fall 2016-summer 2017 enews · fall 2016-summer 2017 issue nine the indomitable rbg— lessons in...

ISSUE NINEFall 2016-Summer 2017

The Indomitable RBG— Lessons in Life and Law from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgpage 2

Judge Burns Remembered as ‘Man of Wisdom’page 6

Welcometo the ninth issue of the William S. Richardson School of Law e-news.

WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW | 1

ALSO INSIDE:

Professor Melody MacKenzie Acting Dean page 9

Courtroom Drama Unfolds for High Schoolers page 10

$7.2 Million Clinical Building Launched page 14

Student Artists Decorate Barricade page 17

Advanced Degree Programs for Foreign and U.S. Attorneys page 20

The Continuing Significance of Korematsu page 23

James Pietsch Honored for Community Service page 25

David Callies Wins Prestigious Honor page 26

UH Law Grads Carry Lowest Debt page 27

Cataloguing Jon Van Dyke Papers page 28

Ulu Lehua Program wins Grant page 29

‘I Feel Lucky,’ says Newirth ’12 page 31

Commitment to Global Environment page 33

Ken Lawson Honored with Regents’ Award page 35

Law Training is Key page 36

Scheck, Rosen and ‘Innocence Project’ page 37

Fighting Human Trafficking page 39

Website Reboot for Law Library page 40

Maxine Burkett Honored for Climate Expertise page 41

2017 Patsy Mink Scholar page 43

A Best Says Princeton Review page 44

Part Time Evening Program Praised page 45

Building ‘Happy Memories’ page 46

Randy Roth Retires page 47

Dale W. Lee Retires page 50

National Jurist Says UH Law a Top School page 53

Oldest Graduating Law Student page 53

Largest Graduating Class Ever page 55

Naming Opportunities for Clinical Building page 62

To expand student scholar-ships; to give added life to exceptional teaching, research, and service; and to improve our facilities, the Law School is dedicated to raising private funds in addition to the public fund-ing it receives.

Those interested in contributing to an array of programs should contact Julie Levine at: [email protected] or through the Founda-tion’s website at: http://www.uhfoundation.org/

TO REACH THE LAW SCHOOL FOR GENERAL INFORMATION:

2515 Dole St., Honolulu, HI. 96822-2350, (808) 956-7966Stories by William S. Richardson School of Law Media Consultant Beverly Creamer, unless otherwise noted. Photos by Spencer Kimura, Director of LLM and Summer Programs , and Mike Orbito.

e newsFROM THE WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I

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2 | WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW | 3

U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURGU.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Offers Lessons in Law, and Life

N A WHIRLWIND VISIT to the UH Law School early in February, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg an-swered questions and taught law classes, reflected on the huge gains by women in equal opportunities since she graduated from law school in 1959, and gave some pointed advice to the women law students.

“There is no better time to be going into the legal profes-sion,” she told the women. “There are no closed doors to you.” At the same time, she advised all students “to do something outside yourself that you feel passionate about.”

During her visit as part of the Jurist in Residence program, Justice Ginsburg helped plant a traditional Native Hawaiian ‘ohia lehua tree in the court-yard of the Richardson School of Law, listened to Professor Melody MacKenzie ‘76 chant an ‘oli of aloha, and, in response to a question, said that the way to affect change is to

“affiliate with like-minded people … (and) join forces with others who are passion-ate about what you care about.

“There’s not much you can do as a loner,” she said, noting that early in her career she affiliated herself with the American Civil Liberties Union which, by the late 1960s, had grown to be the coun-try’s leading civil liberties organization. It became her platform as a young attorney and law professor to push for equal rights for women.

As Justice Ginsburg took her seat in the Law School courtyard under a sunny

The Indomitable RBG – U.S. Supreme Court Justice

sky, the gathering of more than 200 law students, faculty, staff, and invited guests rose in a prolonged standing ovation. “I don’t think very many other law schools have the opportunity to bring Supreme Court justices to visit us over several days as our program does,” said Grace Magrud-er ’17, who was a student in Richardson’s

Evening Part Time program. “This is a unique position for a law school.”

And, in explaining to Justice Ginsburg the significance of the ‘ohia lehua planted in her honor, and the importance and my-thology of kalo in Hawaiian culture, stu-dents Sabrina Gramberg ’18, Letani Peltier ’17, and Marcos Bendana ’18 also thanked her for honoring the Law School. “The kalo stands for social justice for the Native Hawaiians,” explained Bendana. “You are like the kalo, standing for social justice.”

Later, listening to the Question and Answer session with students, attorney Mark Davis said the interchange was im-pressive. “It was the Law School at its best …. The Justice was providing thought-provoking analyses of her cases, and stu-dents were responding with thought-pro-voking questions.”

In her comments, Justice Ginsburg was generous in talking about herself, at one point mentioning that she recently had a speaking part as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in the opera “Daughter of the Regiment,” admitting, to laughter from the audience, that she could perform only on opening night - “because I have a day job.”

Justice Ginsburg has long been an avid music and opera fan, and shared her pride that her son is involved in the classi-cal music recording business.

At the same time she spoke with hu-mor about her presence on the Court. For five years after the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, she said she was the single “tiny little woman” amidst eight male Justices. When two other women joined her – Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - it helped the balance, she said. “We’re all over the bench, so we look like we’re there to stay.” Despite po-litical differences, she spoke highly of the collegiality of the Court, and mentioned her friendship with the late Justice Anto-nin Scalia.

This was Justice Ginsburg’s third visit to the Richardson Law School as part of the Jurist in Residence program, estab-lished in 1987 to offer law students and the community the opportunity to hear from and interact with those serving on

the nation’s highest court. Since its begin-ning, the program has brought eight U.S. Supreme Court Justices and a number of leading international jurists to Hawai‘i. The program has been generously sup-ported since 2000 by the Case Lombardi & Pettit law firm, which Justice Ginsburg visited during her stay. This year Karen and Paul Sullivan created an endowment to add further support.

In the course of her interactions with the Law School community, Justice Gins-burg avoided commenting on the current political scene, but she did say that one recent case could end up before the Su-preme Court “pretty soon.” While she did not specify to which case she referred, in the midst of her visit to the Law School on February 9th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling against President Trump’s immigration ban on people from seven primarily Muslim countries.

Justice Ginsburg spoke about the “col-legiality” that existed in Congress when she was confirmed in 1993, when she was appointed by President Bill Clinton. The vote in her favor was 96-3, and Sen. Or-rin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, was one of her strongest supporters.

“I wish I could think of a way to get back to the way it was,” she said, speaking of that collegiality. “Now we have a dys-

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with UH Law Dean Avi Soifer during lunch with the law faculty.

…maybe there will be wise

women and men of both parties who will blow a whistle and

say ‘Let’s stop this

nonsense.’

““

Justice Ginsburg chats with Professor Mari Matsuda and Professor Charles Lawrence of the UH Law faculty.

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U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTIC RUTH BADER GINSBURGU.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG

functional Congress. But at least we know that we could have a legislature of the kind that the United States should have. And maybe there will be wise women and men of both parties who will blow a whis-tle and say ‘Let’s stop this nonsense. It’s not doing any good for the United States.’”

Justice Ginsburg also noted that from time to time the Executive has been criti-cal of the Judiciary, she add-ed: “But I feel truly shielded by the Constitution.” She said Congress can’t retaliate against the courts because the protections and tradi-tions of judicial indepen-dence are well established.

In leading several dif-ferent classes at Richardson, she reflected on rulings by the Court, as well as others which led to developments in gender equality, civil rights, and criminal law. “The courts don’t lead social change, they’re reactive,” she said. “But they compel a change. In gender equality I think that was what happened.”

Asked by a student if there were to be a new Amendment to the Constitution, what would she like it to be, Justice Gins-burg replied without hesitation. “That’s an easy answer. I would add the Equal Rights Amendment. I would like my granddaughters to see that basic equality of men and women is fundamental to our constitutional system.”

Justice Ginsburg underscored the dramatic changes in opportunity for women in the United States. In May her granddaughter graduated from Harvard Law School, just as her daughter did a generation ago. Justice Ginsburg herself attended Harvard Law but transferred to Columbia Law School, and graduated from there.

“All the doors are open to this grand-daughter of mine,” she said. “No law firm is going to say ‘I don’t want a woman,’ and no judge is going to say ‘I don’t want a woman law clerk.’”

At the same time, she said that her granddaughter “knows how important it is to do something outside herself, to

make things better in her community … for those less fortunate.” She repeatedly stressed the importance of young people giving back to their communities.

In addition to meeting with many law students, Justice Ginsburg discussed the U.S. Constitution with 210 high school students from 10 different schools at Mililani High School; joined members of

the Hawai’i Women Lawyers for Sunday brunch, and discussed the Court with UH undergraduate journalism students.

Justice Ginsburg told law students that she considers herself an optimist. “I’ve seen such great changes in my life,”

she said, quoting from a statement by Martin Luther King Jr. who spoke about the arc of life bending toward justice.

“When I was in law school, there were nine women and 500 men in my class, and only one of the women was African-American. When I look at law school classes today, we have come a long way.”

