Kathy Hirata Chin is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s New York office.
Kathy concentrates her practice in health care and real estate litigation. Kathy has successfully represented individual health care providers and associations of such providers in challenges to actions taken by state and federal agencies, including multiple suits regarding Medicaid reimbursement issues. Kathy has also defended an international dialysis services provider against RICO claims in federal court based on allegedly fraudulent billing activity; represented a pharmaceutical services provider in a billing dispute with a chain of nursing homes; defended home health agencies in suits brought by employees pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act; and represented other providers and associations of providers as plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of matters in federal and state court involving issues ranging from contract interpretation to cash receipts assessments to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. As counsel to a religious institution, she has successfully defended claims of religious discrimination. In 2018, she obtained court approval for the sale of a not-for-profit facility over the objection of the Charities Bureau of the New York State Attorney General.
Kathy also has wide experience in various forms of real estate litigation, including disputes over transferable development rights, leasehold valuation, allocation of PILOT monies, and local law compliance issues. She has extensive experience with real estate foreclosures, having herself conducted or supervised foreclosures of numerous multimillion-dollar mortgages on various types of property, including office buildings, condominium complexes, and mixed-use buildings. In 2013, she successfully argued for reversal by the New York State Court of Appeals of an adverse decision by an intermediate appellate court in a lease interpretation matter, thereby obtaining dismissal of the suit in its entirety against her client.
Kathy graduated from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. She graduated, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.
From August 1995 until December 2001, Kathy served as a member of the New York City Planning Commission, nominated by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Currently, she is the acting chair of the New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption. She has been a member of the Commission since appointment by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in August 2003.
Kathy was a member of former Governor Mario M. Cuomo's Judicial Screening Committee for the First Judicial Department from 1992 to 1994 and of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Eastern District of New York from 1992 to 1999. She has served as a member of the Gender Bias Committee of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and on the New York County Lawyers' Association's Task Force to Increase Diversity in the Legal Profession. She has also served on the Second Circuit Judicial Conference Planning and Program Committee. She was a member of former Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections from 2003 to 2006. She is currently serving as a member of the Attorney Emeritus Advisory Council and the Commercial Division Advisory Council, appointed to both by the Honorable Jonathan Lippman, former Chief Judge of the State of New York. In December 2012 and again in December 2014, she was nominated for appointment to the State Court of Appeals by the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination. In April 2016, she was appointed by former Governor Andrew Cuomo to the First Department Judicial Screening Committee.
Kathy has served as a member of the boards of directors of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, the New York County Lawyers Association, and the New York City Bar Association. She is co-chair of the board of directors of the Medicare Rights Center, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care. Since September 2021, she has been a member of the board of directors of EmblemHealth, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health insurers.
Kathy is a member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the New York State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, the New York County Lawyers Association, and the New York City Bar Association. In 2006, Kathy was honored by NAPABA at a dinner hosted by AABANY in New York for “Leaders Among Us: Asian American Women.” In June 2015, she was honored by the New York City Bar Association as a 2015 Diversity and Inclusion Champion.
Since January 2016, Kathy has served as a member of the Second Circuit Judicial Council Committee on Civic Education & Public Engagement, focusing on historic reenactments as a teaching tool. With her husband, the Honorable Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and teams of lawyers and judges from AABANY, she has developed and presented reenactments of famous cases such as the Heart Mountain draft resisters and Korematsu, and for the Just the Beginning Foundation’s tribute to Constance Baker Motley, a reenactment of James Meredith’s suit against Ole Miss.
On Oct. 18, 2017, Kathy was honored by the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH) with its Leadership Award. AAIUH collaborates with community members to design, incubate, and replicate neighborhood-based interventions that address health conditions that disproportionately affect minorities. On Nov. 1, 2017, Kathy received the Lillian D. Wald Award from the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a nonprofit home- and community-based health care organization that helps thousands of New Yorkers get the care they need. She was also honored as a “25th Anniversary Celebrant” by Apex For Youth on April 26, 2017. Apex for Youth provides mentoring and educational programs for underserved Asian and immigrant youth in New York City. On Feb. 10, 2018, Columbia Law School's Asian Pacific American Law Student Association presented Kathy with its inaugural Hong Yen Chen Award, and on Feb. 28, 2018, AABANY honored Kathy with its Women’s Leadership Award. On May 28, 2019, she was honored at the Columbia Law School Alumni Association’s Hong Yen Chen Inaugural Reception for her dedication to the Asian community.
Kathy joined Crowell in October 2018 after 38 years at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where she began her career and became a partner in 1990.
Education
- Princeton University, B.A. (1975) magna cum laude
- Columbia Law School, J.D. (1980)
Affiliations
Professional Activities and Memberships
- Member, Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY)
- Member, Federal Bar Council
- Member, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA)
- Member, New York City Bar Association
- Member, New York County Lawyers Association
- Member, New York State Bar Association
Appointed Positions
- Member, Attorney Emeritus Advisory Council
- Member, Commercial Division Advisory Council
- Acting Chair, New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption
- Member, New York’s First Department Judicial Screening Committee
- Member, Second Circuit Judicial Council Committee on Civic Education & Public Engagement
Board Service
- Co-Chair Board, Medicare Rights Center
- Member, EmblemHealth
Awards
- “25th Anniversary Celebrant,” Apex For Youth
- “Leaders Among Us: Asian American Women,” NAPABA
- Diversity and Inclusion Champion, New York City Bar Association
- Inaugural Hong Yen Chen Award, Columbia Law School APALSA
- Leadership Award, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
- Lillian D. Wald Award, Visiting Nurse Service of New York
- Women’s Leadership Award, AABANY
View More