Ronald Sing Wai Lew (

Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are ofte ...

: 刘成威; September 19, 1941 – May 19, 2023) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a Federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, ...

Education and career

Born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, Lew graduated from Loyola High School. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

in 1964. He received a Juris Doctor from

Southwestern University School of Law Southwestern Law School is a private law school in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an art deco National Register o ...

in 1971. He was in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

from 1967 to 1969. He was a deputy city attorney of the Criminal and Civil Liability Divisions of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office in California from 1972 to 1974. He was in private practice of law in Los Angeles from 1974 to 1981. He was a Los Angeles fire and police pension commissioner from 1976 to 1982. He was a judge on the Los Angeles Municipal Court from 1982 to 1984. He was a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1984 to 1987.Robert Greene
1998 "Person of the Year"
''

Metropolitan News-Enterprise ''Metropolitan News-Enterprise'', also known as ''MetNews'' or ''Met News'', is a small daily legal newspaper published in Los Angeles, California. History The ''Enterprise'' newspaper was founded in 1901 and the ''Metropolitan News'' in 1945. ...

'', December 31, 1998

Federal judicial service

Lew was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on February 2, 1987, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Laughlin E. Waters. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on May 7, 1987, and received commission the same day. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on September 19, 2006. Outside of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, Lew was the first

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...

appointed to the federal bench after being appointed by President Reagan in 1987. His service terminated upon his death on May 19, 2023, at the age of 81.

Awards and honors

In 2001, Lew was awarded the Historymakers Award by the Los Angeles

Chinese American Museum The Chinese American Museum (Chinese: 華美博物館; abbreviated CAM) is a museum located in Downtown Los Angeles as a part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. It is dedicated to the history and experience of Chinese America ...

in law and justice. He was also honored by the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (CHSSC) as one of the Chinese American Pioneers in Law in 2005.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lew, Ronald Sing Wai 1941 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges American jurists of Chinese descent California state court judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California Lawyers from Los Angeles Loyola Marymount University alumni Members of Committee of 100 Southwestern Law School alumni Superior court judges in the United States United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan

Education and career

Federal judicial service

Awards and honors

See also

References

Sources