In general today, there are often more women than men in law school classes. That com-pares to fewer than 3 percent of the legal profession in 1956 when Justice Ginsburg start-ed law school, when only one woman had ever served on a federal appellate court.

Justice Ginsburg told the students that more than once when she began job hunt-ing, she was told: “We had a woman lawyer once and she was dreadful.” Another com-mon comment was: “Sorry, you have kids to take care of. We won’t hire you.”

Even starting law school had been a particular chal-

lenge, because she had a young baby, Justice Ginsburg told the students. That created the dilemma of how to manage family and law school long before “work/life balance” concerns had received much public notice. And yet she achieved her own kind of balance – going to class dur-ing the day while a nanny cared for the baby, and then coming home to feed, care for, bathe, play with and read to the baby, before returning to her law books after her child was asleep.

“Each part of my life provided re-spite and renewed energy for the next,” she said.

But it had been her father-in-law who suggested the path that has become one of the guiding principles of her life. “He said ‘Ruth, if you don’t want to start law school, you have a good reason.’” And then he added, “But, if you really want to, you can reach out and find a way to han-dle the child care.’”

Ginsburg took that to heart. “I did what I thought was important,” she said, “and I found a way to do it.”

The courts don’t lead social change, they’re

reactive. But they compel a

change.

“

“

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REMEMBERING JUDGE JAMES S. BURNS REMEMBERING JUDGE JAMES S. BURNS

ORE THAN 100 FRIENDS, colleagues, law students, staff and faculty members gath-ered in the UH Law School courtyard on a sunny April day to honor and memorialize Judge James S. Burns, who was remem-bered as a humorous and “down-to-earth guy,” who treasured his role as a mentor - and gardener - at the Law School. He was, in turn, beloved by students and faculty.

In the shade of the Law School’s tower-ing ti garden that Judge Burns planted and tended for a decade, law students planted

new young ti plants in his memory, family members spoke warmly of his humor and sage advice – but only if he was asked for it - and Law Dean Avi Soifer called him “a man of few words - and great common sense.”

Journalist and media personality Emme Tomimbang, the widow of Judge Burns, spoke about how he treasured his time at the William S. Richardson School of Law after his re-tirement as Chief Judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals in 2007, and how it had be-come like a second home. And his daughter, Meredith Burns, an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board, spoke of how much he loved his work as a judge, as well as his time at the Law School.

As ‘Man of Few Words – and Great Common Sense’

Judge James S. Burns – Honored and Remembered

dan, Judge Burns and CJ Richardson had played league softball together years ear-lier with “The Musubi Machine.”

“He was a terrific pitcher,” Brendan said of his father, adding, “And the catcher was CJ Richardson.”

Those two leaders had such an impact on the community together, said Brendan, turning to address the students, staff, and faculty at the gathering: “You here are all a result of that legacy. He lives on within each one of us.”

As a diverse group of admirers gath-ered for the service, Brendan spoke lov-ingly of his father as someone who was always there for him, including offering short, pithy, wise sayings that cut right to the heart of the matter. “The one that im-pacted me the most,” he said, “was ‘cool head, main thing’ - Keep your cool and do what you think is best. He would never tell you what to do unless you asked him.”

Also in attendance at the ceremony were family members Devin Statts, a neph-

bers of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court, in-cluding Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, and Associate Justices Sabrina McKenna ‘82 and Michael Wilson, as well as retired Judge Barbara ‘Bebe’ Richardson, daugh-ter of the Law School’s namesake, William S. Richardson. Judge Richardson spoke about how closely the two families are in-tertwined and how her father and Judge Burns loved to spend time together and with students at the Law School after they both retired.

“I’m so happy they’re both together in the garden,” she said, referring to the ti leaves Judge Burns had planted there from those used in the memorial for her father when he lay in state at the Law School after his passing in 2010.

Andrew Dedrick of Geobunga and Na-tive Farms Hawai‘i in Waimanalo donated the new ti leaves planted in the Judge Burns Garden, with arrangements made through Professor Kenneth Leonhardt of the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil

He would never tell you what to do unless you

asked him.

““

PHO

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KT

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“He put a lot of love into this place,” she said of the Law School, recalling how he had often been there on weekends working in the garden. “He wanted Bill Richardson’s school to be lovely.”

The two families had long been close, explained Judge Burns’ son, Brendan Burns, who is the principal at Aina Haina Elementary School. In fact, said Bren-

He put a lot of love into this

place.““

Emme Tomim-bang addresses

the crowd at the memorial

ceremony for her husband, Judge James S. Burns.

ew, and Haunani Burns, a cousin. Devin Statts added: “He wanted you to make the decision, and he would support you 100 percent, no matter what the decision was.”

The ceremony dedicating a garden in memory of Judge Burns also drew mem-

The Burns family’s two pets, Dakota and Montana, with Judge Burns’ son, Brendan Burns, and his widow, Emme Tomimbang.

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PROFESSOR MELODY MACKENZIEREMEMBERING JUDGE JAMES S. BURNS

Sciences at UH. They were planted by stu-dents Mahesh Cleveland ‘18, Eileen Nims ‘16, Tim Vandeveer ‘17, Letani Peltier ‘17 and Frank Loyd Jr. ’19. The students also prepared the ground ahead of time for the planting.

Judge Burns’ two pet dogs, Montana and Dakota, also attended the ceremony and Ms. Tomimbang spoke of how they, too, had grieved her husband’s loss in their own way. When she brought Judge Burns’ clothes home from the hospital af-ter his passing, his favorite dog, Dakota, had pulled each piece out of the bag and carried it out to the garden, spreading his clothing all over the yard he had loved.

Guitar music was provided by Ata Sa-beron, a friend of the Burns’ family, and Spencer Kimura ’96 served as photogra-pher, along with Mike Orbito.

ROFESSOR MELODY KAPILIALOHA MACK-

ENZIE ‘76 will serve as Acting Dean of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i during the fall semester when Dean Avi Soifer is on a professional development leave. Soifer will be associated with the NYU School of Law before he returns in December.

Professor MacKenzie has been the Director of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excel-lence in Native Hawaiian Law since it was created in 2005, originally through a Na-tive Hawaiian Education Act grant. This academic center at the Law School fo-cuses on education, scholarship, commu-nity outreach and collaboration on issues of law, culture, and justice for Native Ha-waiians and other Pacific and Indigenous peoples.

MacKenzie is also Editor-in-Chief and the lead author of Native Hawaiian Law: A Treatise (2015), considered the defini-tive resource for understanding critical legal issues affecting the Native Hawaiian community. This 1,400-page volume was 15 years in the making and touches on ev-erything from traditional and customary rights, to self-determination, to securing land titles, and it provides detailed expla-nations of how local, national, and inter-

national law affect Native Hawaiian cul-tural and natural resources.

The Treatise was compiled and edited by Professor MacKenzie with assistance from executive editors Susan K. Serrano ’98, and D. Kapua‘ala Sproat ’98. Serrano is director of Research and Scholarship at Ka Huli Ao, and Associate Professor Spro-at is an authority on Hawai‘i water rights and environmental law.

Law School Dean Avi Soifer said, “Pro-fessor MacKenzie is the perfect person to lead the Law School during the semester I am away. She is a true diplomat as well as being renowned as a teacher and scholar.”

Soifer added, “Melody really loves the Law School and I am grateful to her for taking on this role. I have full confidence in her leadership and I am certain that she will get whatever help she needs from members of the faculty and staff and our students while I am away.”

MacKenzie stated, “I am honored to have been chosen to fulfill this important position while Dean Avi Soifer takes a much deserved leave. I feel a special kule-ana to ensure that Chief Justice Richard-son’s vision for the Law School is fulfilled and I am grateful for the opportunity to support and advance that vision.”

Professor MacKenzie earned her BA, cum laude, from Beloit College in Wiscon-sin, and her JD from Richardson in 1976 as a member of the first graduating class of about 50 students when the fledgling Law School was still housed in temporary quarters in the UH Quarry.

After graduation she clerked for Chief Justice Richardson at the Hawai‘i Su-preme Court, and then joined the staff of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation

in 1980. From 1982-86 she was Executive Director for NHLC, and a senior staff at-torney from 1986-1992. In 1992, she was a founding member of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association.

Before joining the Richardson Law School, Professor MacKenzie served from 1992-1999 as Executive Director of the Hawaiian Claims Office, which was es-tablished to review claims by Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries, and to make recommendations to the state.

In 2006 MacKenzie received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawai‘i Women Lawyers, and in 2013 she was awarded a UH Regents’ Medalist for Excellence in Teaching. Professor MacK-enzie is a contributing author for the lat-est edition of Felix S. Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, and the author of many other publications. She teaches Native Hawaiian Rights, Federal Indian Law, and Second Year Seminar Legal Writing, as well as specific courses in Na-tive Hawaiian law.

Acting Dean During Dean Avi Soifer’s Fall 2017 Professional Development Leave

Professor Melody MacKenzie ‘76 Named

Professor Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie ‘76

Photos of Judge James Burns during his decade as a mentor at the Law School. Above: Law school graduates Eileen Nims ’16 and Tim Vandeveer ’17 plant new ti plants in the Judge James Burns garden at the Law School.

