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Elected Member

Kenneth
Chin

Location
New York, NY, USA
Affiliation
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (US) LLP
Education
Columbia College, A.B.
Harvard Law School, J.D.

Kenneth Chin is a partner and Chair of the Banking and Finance Group at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.  Ken is also Chair of the firm’s opinion committee.

Ken counsels and represents lenders and borrowers in connection with complex corporate and financing transactions. For more than 30 years, Ken has provided legal and transactional advice to a diverse group of clients, including many of the world’s leading commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, private investment funds, private equity firms, other alternative lenders, and borrowers, in large complex transactions such as leveraged financings, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, acquisitions, refinancings, debtor-in-possession financings, workouts and foreclosures.

Ken is a Fellow and Regent of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and an Advisory Board Member of the American Bar Association’s Working Group on Legal Opinions.  Ken has been honored in multiple years by Chambers and Partners’ Chambers USA; Thomson Reuters’ New York Super Lawyers and Woodward White Inc.’s Best Lawyers in America.  Ken is also among IFLR1000 Ranked Notable Practioners and the Asian American Business Development Center’s Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business.

Ken is a current Board Member and past Chairman of the Board of the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, a federally-qualified community health center which provides medical services to the underserved.

Ken is a fluent Chinese speaker of the Cantonese dialect and proficient in the Mandarin dialect.

Member News

Traynor on Liberty, Law, and Democracy

In his essay "Liberty, Law, and Democracy: Are There Grounds for Realistic Optimism?" Michael Traynor, former President of The American Law Institute, reflects on the challenges facing American democracy amid political polarization and institutional strain. He examines threats to the balance between liberty and law, citing dysfunction across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, while drawing on historical context and recent scholarship to frame these concerns.

Despite his sober assessment, Traynor maintains a guarded optimism rooted in America’s resilience, civic traditions, and individual potential to effect change. He highlights positive actions within the legal community, nonprofit organizations, and among engaged citizens, while outlining five practical steps Americans can take to strengthen democracy: improving civic education, demanding accountability, fostering open debate, participating in elections and local governance, and resisting simplistic solutions.

Traynor concludes that democracy is “stubborn work,” incremental, imperfect, and ongoing, but expresses confidence that Americans have the resolve to preserve it.

Read the full article The New Nationalist

Michael Traynor is senior counsel at Cobalt LLP in Berkeley California. He served as ALI President from 2000 to 2008, and as Chair of the Council from 2008 to 2011. He is also a recipient of ALI's Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Traynor is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.   He received the John P. Frank Outstanding Lawyer Award from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is an honorary life trustee of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and of Earthjustice and a past President (1973) of the Bar Association of San Francisco.