This year's recipient: James S. Lin

The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) is proud to announce that James S. Lin will receive the Norman Lau Kee Trailblazer Award at AABANY’s Fourteenth Annual Fall Conference, to be held on September 23, 2023, hosted at the Fordham University School of Law and co-sponsored by the law school’s Center on Asian Americans and the Law and National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors Association (NAPIPA). The presentation of the award will take place during NAPIPA’s Ninth Annual Scholarship Banquet the same night in Manhattan Chinatown, at Seng Seafood Restaurant, 39 E. Broadway.

James has been a formidable and active force in the criminal justice and legal community for more than three decades.  James graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and went on to receive his J.D. from the Hofstra University School of Law in 1989. In law school, James founded Hofstra’s Asian Pacific American Law Students’ Association, held a position on the Moot Court Board, and contributed to the Labor Law Journal and Environmental Law Digest, demonstrating his passion for law and his dedication to excellence even as a law student.

The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) is proud to announce that James S. Lin will receive the Norman Lau Kee Trailblazer Award at AABANY’s Fourteenth Annual Fall Conference, to be held on September 23, 2023, hosted at the Fordham University School of Law and co-sponsored by the law school’s Center on Asian Americans and the Law and National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors Association (NAPIPA). The presentation of the award will take place during NAPIPA’s Ninth Annual Scholarship Banquet the same night in Manhattan Chinatown, at Seng Seafood Restaurant, 39 E. Broadway.

James has been a formidable and active force in the criminal justice and legal community for more than three decades.  James graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and went on to receive his J.D. from the Hofstra University School of Law in 1989. In law school, James founded Hofstra’s Asian Pacific American Law Students’ Association, held a position on the Moot Court Board, and contributed to the Labor Law Journal and Environmental Law Digest, demonstrating his passion for law and his dedication to excellence even as a law student.

James began his legal career in the New York County District Attorney’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney in Trial Bureau 60.  While in that office, he tried approximately 30 cases to verdict, including five homicides. His high-profile trials include the successful prosecution of Cory Dunton, who on a cold night in November 2013, opened fire at the Bryant Park skating rink after a young man rejected the 16-year-old Dunton’s demand for the man’s “biggie” jacket. The jacket’s owner sustained four gunshot wounds but survived, and a 14-year-old bystander was struck by a bullet in the back and paralyzed because of his spinal injury. The defendant was convicted on all counts, including attempted murder and first-degree assault, and in February 2017, sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment. Recognized for his expertise, drive, and determination, he went on to hold several supervisory positions overseeing first- and second-year prosecutors.  James became one of the office’s first Domestic Violence Coordinators and continued to hone his investigative skills as a member of the Asian Gang Unit and the Investigation Division Central Bureau investigating white collar crimes. 

James joined the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in May 2017 as Deputy Bureau Chief for the Supreme Court in the Grey Zone.  James consistently fought to secure justice for victims of crimes in significant cases, including helping supervise the investigation and grand jury presentation of a fatal hit-and-run drunken driver incident in which several pedestrians, including the deceased, were struck and injured while standing on the sidewalk. James is an exemplar of an individual committed to justice and public service and immediately embraced the office’s focus on building relationships between criminal justice agencies and the communities they serve. Within two weeks of his arrival, he co-emceed the Kings County District Attorney (KCDA) office’s Asian American Heritage Month event and has continued to serve as one of several informal office ambassadors to Brooklyn’s growing AAPI community.  His dedication extends beyond the office, and he made a ritual of attending Precinct Council meetings and the annual National Night Out Against Crime and West Indian Day Parade. Because of his exceptional management and litigation skills as a prosecutor, in February of 2019, James was promoted to the position of Bureau Chief of the Green Zone, where he continued to demonstrate his commitment to the principles of justice and intention to reduce incarceration while focusing on prosecution of the serious drivers of crime.

Throughout his distinguished career, James has lived up to his own ideals and embodied the change he wants to see in the world. His professional activities and accomplishments have paved the road for AAPI attorneys to tread to higher places of leadership within their communities. James’s numerous achievements include:

• In 2008, James helped form the Prosecutors’ Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, which has grown to be one of AABANY’s most active and vibrant committees.  He co-chaired the committee from 2009-2013 and returned in 2016.

• From 2011 until 2015, James was also a member of AABANY’s Board of Directors.

• James was the Second AAPI to serve as Bureau Chief at a major trial bureau in a New York City prosecutor’s office.

• Since 2010, James has been a member of the New York State Advisory Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure, which makes legislative recommendations to the Chief Administrative Judge of New York State.

• James also participated as a trainer and lecturer in the KCDA office’s new NYPD Officer Training program.

James is a loving husband to his wife Jeannie and a dedicated father of three children, Nikki, Daniel, and Sabrina. In his spare time, he is also active in the Boy Scouts, having been a committed Adult Troop Leader since 2013 and the Troop’s Scoutmaster since 2016.