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2016 INTERNATIONAL JURIST-IN-RESIDENCEHIGH SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM

HE EXCITEMENT IN THE COURTROOM was pal-pable. The ‘father’ pounded the stand in front of himself and demanded justice for his daugh-ter. The ‘plaintiff’ cried. The ‘attorneys’ stood and yelled objections. The ‘judge’ agreed. Or disagreed. And finally, the ‘jury’ came back with a verdict – finding for both the ‘plaintiff’ and the ‘defendant’ on separate trial issues.

A cheer went up, people leaped from their seats, and the audience applauded.

It was the final day of the annual “Law & Justice Summer Program” offered by Richard-

son Law School that included a mock trial exercise for 13 rising juniors and seniors from six Hawai‘i public high schools. The mock trial completed a week-long glimpse into the

legal system here, the laws of their coun-try, and what it might be like to go to Law School after college.

“This program really opened my eyes to so many possibilities,” said Samantha Steenhuis, a 17-year-old rising senior from Kaiser High School. “It has been an amaz-ing experience. I really wanted to know more about law and I thought it would be fun to be in their (attorneys’) shoes for awhile.”

This is the third summer the unique program has been offered, funded both by the UH Law School and a number of

Above: High school students in the Law & Justice Summer Program talk with Hawai‘i Supreme Court Justices at the Supreme Court. At

right: Students are exultant after their mock trial.

In Law School’s High School Summer Program

The Thrill of Courtroom Drama Unfolds

The high school students and their mentors have lunch downtown, hosted by the Case

Lombardi & Pettit law firm.

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HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAMHIGH SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM

law firms, as well as several UH commit-tees and law student organizations, plus the Hawai‘i Bar Foundation. The high schools involved included: Farrington, Kaiser, McKinley, Nanakuli, Waianae, and Waipahu.

In the mock trial, the 16- and 17-year-olds, plus their law student mentors, played the roles of everyone in what could be a real courtroom drama, including wit-nesses, attorneys, and jurists, as well as plaintiff and defendant, bringing home a powerful experience of how justice works.

“What you’ve done here is pretty awe-

some,” said Dale W. Lee who recently re-tired from UH Law School as the Director of Professional Development & Extern-ship Programs, but returned to serve as ‘judge’ for the program’s mock trial. “To watch you do this, and to think you’re all high school students, is just amazing. You all did terrifically.”

During the program each year stu-dents meet legislators at the State Capitol, sit in on a real courtroom trial, ‘talk story’ with Justices of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court, visit the Governor’s office, have lunch downtown at a law firm, are men-tored by law faculty and law students, and

It just showed how real law is in every aspect of

our lives

““

The law student mentors, faculty members and high school students discuss the mock trial case during the ‘ jury’ decision.

hear firsthand from law students why they chose to go to law school. They also receive certificates of completion from Hawai‘i Chief Justice Mark Reck-tenwald, who makes a special trip to the Law School to honor the students’ achievement.

For 16-year-old Waipahu student Jesstine Kahauolopua, being able to meet the Hawai‘i Supreme Court Jus-tices in the Supreme Court chambers was a high point. “I felt so privileged to be able to walk in and sit down,” she said. “It was such an honor to meet the justices.”

For Michael Bucao, 16, also from Waipahu High, the downtown day was particularly impressive. “It just showed how real law is in every aspect of our lives,” said Bucao. “It made me more interested in how I can get to where I want to be.”

While the experience was enlight-

ening for the high school students, it was also valuable for their law student mentors. As several explained the impact Law School has had on their lives, a com-mon theme emerged – that of being able to work at an important profession, but also being able to serve their communities at the same time.

“You can actually make a living and also do things to help other people,” Ma-hesh Cleveland ’18 told the high school students. “It allows you to help others in the areas you’re interested in.”

Caitlin Moon ‘19 noted that she’s in the joint JD/MBA program, which means she can earn both law and business degrees in a four-year period. Moon said she chose that after a CFO told her that having a law degree would have been valuable simply for the ability to quickly understand the large numbers of contracts he needed to review as a financial officer. Although Moon had already begun an MBA, she was able to join the joint program.

“Law has opened up my eyes in so many other ways to show that you can

help your community,” she said.Kenory Khuy ’19 shared

her history as the child of Cam-bodian refugees and how that had affected her decision. “The older I got, the more I wanted to learn about how I could help others going through the same process,” said Khuy.

“I need to validate the risks my family took,” she added. “And, as a first generation in the

U.S. I want to know I can totally compete.” The program is directed by Associate

Faculty Specialist Liam Skilling ’07, Direc-tor of the Evening Part Time Program and Academic Success at the UH Law School. Along with Case Lombardi & Pettit, which hosted lunch for the students, law firms that assisted in funding the program in-cluded: Bays Lung Rose & Holma, Dee-ley King Pang & Van Etten, and Imanaka Asato.

What you’ve done here is pretty

awesome.

““

Above: High school students wrestle

with the courtroom details; Below:

They are elated at the final result.

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KATHERINE ‘KAKI’ VESSELSNEW CLINICAL BUILDING

HE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I LAW SCHOOL broke ground last fall for a new $7.2 mil-lion Clinical Building that will expand of-ferings for student clinics at the William S. Richardson School of Law, while also pro-viding more far-reaching pro bono service to the community focusing on the elderly, families living in poverty, veterans, and at-risk youth. One of the country’s smallest

law schools, Richardson is consistently recognized as one of the country’s most affordable, most diverse, and as a school whose students incur the least amount of debt.

The new building – expected to open in time for the Spring 2018 semester - was launched in a ceremony featuring tradi-tional Native Hawaiian chants and com-mentary from many Hawai‘i dignitaries, including Governor David Ige, UH Presi-dent David Lassner, and UH Board of Re-gents chair Jan Sullivan.

“This is about real world practical training which will make our students the best in the world,” Governor Ige told the assembled guests, faculty, students, and alumni during a festive celebration that took place adjacent to the existing Law School building in the space where the Clinical Building will rise. “I’m certain that CJ Richardson would be proud this

space will be dedicated to programs to serve the most at-risk populations.”

More than a decade in the planning, the Clinical Building will provide space for training in trial skills and advocacy, as well as expanding the Law School’s community outreach work through clin-ics and pro bono service by students. As

part of their graduation requirement, students must provide at least 60 hours of free legal assistance in areas of their interest, but many students provide far more. Since the pro bono requirement be-gan in the early 1990s – inspired by law

Clinical Building to Expand Training and Pro Bono Service

Hawai‘i Law School Launches $7.2 Million

This is about real world

practical training which will make

our students the best in the

world.

“

“students themselves – students have pro-vided more than 100,000 hours of free as-sistance to people in need under the guid-ance of lawyer mentors.

In an especially moving part of the very upbeat hour-long ceremony, Māpuana de Silva of Hālau Mōhala ‘Ilima, a Native Hawaiian cultural dance studio, and Richardson Professor Melody Ka-pilialoha MacKenzie, walked barefoot along a thick chalk mark that outlined the building’s perimeter, sprinkling wa-ter with a ti leaf from a koa wood bowl, offering a traditional blessing. Garbed in flowing Hawaiian kikepa, they chanted to honor the spirit of the building, and the spirit of CJ Richardson whose son, William “Billy” Richardson, told the assembled guests that his father “would be proud.”

“This Clinical Building will not only enhance our students, but also allow them to get better hands-on training in the real world,” said Richardson, who is an attorney and entrepreneur.

The late CJ Richardson – the school’s namesake - was a Lieutenant Governor of the State of Hawai‘i in the 1960s and later served for 16 years as Chief Justice

dent Lassner spoke with pride about the university’s “small but mighty” Law School - with the most diverse student body and faculty among American law schools, as well as among those with the lowest tuition and debt carried by gradu-ates. In a recent “Short List,” Richardson was named by U.S. News as among the nation’s 10 best law schools where start-ing salaries exceed the debt that gradu-ates carry.

“This is truly an outstanding Law School and one of the gems of our uni-versity,” Lassner added. “And this build-ing is about increasing our connections with the community.” UH Board of Re-gents chair Sullivan, a graduate of the Law School class of 1983 – who attended the school when it was still housed in temporary quarters – noted that the UH Law School has surpassed the hopes of its founders, and has never lost its values. “It instills a sense of values and purpose in its graduates,” she said.

Law Dean Avi Soifer and Associate Dean Denise Antolini pointed out that the new building will fulfill the original dream of its namesake who had envi-sioned three buildings for Hawai‘i’s only

This building couldn’t be more

important to the services we

provide.

““

PHO

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of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court. Under his leadership, the Court validated much of customary Hawaiian law within the le-gal framework of western statutes. It was Richardson’s vision to build a Law School that would serve the people of Hawai‘i, but would also draw students from around the world to study in a compas-sionate and caring environment.

