Fordham University School of Law will officially launch the Center on Asian Americans and the Law next week, and for the center’s co-directors, Judge Denny Chin and Thomas Lee, it holds deep personal meaning.

Chin believes that when his grandfather became a U.S. citizen in 1947 that he was sworn in at the courthouse where Chin currently serves as a senior U.S. judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals because it was the only courthouse in the Southern District of New York at the time, he told Law.com on Tuesday.

Denny Chin United States circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.Courtesy photo Senior Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. (Courtesy photo)