Born in Chicago, Illinois, Justice Shin graduated from Brown University, magna cum laude with a B.S. in Chemistry, in 1996 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1999.
Upon graduation Justice Shin worked a year for Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner in Washington DC, practicing patent litigation. She then proceeded to Chicago, Illinois where she served first as a staff law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then as a law clerk for Honorable Joel M. Flaum of that court. Returning to Washington in 2003, she practiced complex commercial litigation with the firm of Kirkland & Ellis. While her practice centered on telecommunications, environmental, patent and appellate matters, she also briefed and argued, pro bono, a federal habeas corpus petition in a death-penalty case.
Arriving in Boston in 2005, Justice Shin served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Administrative Law Division. There she represented state agencies and officers in cases spanning a wide range of subject areas, including constitutional and jurisdictional issues, public benefits, employment, child welfare and utilities. During her career with the Attorney General, she appeared regularly in the trial court, this court, the Supreme Judicial Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Appointed by Governor Charles Baker, Justice Shin joined the court on September 26, 2016.