During the ceremony, UH Presi-

Native Hawaiian cultural dance teacher, M-apuana de Silva of H-alau Mohala ‘Ilima, right, and Richardson Law School Professor Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, offer traditional Hawaiian blessings for the new building.

An architectural rendering of the $7.2 million Clinical Building that will expand the Hawai‘i Law School’s outreach to vulnerable members of the community, including veterans, the elderly, families living in poverty, and at-risk youth.

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ART-AT-LARGENEW CLINICAL BUILDING

LL IT TOOK WAS 168 FEET of blank plywood barriers, talented art students, a law firm willing to donate funding, and a desire to beautify a construction bar-ricade around the new building going up at the UH Law School.

The result is a brilliantly colored, block-long original street painting that showcases the Univer-sity of Hawai‘i’s art students, surrounds a construc-tion project with unique artistry, and has created new connections and inspiration across campus.

“This is one way to expand the curriculum - and it pushed the students’ boundaries,” said Professor Gaye Chan, chair of the UH Art Department whose students took the challenge to paint the wooden barricade that has been shielding construction – and dust – from the new Clinical Building rising in a sec-tion of the parking lot adjacent to the Richardson Law School.

Thirteen student artists took the challenge to work on a scale few had ever tackled before. They found it a tough but exhilarating experience that connected them more fully to their college community and to the Honolulu community.

“It was cool to see random strangers talking about it,” said artist Ira Villafranca. “It was a good experience.” Sheanae Tam, whose mural shows three fish on ice at the fish auction - a sight she often saw growing up in a family of fishermen - added: “It was a challenge to go that big and at that scale. I felt a little like a zoo animal: people were taking photos from their cars!”

Taylor Johnson’s stark and dramatic houses on stilts – the depiction of an abandoned Alas-kan village – also drew consid-erable interest. “I got a sense of community,” says Johnson. “People (watching the students paint) were excited all the time.” Meanwhile, Tommy Hite merged swirling graphic street art de-signs with realism that included vehicles on a Honolulu street. “His windshield reflection of a sunset sky is a beautiful original

twist,” noted Professor Chan.Three women envisioned the project:

Associate Law Dean Denise Antolini, who launched the idea; campus architect Sha-ron Ching Williams, who chairs the Cam-pus Art Advisory Committee that oversaw it; and Professor Chan, who inspired her students to take on a new challenge.

“I think it’s really fun for the students to do something that reflects that this is their campus,” said Williams. “Gaye called it ‘Art-at-Large’ and pulled the concept together and asked her artists if they’d be interested and they said ‘Yes!’ and it was great. It’s been just a very heartwarming experience.”

Once the proposal was approved by the Art Advisory Committee, Ching Wil-liams’ husband, attorney Allen Williams

The Clinical Building’s Construction Barricade

UH Student Artists Define – and Decorate -

law school, with the third building on a portion of the parking lot, now dedicated to serving people most in need. The new two-story building, to be connected to the existing Law School by a second-story walkway, will add more than 8,000 square feet of space to enhance the school’s 10 clinical programs.

Funding for the building was ap-proved in 2013 by the State Legislature for a $7 million package of bonds that in-cluded $3.5 million in general obligation bonds backed by the state, and authori-zation for $3.5 million in revenue bonds backed by the Law School’s own funding, through a combination of tuition and phi-lanthropy. Additional costs cover building contingencies, furniture, and technology.

The Law School had raised about $2 million in gifts as part of that com-mitment earlier this year, with the Davis Levin Livingston law firm and its Foun-dation committing a $1 million leader-ship gift. At the groundbreaking, attorney Mark Davis praised many other generous donors among the assembled guests.

ing for the building, and Student Bar As-sociation President and Board of Regents Student Member Brandon Marc Higa ’19, the gathering moved to a mound of earth edged by lawa‘i fern for the official Ō‘ō Ceremony.

Dean Soifer and building project leader Antolini called the groundbreak-ing an incredible day for the Law School, its students, and for the people it serves in the community. “This building couldn’t be more important to the services we pro-vide,” said Soifer. “We see this building as a building for people who help others and our students come here to learn to do that.”

Antolini thanked many in the audi-ence for the important roles they played in making the Clinical Building possible. “CJ Richardson had the vision for an-other building on this spot,” she told the assemblage, noting that it will provide a home for the community that will be “a vibrant, welcoming, and professional space” for students and the community for years to come.

“Your response has been extraor-dinary,” Davis told the crowd, naming many who had also committed funds for the building, including the Cades Schutte law firm that has committed $500,000; Attorney Brook Hart, who is supporting the Hawai‘i Innocence Project at the Law School; and others, including donors and advocates Diane Ono, Ted Pettit, Walter Kirimitsu, Elliott H. Loden of Loden and Conahan, and the Harriet Bouslog Labor Scholarship Fund. “So many people have come forward to support this project,” Davis said. “People who support this will have their names enshrined in per-petuity.”

At its January 2017 meeting, the UH Board of Regents approved donor nam-ing options for areas in the new struc-ture. Naming opportunities are also avail-able for areas of the existing Law School building and Law Library.

After brief remarks from other dig-nitaries, including Rep. Scott Nishimoto ’02, who was instrumental in obtaining legislative authorization and partial fund-

Associate Dean Denise Antolini, left, with the student art team and faculty that painted the construction barricade.

Hawai‘i Governor David Ige, University of Hawai‘i President David Lassner, William S. Richardson School of Law Dean Avi Soifer, and Honolulu attorney Mark Davis help break ground for the new Clinical Building

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MURALART-AT-LARGE

of the Trecker & Fritz law firm, stepped up with $2,000 from his office to pay for supplies. The law firm is already work-ing with the Law School to endow a space in the new building when construction is finished in time for the Spring 2018 semester. (Opportunities to endow ar-eas in the new building are still available through Julie Levine, Executive Director of Development for the Law School. She may be reached at (808) 956-8395.)

For Chan, the project was a resound-ing success for her students, and for the UH community. She remembers how art-ist Alina Kawai would walk across Dole Street to see how her painting of a figure against a dark night sky worked from a distance, and how she might need to make it more defined. Being able to work on a grand scale, said Chan, gave all of the art-ists new perspectives.

“We can do small (in the classroom)

but we can’t do big,” notes Chan. “With Alina, when she walked across the street to look at the figure, she said the image ‘isn’t reading,’ and she had to figure out how to solve that issue.

“Every artist had to figure out how to

deliver a visual and conceptual plan in a way that works,” said Chan.

Many of the paintings have already become favorite spots for passersby to take selfies. And Chan noted that because of the mural Boz Schurr painted, Schurr was offered a commission to do a gigantic Kaka‘ako mural.

For Law School Associate Dean Anto-lini – who has nurtured the Clinical Build-ing project from its beginnings more than a decade ago - the student artists gave an extraordinary gift to the Law School, to UH, and to the larger community. Even street artists from POW!WOW! got in-volved, she said.

“Thanks to your artists,” Antolini told Chan during an informal party to honor the artists after the murals were complete, “this has been one of the coolest places to be – the Law School driveway!”

ADMISSIONS

U N D E R

C O N S T R U C T I O N

It was cool to see random

strangers talking about it.

““Student artists were honored

at a party outside the Law School as construction began on the new Clinical Building. Photos show some of the new

building’s evolution.

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20 | WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW

NEW PROGRAMSNEW PROGRAMS

WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW | 21

HE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I LAW SCHOOL has established two new programs in ad-vanced legal studies aimed primarily at foreign-trained attorneys - but with the doctoral program also available to U.S. attorneys hoping to spend time on legal research projects.

The AJD – Advanced or Accelerated Juris Doctor - offers advanced standing to foreign-trained applicants, and allows them to earn the JD degree in as little as two years of study rather than three, with the option of taking a U.S. bar exam

after graduating, and being admitted to practice in the United States.The SJD - Doctor of Juridical Science - is primarily intended for those who have

completed a JD or an LLM program, and who already teach, or are prepar-ing to teach law outside the United States. It is also designed for those in-volved in policy work in research insti-tutes and government organizations.

Professor Tae-Ung Baik, director of the new SJD program who also was on the Richardson Law School com-mittee that developed the new degree, called both advanced degree programs tremendous options for those seeking further legal training to enhance their legal careers virtually anywhere in the world.

“We are confident that the SJD program will provide a great oppor-tunity for international legal prac-titioners who want to deepen their knowledge in order to pursue teach-ing careers in their home countries,” said Baik, a Korean law specialist who is also a member of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Dis-appearances.

“As well,” noted Baik, “the program will contribute to the already high

Open to Foreign and U.S. Attorneys

New Advanced Degree Programs at UH Law

quality of legal scholarship at the Law School.”

“These programs allow attorneys from all over the world to continue their legal training in Hawai‘i, and it gives them the flexibility to remain here or go back to practice law in their own countries,”

said Minara Mordecai, director of Spe-cial Projects at the William S. Richardson School of Law at UH. “We are positioned at an intersection of cultures, and that of-fers a tremendous opportunity.”

The SJD requires only one year in res-idence at Richardson, with seminars and

courses to support students in preparing their dissertation proposals and launch-ing their research. The goal is for students to submit finished dissertations by the end of their third year.

