Chinese-American judge no stranger to major trials

The Bernard Madoff scandal is one of the biggest cases ever to land in Judge Denny Chin's courtroom. But the 15-year veteran of the federal bench is no stranger to high-profile legal disputes.

Chin, born in Hong Kong and the first Asian-American federal judge outside of California and Hawaii, was assigned to oversee the Madoff criminal case last week after the accused swindler signaled he planned to plead guilty.

Madoff appeared for the first time before the judge on Tuesday on a potential conflict involving his lawyer and is expected to plead guilty today before a crowd of his angry former investors - three months after he was charged with running a $50 billion investment ponzi scheme.