Articles

Judicial Profile: Hon. Dorothy Chin-Brandt

By Michael Goldsmith

Her grandmother was the very first Chinese-American woman to serve as a juror in Queens County. She was the first Asian-American woman Judge to preside over a jury trial in the history of New York State. "I guess there is something in my blood," said Judge Dorothy Chin-Brandt, an elected Civil Court Judge who currently presides at the Criminal Court in Kew Gardens.

The judge is a native Queens resident. She was born in Corona and grew up in Jackson Heights. Her paternal grandparents, strong believers in education, owned and operated one of the first Chinese-American laundrys on National Avenue, in Corona, at the turn of the century. Each of their four children, including two girls, graduated college. In 1939, Judge Chin-Brandt's grandmother, Gun Loo Chin, who also regularly taught Religious Sunday School, made Queens history when she served on a jury in a County Court trial in which an accused car thief was convicted. Newspaper accounts of the event highlighted the fact that a Chinese woman had served as a juror.

Judge Chin-Brandt credits her physician father, Dr. Henry Chin, a World War II United States Army Captain, and Hsiu-Ling Ko Chin, her mother, a registered nurse, for encouraging her to "always seek to climb higher and never forget that I owed an obligation to all people in need no matter what their background."

Judge Chin-Brandt came of age during the turbulent 1960's. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1967, and taking her parents' lessons to heart, she taught elementary school on the South Side of Chicago for a year in a program sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The following year, Judge Chin-Brandt became an Assistant to the Campaign Manager of Senator Eugene McCarthy's Presidential campaign. In 1969, her interest in politics and civil rights led Judge Chin-Brandt back home to a position as an assistant to Barry Gottehrer, a top Aide to Mayor John V. Lindsay. "After two years of working in City Hall, I decided upon a career as a lawyer," said the Judge. In 1974, the future jurist graduated from Brooklyn Law School near the top of her class. Her next stop was Harvard Law School, where the young attorney received her LL.M. in 1975.

The former elementary school teacher was then offered the opportunity to join the faculty at Harvard Law School as Assistant Dean of Graduate Legal Studies. "Given the distinguished faculty at Harvard, which included Alan Dershowitz and Archibald Cox, how could I refuse?" said former Dean Chin-Brandt. For two of her three years at Harvard, Professor Chin-Brandt simultaneously taught at Boston College Law School, from 1976 to 1978.

In 1978, Judge Chin-Brandt returned to New York City and answered the call of the private sector, leaving academia for an association with the prestigious law firm of Shearman & Sterling. The following year, the young attorney accepted a better offer to become an associate at the Washington D.C. law office of Dilworth & Paxson. At these firms, Judge Chin-Brandt focused on corporate, commercial and international trade law.

Judge Chin-Brandt started a private law practice in 1982, representing small businesses, community organizations as well as handling real estate and international matters. She also was very active, on a pro bono basis, in many community, civic and cultural organizations throughout the city.

While in private practice, Judge Chin-Brandt still felt the lure of academia, and taught the Chinese Legal System at both Brooklyn Law School and at the New York University School of Law. She has recently taught courses in Business Law and Professional Legal Responsibility at Manhattan Community College and the Touro School of Law.

"In 1986, I decided I wanted to be a judge," wrote Judge Chin-Brandt in a recently published article. "For a female Asian American lawyer to say it was almost crazy. People - not lawyers and judges and members of the legal establishment, but plain, ordinary people, thought I might be nuts. The reason they thought that I was crazy in 1986 is that there had never been a successful Asian American candidate for office in the State of New York."

Running against the political establishment, Judge Chin-Brandt

threw her hat into a Democratic Primary Election throughout the Borough of Manhattan. "With almost 100,000 votes cast in that election, I lost by only 138 votes," recalled the Judge. "I have never shaken the feeling and belief that this thin margin of loss was the work of the fine hand of the establishment."

"In 1987, the following year, I ran again for election in a Democratic Primary, but this time I was successful," wrote the Judge. "I fought the established political powers of New York County and became the first Asian American woman judge in the State of New York."

In her essay, "Neither Madam Butterfly Nor The Dragon Lady: Rather, Ms. Justice," (Harvard Women's Law Journal, Vol. 20, Spring 1997), Judge Chin-Brandt was surprised to find "what the burdens would be until after I succeeded. The stereotype of the female Asian American is that she is either totally submissive and long-suffering - i.e., Madame Butterfly - or sly, conniving and cunning - i.e., the Dragon Lady."