“We have had people writing to us to ask if we offer the SJD because they’d like

By offering this degree, we

join the most prestigious law

schools while we also enhance the

experience of all our students from across the

globe.

“

“ Members of UH Law School’s SJD team; from left, Professors Tae-Ung Baik, Carole Petersen and Alison Conner, with Special Projects Director Minara Mor-decai, LLM Director Spencer Kimura ’96, and law librarian Keiko Okuhara. Baik is the new Program Director.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF KOREMATSUNEW PROGRAMS

to do it with us,” noted Professor Alison Conner, a China law specialist and direc-tor of International Programs at the UH Law School, who envisioned both the AJD and the SJD programs and chaired the seven-member Law School Planning Committee that developed the specifics of the SJD.

Committee members included Pro-fessors Baik, David Cohen, Diane Desi-erto, and Carole Petersen, as well as LLM Director Spencer Kimura ’96, librarian Keiko Okuhara, and Special Projects Di-rector Mordecai.

“A number of LLMs have said they would like to do a research degree,” con-tinued Connor, “but because we didn’t of-

fer it, they had to go somewhere else.”While the SJD is particularly attrac-

tive to foreign-trained attorneys, Connor points out that it is not limited to those from outside the U.S. and is also available to those who earned their JD degrees in the U.S.

“We now offer three possible pro-grams for residents – the LLM, and now the SJD and the AJD, which is really a JD degree doable in two years because it grants some credit for foreign law study,” said Connor.

The two new advanced law programs

are ideal compliments to Richardson Law School’s existing LLM program, which was launched in 2003, has already attract-ed 143 attorneys from 52 countries, and was recently recognized as one of the best in the nation in three categories by The International Jurist magazine.

The journal gave the Richardson LLM program an A+ for its Academic Offerings, and two ‘As’ for being among the schools offering the ‘Best Law School Experience’ and for ‘Career Support.’ In each of the three categories it was among the top 10 in the nation.

At its June 2017 meeting, the UH Board of Regents agreed with the Law School’s request to reduce tuition for the LLM program by approximately one-third, making the program much more af-fordable. The program now will be more accessible for American as well as for-eign attorneys, and will help encourage students to continue their advanced law studies at Richardson.

A host of international legal academ-ics have lauded the two new programs, calling the new SJD an innovation that establishes Richardson Law School as a desirable destination particularly for at-torneys seeking global credentials.

Russell Leu, vice dean and professor of law at Beijing Foreign Studies Universi-ty’s School of Law, notes that China’s gov-ernment policy “favors and supports Chi-na’s law graduates to pursue SJD degrees at U.S. law schools,” pointing out that the government also makes funds available for study abroad to develop and increase the number of qualified law professors in China’s 624 law schools. Leu said the option of an SJD program at Richardson definitely increases chances to attract stu-dents from China.

Hawai‘i Supreme Court Chief Jus-tice Mark Recktenwald added that the new programs will bolster Richardson Law School’s many strengths, including enhancing the LLM program. He also stressed that Hawai’i’s diversity makes the Law School particularly attractive for foreign-trained lawyers from countries throughout the world.

Richardson Law Dean Avi Soifer noted: “By offering this degree, we join the most prestigious law schools while

we also enhance the experience of all our students from across the globe. We have a remarkably broad and deep faculty with particular expertise in international law, comparative law, indigenous law, envi-ronmental law, business law, and the law of countries in Asia and the Pacific – all of which are of increasing importance throughout the world.”

THE NEW SJD IN A NUTSHELL:• Students who have completed either a JD or LLM may apply for this advanced degree.

• Offers the time for advanced legal research or research on policy issues.

• Cost is $1,200 per credit, with 16 credits the first year and 1 credit per semester in subsequent years.

• Offers an important credential for those who wish to teach law outside the U.S. for both foreign-trained at-torneys and American citizens.

• Requires just a year in residence at Richardson, with the expectation that the dissertation will be completed in three years.

THE NEW AJD IN A NUTSHELL:• Provides another option for foreign-trained attorneys who want to get a grounding in American law, and then to have the option of practicing law in the United States.

• Foreign-trained attorneys may receive up to one year’s credit toward a JD for their foreign law training.

• The degree enables foreign at-torneys to take a U.S. bar exam and practice anywhere in the U.S.

Applications are being accepted for both the SJD and the AJD programs, as well as for the LLM program.For the AJD, email: [email protected] the SJD go to: [email protected] And for the LLM go to: [email protected]

These programs allow attorneys

from all over the world to

continue their legal training in

Hawai‘i.

““ VEN THOUGH THE WORLD WAR II Japa-

nese-American internment was “wrong,” the late Justice Antonin Scalia proclaimed in 2014 during a visit to the William S. Richardson School of Law, “you are kid-ding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again.”

The Continuing Significance of Korematsu

National Security and Democratic Liberties: BY PROFESSOR ERIC K. YAMAMOTO

The coram nobis cases showed no

bona fide national security

justification.

““The Fred T. Korematsu Professor of Law and Social Justice at Richardson School of Law

Professor Eric Yamamoto

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AWARDSSIGNIFICANCE OF KOREMATSU

Justice Scalia envisioned a politically driven mass exclusion or segregation of Muslims in America. Noting that “in times of war, the laws fall silent,” he also intimat-ed that, when challenged, the government would rely upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1944 Korematsu decision as a discredited but still-standing precedent for the forced removal and possible incarceration of an ethnic or religious group.

Justice Scalia’s remarks presciently channeled the political climate that de-veloped in late 2015. Republican presi-dential electioneering upped the ante: Candidates called for total exclusion of Muslims at the borders, broad surveil-lance and “sequester” within the United States, and even torture of Muslim terror suspects.

Harassment, discrimination, and intimidation intensified. Several policy-makers invoked the internment — and by implication Korematsu — as legal justifica-tion for sweeping government security re-strictions targeting both immigrants and citizens. And President Donald Trump’s controversial January 2017 Muslim ex-clusion orders are transforming campaign rhetoric into political reality — with peo-ples’ lives and families at stake.

The court cases: The military neces-sity pillars of the 1944 Supreme Court Korematsu decision, which legalized the mass incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, have been undercut by the 1980s Korematsu, Hirabayashi and Ya-sui coram nobis reopenings. These cases showed no bona fide national security justification. They also demonstrated egregious government fraud on the Court and the American populace in attempting to legally justify the internment. Congress

followed with the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, apologizing and conferring reparations.

Although discredited by judges and scholars, the original Supreme Court Ko-

rematsu decision has yet to be overruled in subsequent decisions by the Supreme Court. And some politicians and promi-nent judges maintain, “Korematsu was correctly decided.” Indeed, the Justice Department, in defending the current ex-ecutive order, asserted Korematsu’s prin-ciple (without citing the case) that when the government asserts national security,

the courts should acquiese, even when government has not shown “pressing public necessity” and even when consti-tutional liberties are denied.

The challenge: This dissonance about the continuing significance of Korematsu raises pressing present-day questions for a constitutional democracy committed to both security and the rule of law.

What will happen when those pro-filed, detained, harassed or discriminated against in the name of national security turn to the courts for legal protection? How will the U.S. courts respond to the need to both promote security and pro-tect fundamental democratic values of our political process — that people are to be treated fairly and equally?

We have some insight based on recent court rulings, including the Ninth Cir-cuit’s refusal to lift the lower court’s ban on enforcement of the exclusion and re-moval executive order. But final determi-nations, ultimately by the Supreme Court, are uncertain. At stake are both the lives and families of those targeted and the ten-or of American society itself.

The insights: Perhaps we can draw

dual insights from these challenging times. The first is the seriousness of terror threats - officials need to respond swiftly in apprehending perpetrators and ratio-nally in taking grounded pro-active steps to prevent future violence. The second is the simultaneous importance of prevent-ing politically driven government over-reactions that scapegoat and harshly treat entire groups without solid grounding in actual “pressing public necessity.”

How will the U.S. courts

respond to the need to both

promote security and protect

fundamental democratic

values of our political

process…

“

“

Two Hawai‘i events commemorated the 75th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive order 9066:

* February 23 - Legal forum at Richardson Law School. * February 24 - Roundtable panel at Judiciary History Center at the Supreme Court Building.

DID YOU KNOW?

AW PROFESSOR James H. Pietsch, an authority on elder law and veterans issues at the Wil-liam S. Richardson School of Law, has been honored with the University of Hawai‘i’s pres-tigious Robert W. Clopton Award for Distin-guished Community Service for 2017.

Pietsch, who heads the UH Elder Law Program and holds a joint appointment as an Adjunct Professor of Geriatric Medicine & Psychiatry at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, has played a leadership role in or-ganizing regular public workshops that pro-

vide important information to elders, veterans, and their caregivers. He also has co-authored a series of handbooks that go into detail about end-of-life and aging issues, and the handbooks are provided free throughout the community.

Since 1991 Pietsch has led the Elder Law Clinic at the UH Law School, serving more than 10,000 vulnerable elders and their caregivers since then. He regularly up-dates the free accessible handbook he co-authored with his assistant, Lenora H. Lee, covering a broad spectrum of elder care issues. He also has developed an international reputation for his scholarly articles and his witty presentations across the globe.

