❝ — they once asked me who my inspiration in life was . i said M E . ❞
full name. dorothy chen neé young
also known as. justice chen , justice dorothy chen
age. sixty
birthday. october 31st, 1962
hometown. queens, new york
occupation. new york city supreme court justice ( ap. 2008 )
alma mater. columbia university ( c/o 1983 ) ; harvard law ( c/o 1987 )
alliance. the government
spouse. peter chen ( m. 1983 )
children. quincy chen ( b. 1984 ) , whitney chen ( b. 1988 )
Dorothy’s father came to the United States with approximately 30 dollars in his pocket, a young and impressionable wife, and three young children to look after. The United States in the late 1950s was less than welcoming to the Malaysian immigrants who were looking to start a new, fulfilling chapter for their growing family. He managed to find a budding asian community near Chinatown who housed the small family in a one (makeshift) bedroom apartment. Her father went to find work immediately, taking low jobs such as restocking at the local Asian market or street cleaning from the latest nights to the earliest morning. And just when his wife thought she wouldn’t burden her family with another child, that wouldn’t be the case as Dorothy’s older brother, Tommy, would be born on December 5th, 1960. And Dot would be born two years later on October 31st, 1962.
Dorothy was always a studious child. She found happiness and escaped in the passages. Instead of being outside in the summer, she would find company in the many hardcovers and paperbacks of the New York Library...at least the parts she was welcomed in. Dot’s father always saw the importance in education and sacrificed a lot for the advancement of his children. She’s always been grateful for that — even in the years after his passing.
In 1979, Dot was accepted into Columbia University in New York. Dot was the first and the only of her siblings to get into an Ivy League. Her father was proud, yet there was still the sexism and discrimination that came with her intergration into the prestigious university. While attending Columbia, she would meet the father of her first child, Peter Chen, before she graduated. In 1983, after the two graduated and eloped, she gave birth to their son Quincy. Although a surprise, her son changed her perspective on how she saw the world at the time.
After graduating from Columbia in 1983, Dot was accepted into Harvard University for their law program. The small family packed up for the short trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her husband, the doting man he was, stayed home to care for their young son while his wife furthered her education. And in a world that was designed and built for men, Dot felt constantly under pressure. Especially with being a mother to a one year old. It was known around campus that she was married and a mother, let alone being a woman of color — this was often something that was used against her. During a time where progression was of the essence, women in the field of law were still seen as a joke. She vividly remembered being in class and having her law professor basically laugh at her saying something along the lines of “You’ve taken this seat from a man and you have a child at home - interesting.” This was only fuel doused onto Dot’s fire fuming it on to prove everyone in that class.
Graduating from Harvard, she immediately began looking for work as a law clerk to begin. Her eagerness and slight cockiness after being part of not one, but two Harvard Law reviews and being first in her class, was just enough to boost her. But finding employment will prove to be difficult especially in a world dominated by her white male counterparts. With recommendations from her law professors, she was finally given an opportunity by the Judge of the Eastern District of New York.
Her relationship with her husband became strained after the birth of their second child, a daughter, named Whitney. They danced around with the possibility of separating, of divorce, numerous times. Although something always kicked them out of that idea — their children and their unconditional love for one another. Dorothy, as a compromise, gave her husband the opportunity to return to school himself and in 1996, he had finished medical school and received his doctorate. He has been a family physician for the past twenty five years.
After years of being a well-known attorney in the New York state, Dorothy would be appointed as the first Asian-American female Attorney General in 2004. She would then be asked to be a Justice on the NYC Supreme Court in 2008 by then Governor David Paterson — the first again of her ethnicity. She knows that she is a role-model, an inspiration to those around her. But no one inspires Dorothy more than herself ... with all that perseverance pumping through her veins.