Judge Chin is a highly intelligent, extremely respected woman, with a subtle sense of humor, and a quick laugh. She describes her demeanor on the bench as not that of "Madame Butterfly," but also not that of the "Dragon Lady." "My own personal style has always been to be forceful yet courteous," wrote Judge Chin-Brandt in her essay. "One must be assertive and also must know how to move the caseload by cajoling the parties and their attorneys. I realize that both the lawyers and litigants who appear before me think of me as being mild-mannered and quiet spoken. I am mindful that others may view my style of courtroom control as being more akin to that of the submissive Madame Butterfly than to the style of the shouting old-school judges. My background and heritage, however, mandate that I let lawyers conclude their legal arguments without interruption."

Judge Chin-Brandt, elected to the Civil Court in Manhattan, has also been a Temporary Acting Supreme Court Justice, Criminal Term, from July 1991 to April 1992. However, several years ago, she asked to be transferred to Queens County, the county in which she was born and raised, and where she has been presiding in the Criminal Court for a number of years.

Since ascending to the bench, Judge Chin-Brandt has been very active in community service. She served as a Commissioner on the original New York State Judicial Commission on Minorities, which was responsible for researching and recommending improvements to the court system in order to alleviate the perception of bias in the courts. She is currently the co-chair of the Queens County Criminal Court Anti-Bias Committee, which hears and mediates bias complaints.

Judge Chin-Brandt also serves on the Association of the Bar of the City of New York "Immigrants and the Courts Demonstration Project," where she oversaw and taught student interns from the Newcomers School: Academy for New Americans. She sits on the Judicial Advisory Council, a national organization committed to improving relations between the Court system and local communities. Judge Chin-Brandt is also a participant in "Judges in Conversation," a program that promotes racial understanding by speaking to youth groups. In that capacity, she recently served as a mediator of racial problems at SUNY Binghampton at the request of the University.

Judge Chin-Brandt has not forgotten her roots. She is a director of the Asian-American Federation, a civic organization composed of all the Asian-American social service organizations in the Greater New York vicinity, and is a member of the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Organization of Chinese-Americans and The Organization of Chinese-American Women. She is also a frequent speaker at community Associations who request information concerning the court system.

Last year, Judge Chin-Brandt, who has taught about the Chinese legal system, got to see it up close. "The Chinese are trying to open up their system," said the Judge. During April and May of 1996, she visited Guanghou, P.R.C., and was given tours of the local courts, the prosecutor's office and the correctional facilities, as well as meeting with most of the Chinese officials. Judge Chin-Brandt just returned from another similar month long expedition to the Canton province.

Being the first Asian American woman judge is an honor, but it can be trying at times. Judge Chin-Brandt, in a recent article, recalled her first night court session in an arraignment courtroom. She went into the clerk's office in her street clothes and coat, and was treated as if "I were the interpreter or a witness or the court stenographer."

As a double minority, Judge Chin-Brandt feels that her acceptance is "far from complete." "For example," wrote the Judge, "in a professional setting, the only way that some non-Asian men can commence a conversation or relate to me is to ask me for a recommendation of a good Chinese restaurant." After reading the Judge's essay, this reporter was glad not to have asked that question. (Then again, being Jewish, I already know where all the good Chinese Restaurants are!) Moreover, when being interviewed, the Judge, debunked all stereotypes and treated this reporter to a kosher corned beef sandwich.

Judge Chin-Brandt concluded her essay rejecting both "Madame Butterfly" and the "Dragon Lady." The vision she chose for herself was "Lady Justice, the blindfolded woman perched at the top of the courthouse, clutching the scales of justice." "I am proud of my heritage's tradition of treating people with respect and sensitivity, and I try to implement this treatment in my courtroom. At the same time, because Lady Justice is blindfolded, I cannot let my heritage interfere with my primary duty to interpret the law strictly. I focus on my view of Lady Justice and keep her firmly entrenched in my mind's eye as I preside over my courtroom."

It is respectfully submitted by this reporter that Judge Dorothy Chin-Brandt is neither "Madame Butterfly," "Dragon Lady," or even "Lady Justice." She is Dorothy Chin-Brandt, Judge of the Criminal Court, who, in performing a very difficult job, tries her best every day to serve the community and be the best judge she can be. And when looking at her, that is all that anyone should see.