Dean Avi Soifer called Pietsch a backbone of the Law School and praised his long-standing Elder Law Clinic and his more recent Veterans Clinic.

“He has focused his efforts on assisting our state’s elderly and disabled, disen-franchised, abused, and socially and economically needy residents,” said Soifer. “He is known as ‘Mr. Elder Law’ for inaugurating this specialized field of law in Hawai‘i, and his stellar reputation in the medical, social work, and legal communities places him at the nexus for legal and ethics consultation on the multiple complex issues that arise at the end of life.”

In nominating Pietsch for the Clopton Award, Soifer also cited Pietsch’s work in Iraq, in particular as a pro bono legal adviser to the military in establishing Rule of Law initiatives to provide fair treatment for detainees and protections for judges and law-yers who realistically feared for their own lives.

“At considerable personal risk and with no compensation, Jim served in 2007 as a Special Advisor to the Law and Order Task Force, established by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Multinational Force Iraq,” wrote Soifer. “Later he would return as a Rule of Law Advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team and the Kurdistan Regional Reconstruction Team in the Kurdistan region of Iraq from 2007 to 2009.”

Honored with UH Award for Distinguished Community Service

Professor James Pietsch- ‘Mr. Elder Law’—

Professor James Pietsch

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LOWEST DEBTAWARDS

ROFESSOR DAVID L. CALLIES of the William S. Richardson School of Law will receive the 2017 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize in October from the William & Mary Property Rights Project. Callies will receive this prestigious prize during the Project’s 14th annual conference to be held at Wil-liam & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, on October 12-13.

The prize is named in honor of the lifetime contributions to property rights of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner, and it is presented

annually to a scholar, practitioner, or jurist whose work affirms the fundamental im-portance of property rights. Recently it has gone to legal scholars from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and the University of Michigan. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was a recipient in 2011.

Callies, a prolific scholar whose work explores land use, property, and state and local government law, has lectured around the world and written or collaborated on more than 90 articles and 20 books. He has been a member of the American Law Insti-tute since 1990 and he holds the Benjamin A. Kudo Chair at the University of Hawai‘i. Prior to entering academia, he was an attorney in private practice and an assistant state’s attorney.

Callies gained fame as a leading expert on land use and development in Hawai‘i early in his distinguished career, said Lynda L. Butler, Chancellor Professor of Law at William & Mary Law School and director of the school’s Property Rights Project, but his research interests have become truly international in scope and encompass land use control, eminent domain, and sustainable development in numerous other coun-tries. Butler noted that the annual Brigham-Kanner conference has been held in China and in The Hague as well as in Virginia.

UH Law Dean Avi Soifer called the prize “a much-deserved honor for Professor Callies” that not only resonates in legal circles, but in the wider business community. “David Callies brings tremendous breadth to our offerings in business and land law,” said Soifer, “and his presence within this constellation of prizewinners speaks to the importance of his scholarship. Our students are very fortunate to be receiving world-class instruction in the complex areas in which he excels, from one of the world’s great experts.”

Callies is renowned as a “scholar, teacher, lawyer, mentor,” according to Robert H. Thomas, an attorney and director at Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert in Honolulu. “For four decades, David Callies has shaped property law, and the practice of property law, as a legal scholar, practitioner, and advocate,” said Thomas. “Professor Callies has devoted his career to a search for understanding the deeper meaning of what it means to own property, and the relationship between property rights and individual liberties. His work has also integrated property law’s traditions with more modern concepts such as environmental concerns and the public trust.” Thomas added, “A truly deserv-

ing prizewinner, David Callies repre-sents the best of the law’s academic and practice sides.”

Michael Berger, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Manatt, Phelps & Phil-lips, who received the Brigham-Kanner Prize in 2014, called Callies “one of the brightest stars in the constitutional property rights firmament.” His lengthy academic career, Berger said, “has been festooned with scholarly explorations of property law that have enriched the scholarly literature and influenced the way that courts have viewed the law. When I learned that he was to be this year’s honoree, all I could do was cheer.”

To request a brochure about the conference, please email Ali Trivette at [email protected] or call (757) 221-7466.

Honored with Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize in October

UH Law Professor David L. Callies to be

Professor David L. Callies

RADUATES FROM THE William S. Rich-ardson School of Law carried the least amount of law school debt among 183 ranked U.S. law schools, according to a 2016 survey by U.S. News & World Report. Average debt for 2015 UH Law School graduates who took out loans to pay for their legal education was $54,988. That was less than half the average debt na-tionally among all the law schools that submitted data. The average debt nationally for grad-uates from those schools was $112,748. “This goes to show that we really are an affordable option for law school,” said Cyrelle White, the UH Law School Fi-nancial Aid Manager in 2014-16. “It also shows that our students are making re-ally smart financial decisions.” U.S. News released the latest law school debt information as one of its “short list” surveys, compiling a list of the 10 most cost effective law schools. Of the 10 schools listed in which graduates borrowed the least, the aver-age debt was $62,735. The survey also showed that gradu-ates from the class of 2015 at Thomas Jefferson School of Law had the most debt – an average of $172,726. The survey pointed out that schools vary when it comes to how much finan-cial help they provide students through various options.

At UH Law School, the financial help is generous. It is possible for law students to structure their financing to receive as much as $9,000 to $10,000 or more an-nually through a combination of need-based grants; scholarships managed by the UH Foundation and the Law School Admissions Office; and the federal work/study program. The comparatively low annual in-state tuition for 2015-16 was $20,880, with out-of-state tuition set at $42,384. Students are also eligible to borrow up to $20,500 annually in direct low interest unsubsidized federal loans, al-though many at Richardson do not bor-row the full amount. Law Dean Avi Soifer has often point-ed out that Richardson Law School offers an exceptional legal education at a very reasonable cost. Said Soifer: “Not only do we offer an absolutely first-rate educa-tion, but our graduates are not saddled with debilitating debt. Richardson stu-dents thrive in an unusually supportive and encouraging environment. We take financial assistance very seriously, and we help students to structure their fi-nancing carefully to make their dreams of law school and leadership as alumni a reality.” Financial Aid Management was as-sumed by Heather L.C. Smith-Lee in fall 2016 when Cyrelle White relocated to It-aly with her husband, who is in the mili-tary. Smith-Lee returns to Hawai‘i after several years as a program consultant for a private tutoring company in New York. She was formerly admissions and web coordinator for Richardson. The financial support at Richardson breaks down like this: • Students with the most financial need receive grants up to $4,000 annu-ally based on their FAFSA data. • Federal work/study pays $3,500 a year for up to 20 hours of work a week,

and students may serve as research assis-tants to Law School faculty members. • STAR scholarships through the UH Foundation range from $1,000 to $2,500. • Incoming first-year students are also eligible for $5,000 merit scholar-ships awarded by the Admissions Office.

“It’s definitely possible for incoming students to have the merit scholarship and the need-based grant, which com-bine to total around $9,000 a year,” said White. At Richardson Law School, approxi-mately 100 of the total of 305 JD students

are receiving need-based grants that do not have to be repaid, and 70 received scholarships through the UH Founda-tion during this past year, with 10 stu-dents awarded work/study grants each year. A number of incoming first-year students received $5,000 merit scholar-ships from funds donated by Law School faculty members, which are renewable for their second and third years.

And Lowest Debt

High Financial Aid—

We really are an affordable

option…““

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ULU LEHUA SCHOLARS PROGRAMJON VAN DYKE

HE UH LAW SCHOOL has been awarded a two-year $120,000 grant that will increase support for students from underserved and underrepresented communities who are in the school’s highly-regarded Ulu Lehua Scholars Program.

The grant, awarded by AccessLex Institute, provides funding to support student success and to enable the Law School to collect and analyze data on in-dicators to enhance bar passage for stu-dents in the program. It will also support a special Law School summer school class for Lehua Scholars.

“The grant is generally awarded to innovative programs that create pipe-lines into law school for minority stu-dents,” said Interim Director Troy J.H. Andrade ‘11, who as a Visiting Assistant Professor assumed leadership of the innovative program in the fall of 2016 when Professor Linda Krieger decided to concentrate on her cutting-edge re-search and teaching.

“But for us, it will be a little differ-ent because the funds will be used to support our Lehua Scholars while at the Law School to ensure their success as as-piring attorneys with a passion for social

justice.”The grant, written largely by Law

School staff member and Special Proj-ects Director Minara Mordecai, is spe-cifically aimed at assisting students from diverse backgrounds with an emphasis on historically underrepresented minor-ity students as well as those from eco-nomically disadvantaged backgrounds, according to the AccessLex website.

As bar passage rates have dipped na-tionally in recent years, rates have fallen most noticeably among students from

disadvantaged communities. This grant hopes to develop methods to reverse that trend - not just in Hawai‘i, but also at law schools across the country.

