagination: The Selected Correspondence of Learned Hand, and a granddaughter of Judge Hand.  The event is also to include “recollections from Judge Hand's colleagues, clerks, friends and others.”