Donna C. Chin

donna.chin@attorney.info

Ms. Chin is a graduate of Cornell University , College of Arts & Sciences (BA, 1980), as well as New York University School of Law (JD, 1983), where she currently is pursuing her LLM degree.

Ms. Chin began practice as a criminal defense attorney with The Legal Aid Society, New York County , trying bench and jury trials. She then served as a Deputy Attorney General in New Jersey . Her subsequent private practice focused on civil, complex commercial, and criminal litigation, as well as securities arbitrations and litigation. In 1999, Ms. Chin's practice expanded to arbitrations on behalf of brokerage firm executives. Ms. Chin also represented and filed class action complaints on behalf of brokerage firm employees, e.g. Rosen et al. v. Smith Barney , which complaints served as the basis for other state class action suits, most of which ultimately were multi-districted.

Ms. Chin also has lectured extensively on appellate advocacy and legal writing; she has taught as an adjunct, then coadjutant, professor at Seton Hall University School of Law (adjunct 1988-97, APALSA faculty adviser) and Rutgers Law School-Newark (1997-2002). She regularly serves as a mock judge at a national moot court competition (1995- ), and has spoken on career panels at New York University School of Law, Rutgers Law School , Seton Hall University , and Lucent Technologies. Ms. Chin has taught and graded over 450 law students, and has mentored more through professional association programs.

Ms. Chin sits on the Board of Directors for the American Bar Association CLEO (2006- ) and has sat on the Boards of Directors for NAPABA (VP, 2000- 04; Treasurer, 1998-2000); 80/20-NJ (2003); NAPABA Law Foundation (1998-2004); and APALA/NJ, Inc. (President, 1997-98; Advisory Board, 2005- ). Ms. Chin's pro bono activities also have included service on New Jersey Supreme Court Committees on Model Civil Jury Charges (2002-4), Women in the Courts (2000-02), Fee Arbitration, (1997-2000), Chair, Essex County VB, 1999-2000), and on New Jersey State's Asian American Commission (2002-03). She is active in non-profit organizations:  NAASA Counsel (2005-06); NAASA Foundation (2006); AAHC Counsel (1999-2004); ADL WOA (2000); Cornell AAA (life member); and AAPC (life member).

In these various capacities, Ms. Chin has organized countless fundraisers, introduced prominent keynotes, produced published articles and pro bono projects (such as a documentary preview about Ninth Circuit Judge Thomas Tang), and organized and moderated CLE programs on topics such as the judicial appointment process (Philadelphia, 2003) and Sarbanes-Oxley (Miami, 2004).