“In partnership with AccessLex In-stitute, the Lehua Program will continue to serve as a national model for other law schools to help ensure that students

from various backgrounds are able to stay in law school, be successful, and pass the bar,” said Andrade. “In general across the country, the bar passage rates have been going down, so part of the grant is to conduct a study at our school to figure out what are the indicators for success.

“With the data, we can hone in on what it is that makes students more suc-cessful,” added Andrade.

The Ulu Lehua Program is a national model with many success stories, includ-ing Andrade himself. It was founded in 1974 - a year after the UH Law School began classes - to ensure that the Law School community reflected Hawai‘i’s diverse population and to provide the opportunity to attend the Law School for qualified students who had overcome ad-versity and showed promise to serve un-derserved communities. The Lehua Pro-gram has already graduated more than 350 students. Each year 10-12 students enter Richardson as part of the program, and receive support and mentorship throughout their time at the Law School, with an emphasis on success during the 1L year.

The grant is enabling Andrade to spend additional time tutoring and ad-vising students, as well as hiring tutors to supply each student the help needed. Andrade is a 2014 graduate of the Ulu Lehua Program who was managing editor of the University of Hawai’i Law Review and served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald. He was a litigation attorney at McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP before coming to the Law School as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Interim Director this past fall.

Andrade is a graduate of Kamehame-

in Ulu Lehua Program at UH Law

$120,000 Grant Will Assist Diverse Students

With the data, we can hone in

on what it is that makes

students more successful.

“

“

HE WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL of Law Library has received a grant from the Hawai‘i Council for Humanities to process the papers of late Professor of Law Jon Van Dyke, who passed away No-vember 29, 2011.

Van Dyke was an internationally-renowned scholar and teacher of Con-stitutional Law, International Law, In-ternational Ocean Law, Rights of Native Hawaiians and indigenous peoples, Hu-man rights, and Environmental Law.

He was named the “Outstanding Pro-fessor” at the Law School in 1984, 1993, 1996 and 2002; in 2006 and 2008 the graduating class selected him to give the faculty Commencement Address; and in 2009 he received the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research. He was also a Carlsmith Ball Faculty Scholar.

Law School Dean Avi Soifer said, “Jon Van Dyke was a phenomenon and we miss him immensely. His far-ranging intellect and his passion for justice benefitted not only our students and his colleagues, but also the entire community and many oth-er people far beyond Hawai’i.”

Soifer added: “It is impossible to un-

derstand how Jon did so much, but this archive will help enlighten those who want to know more and, we hope, some who want to follow his lead.”

The grant will focus on processing, in-dexing, and making accessible the papers and research behind Van Dyke’s 13 books and textbooks and hundreds of articles. The material covers his legal representa-tion in cases involving Native Hawaiians, Ferdinand Marcos human rights victims, and constitutional litigation with his wife and partner, attorney Sherry Broder, as well as his participation in various de-

velopments in Pacific Island nations and territories advocating for islander rights in ocean law, anti-nuclear issues, and self-governance, among other issues.

Archives Manager Ellen-Rae Cachola will coordinate archival processing, un-der the supervision of Library Director Vicki Szymczak. The program will engage students to learn about Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island history through hands-on archival preservation experience.

A public event launching the Jon Van Dyke Collection will be held in February, 2018.

Underway at UH Law Library

Preservation of Jon Van Dyke’s Papers

Professor Jon Van Dyke

BY ELLEN-RAE CACHOLAArchives Manager, UH Law Library

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JAMIL NEWIRTHULU LEHUA SCHOLARS PROGRAM

OR UH LAW SCHOOL GRADUATE and Maui attorney Jamil Newirth ’12, the thrill of being a “Laker for a Day” was a peak experience, thanks to the bas-ketball team’s partnership with UCLA Health that focuses on patients with severe medical issues.

But it was also part of an extraordinary journey that has led the Maui attorney into cancer remis-sion and a sense of hope for the future, five years after he was given just 17 months to live.

“I look at the future very positively,” said the William S. Richardson School of Law graduate

who was diagnosed with a brain tumor just as he was studying for the Bar exam. “I feel lucky, and I should use that luck to do good.”

Newirth, who has a real estate, business and estate planning law practice on Maui with the R. Clay Sutherland law firm in Kahului, got the star treatment on Sunday, March 26, during a Los Angeles Lakers’ home game against Portland.

“I was too nervous to look around,” Newirth admitted afterward, adding that he

thinks he heard applause, but was too shell-shocked being next to his favorite team to remember.

Newirth was nominated by his neu-rosurgeon Dr. Linda Liau for the honor of dining on steak and shrimp in the Staples Center’s private Lexus Club, going out onto the court at halftime to a standing

ovation, and seeing his face splashed up on the Jumbotron above cheering fans. The partnership program helps focus at-tention on the important work that UCLA Health is doing.

“You can turn any experience, good or bad, to good,” said Newirth who with two friends has also launched a non-profit called UVSC, “U Versus Cancer/Us Ver-sus Cancer” (www.uvsc.org) to provide both financial and emotional help to oth-er cancer patients. Co-founders are Chris Thibaut, a friend from high school on Maui, whose father Rob founded Duke’s restaurant but succumbed to cancer in

You can turn any experience,

good or bad, to good.

““

Jamil Newirth on the Jumbotron

Cancer Survivor who was ‘Laker for a Day’

‘I feel Lucky,’ says Law Grad Jamil Newirth ‘12

ha Schools; Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, where he studied po-litical science and economics; and then Richardson Law School. Andrade also obtained a Ph.D. from UH, where his studies focused on Native Hawaiian legal history and the American Civil Rights Movement. During college Andrade in-terned with former Hawai‘i Sen. Daniel Akaka in Washington, D.C. and became interested in politics and law. Both Aka-ka and Representative Ken Ito encour-aged him to pursue a law degree at Rich-ardson.

“All of the issues going on with Native Hawaiians helped change my path and got me interested in law school,” he says.

As now structured, the Lehua Pro-

gram strongly supports students through their first year of law school, and re-duces the number of courses by one dur-ing the 1L year. Students then complete the course during their first summer. 1L Lehua Scholars take a course taught by the program director during their first semester that focuses on social justice lawyering and the nuances of the Ameri-can legal system. The grant will help pro-vide more attention during the first year as well as during the second and third years to keep the cohort connected, says Andrade.

The Ulu Lehua Program is a

national model and we are ex-

tremely proud of its many success

stories.

“

“

Visiting Assistant Professor Troy Andrade ‘11

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GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTJAMIL NEWIRTH

1997, and cancer survivor Ben Moon, whose video “Denali,” about seeing can-cer through his dog’s eyes, has gone viral.

Newirth was diagnosed with a fast-growing brain cancer called Glioblastoma in 2012. He underwent delicate brain sur-gery with Dr. Liau at UCLA, and then ra-diation and chemotherapy, before joining a three-year clinical trial with DCVax-L, a vaccine that utilizes a patient’s individual

tumor cells to stimulate the patient’s own immune system. Even though the tumor is now almost gone, Newirth checks in every two or three months with Dr. Liau, who is interim chair of the Neurosurgery Department at UCLA’s Jonsson Compre-hensive Cancer Center. Dr. Liau’s vaccine discovery is now being offered at 50 sites across the country, says Newirth.

But Newirth says he never would

have found out about the life-lengthening clinical trial with Dr. Liau if not for the re-search skill he learned at UH Law School.

“There are thousands and thousands of clinical trials, and it helped me nar-row down to the best trials for me - and then focus on the key factors that would benefit my condition the most,” said Newirth.

Jamil Newirth (left) with friend Marlin Henton at the Los

Angeles’ Lakers court at halftime.

N THE AFTERMATH of the global Con-servation Congress held in Hawai‘i from September 1-10, 2016, the UH Law School continues its role in international events that have an impact on the environment.

In May, for example, law student Ryan McDermott ’19 participated in an international environmental conference in Brazil, accompanying Associate Dean Denise Antolini who continues to play a leadership role in the global environmen-tal movement. As the Conservation Con-gress ended, Antolini was named Deputy Chair of the World Commission on Envi-ronmental Law (WCEL), one of six IUCN commissions.

In this new international role, Prof. Antolini has been involved over the past year in meetings in Switzerland, Brazil, India, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Her role as Deputy Chair of the WCEL also means there are even greater oppor-tunities for law students to be engaged in the international environmental arena.

A second student - Miranda Steed ’19 – was scheduled to attend a July confer-ence convened to train African judges in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the trip was cancelled because of the on-going civil war and considerable im-

Associate Dean and Students in IUCN Congress Follow-up

Global Environmental Issues Tackled by UH Law

Associate Dean Denise Antolini and Justice Antonio Benjamin in front of the High Court of Brazil for World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) steering committee meetings.

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KEN LAWSONGLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

mediate danger. At the University of Or-egon Steed did her undergraduate college thesis on the Congo’s brutal colonial past, based on portrayals by the Royal Museum for Central Africa near Brussels.

The UH Law School’s continuing in-volvement in global environmental net-works is an outgrowth of the World Con-servation Congress (WCC) held last fall in Hawai‘i. The Congress, convened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), provided the spring-board for the Law School’s participation. This was the first time the global environ-mental organization held a summit in the U.S. in its 60-year history.

The Congress enabled Richardson law students to partner with community organizations and state agencies to ad-dress pressing concerns regarding global

judges from around the world several times a year.”

For student McDermott, the trip to the Brazil conference was inspiring. “This offered me an international per-spective on the legal framework differ-ent countries use to protect the environ-ment,” said McDermott, who was part of the team creating a permanent record of conference events. “I learned about some new legal theories - one of the big-gest being a citizen’s right to a healthy environment, which is part of the con-stitution in Brazil. There are other South American and Caribbean countries that have similar language.”

As a law student who just completed his first year, McDermott said the expe-rience also gave added strength to his career goal of working in international environmental law, particularly about marine issues. “The experience gave me different options of how I could use my law degree that I hadn’t thought about before. And I met people from all over the world, judges in particular, whom I never would have met under other cir-cumstances.”

As part of maintaining Hawai‘i’s leadership role and momentum, Prof. Antolini flew to Washington D.C. in the middle of June to work with other IUCN members to form a U.S. National Com-mittee.

“Hawai‘i needs to be part of the U.S. national leadership to maintain our high involvement with the IUCN,” said Anto-lini. “The members in many countries have organized themselves into national committees and the U.S. has never done this. This is really exciting because it means the U.S. involvement will be sus-tained after Hawai‘i (and the IUCN Con-gress) through this national committee. I would be there informally, represent-ing the host committee and Hawai‘i.”

Antolini said this is an important moment to be involved in the environ-mental movement, especially on a na-tional level because of new leadership in Washington, and changes in U.S. policy toward environmental protection, both at home and abroad.

warming, climate change, sea level rise, and such specific Pacific concerns as ma-rine debris, biofouling, community-based natural resource management, sustain-able growth, and the importance of envi-ronmental courts. And it offered students and faculty the opportunity to stay in-volved at a high level.

“Because we have the ‘Hawai‘i Com-mitments’ with the documents cre-ated at the Congress, we want to see follow-through,” said Antolini. “They are grounded in things we care about in Hawai‘i and we are committed to main-taining the momentum.”

The May meetings in Brazil included five days of gatherings for the WCEL,

highlighted by the second international meeting of the Global Judicial Institute for the Environment that has been under-way for several years but is now about to be launched. Said Antolini: “The purpose is to build global networks and capac-ity in environmental law for judges and the judiciary, not only for environmental courts, but also for judges to address en-vironmental issues in their regular duties. It’s open to all judges of all countries who may apply for membership. The idea is to build an organization able to convene

This offered me an international perspective on

the legal frame-work different countries use to protect the environment.

““Above: Associate Dean Antolini and Justice Benjamin during meetings at the Brazilian sa-

vannah ecosystem, Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park. Below: At IUCN headquarters in Gland, Switzerland with IUCN President Zhang Xinsheng.

ILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF

Law Associate Faculty Specialist Kenneth Lawson, who also serves as Co-Director of the Hawai‘i In-nocence Project (HIP), received a 2017 Regents ‘Excellence in Teaching Award’ for his “extraordinary gifts” and the “strength of character” he brings to his teaching.

Law Dean Avi Soifer said Law-son “is truly inspirational to his col-leagues as well as his students.” Soifer

called Lawson both “courageous and indomitable” for what he has overcome and for the contributions he makes to the Law School and the community.

As Co-Director of the HIP, Lawson has been an electrifying force with his personal story of overcoming addiction and find-ing redemption – a story that has often brought students to tears - and that has produced standing ovations by his class-es as well as by members of the public to whom Lawson often speaks.

He is also credited for innovations that have helped make HIP a thriving clinic in which law students learn to conduct intake, investigate claims of in-nocence, evaluate cases, and advocate effectively on behalf of inmates when there is strong factual evidence of actual innocence.

Lawson was chosen by the gradu-ating class as the faculty speaker at the Law School Commencement ceremo-nies last year, and he is consistently a favorite faculty member in law student evaluations.

Honored with 2017 Regents’ Excellence in Teaching Award

UH Law Faculty Specialist Ken Lawson

Associate Faculty Specialist Ken Lawson

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TRACEY THOMPSON INNOCENCE PROJECT

TTORNEY AND LAW PROFESSOR Barry Scheck, who founded the Innocence Proj-ect 25 years ago in New York, is promoting and supporting a new procedural system that could go into effect in prosecutor’s offices across the nation – and would be a secondary line of defense against wrong-ful convictions.

During his final class and public

TOP SEATTLE LABOR ORGANIZER told an audience at the UH Law School last fall that what worked for the “Fight for $15” minimum wage success in that large West Coast city was a strong collaboration among grassroots groups.

“We built a coalition of labor, non-prof-its, faith-based institutions, community groups and environmental organizations,” said labor attorney Tracey Thompson, Di-rector of Legal Affairs for Teamsters Local 117, and a Washington State Labor Council Mother Jones Award winner.

“The unions in Seattle are strong,” said Thompson. “We push.”

The fight to hike the minimum wage to $15 was powerful and succeeded with voters in Seattle – the first major metro-politan area to pass a law which will take effect in stages - but it has also become a national movement, with a dozen states and cities heading down a similar path.

“We wanted it to take off, which it has,” said Thompson.

A new study by the University of Washington also shows that the wage hikes have not had the dire effects some predicted, and actually became part of economic growth in the area.

Seattle’s law allows for steps toward

lecture as part of the January Term (J-Term) faculty at the Law School in 2017, Scheck suggested that “Conviction Integ-rity Units,” as investigative teams within prosecutor’s offices, could move rapidly to scrutinize potential miscarriages of justice.

As it is now, Innocence Projects in in-dividual states often take up the cases of those who may have been wrongly con-victed, but each case may take years to investigate and move forward. The units he championed could work more swiftly.

“Conviction Integrity Units are be-ing set up,” Scheck told an audience of law students, lawyers earning Continuing Legal Education credits and members of the public. “They create a space to talk about how this works if new evidence of innocence is discovered, and they can say ‘Let’s investigate this.’”

Scheck spoke at the UH Law School the $15 threshold, with larger employers of more than 500 employees who don’t of-fer medical benefits having been required to hike their minimum pay to $15 an hour as of January 1, 2017.

Thompson credited some of her own success in helping negotiate this change to her legal training. “Having a law degree doesn’t mean you have to practice law,” she said. But having that “empowerment” offers an advantage as a negotiator.

Thompson said the coalition be-gan its push to raise the minimum wage in the small nearby city of SeaTac with 27,000 people. The coalition campaigned for passage of an ordinance there, can-vasing door-to-door to get the message across – and saw it win by a slim margin. The movement then gained momentum when Seattle Mayor Ed Murray formed a Minimum Wage Committee to study the

along with investigative TV journalist Ira Rosen who is a producer for CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” Before that Rosen was se-nior producer of “Primetime Live” with Diane Sawyer. He has won 20 National Emmys, four Dupont Awards, two RFK Awards, and a Peabody.

The innocence movement has de-pended on investigative journalism and stories that help get innocent people out of prison - with deep dives into the causes of wrongful convictions, and the remedies that could prevent them. In each J-Term class, Professors Scheck and Rosen high-lighted a story featured on “60 Minutes,” described how it was produced, and ex-plored the underlying issues. The class also explored the rapidly changing role of investigative journalism in various media and the relationship (both legal and infor-mal rules) between reporters and advo-cates.

proposition for Seattle. At first there was a lot of push-back by small business, said Thompson, but the resulting ordinance of-fered a phased-in wage hike through 2021, when it is required to cover all workers.

When the initiative passed, Thompson said, “We decided to go for it – increasing the statewide minimum wage.”

Thompson gave much of the credit for the success of efforts in Seattle and Wash-ington state to the power of the coalition. “It’s not something a single non-profit can do on their own,” she said. “Everyone needs to be engaged in the work for it to happen.”

Thompson’s appearance at the Law School was sponsored by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, as well as Unite Here Local 5.

Successes and Challenges During 2017 ‘January-Term’Training as a Key to Empowerment

Scheck and Rosen Explore ‘Innocence Project’

Seattle Labor Leader Points to Law

Conviction Integrity Units

are being set up.

““

Law Professor Barry Scheck, left, and award-

winning investigative TV journalist Ira Rosen

at UH Law School

Attorney Tracey Thompson addresses students and faculty at UH Law School.

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MIA ANDAL CASTROINNOCENCE PROJECT

Included in the class discussion were exonerees Brian Banks, a former rising football star, and Uriah Courtney. Banks was freed in 2012 after five years in pris-on, and Courtney in 2013, after eight years in prison.

Professor Scheck also spoke at a Janu-ary 13 fundraiser for the Innocence Proj-ect’s Hawai‘i chapter held at Café Julia in the downtown YWCA, co-sponsored by the Hawai‘i State Bar Foundation. Funds raised will assist in research about Hawai‘i prisoners who maintain their in-nocence.

The Hawai‘i Innocence Project is part of the William S. Richardson School. It was Scheck, now a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, who was primarily responsible for setting the standards for the forensic application of DNA technology as far back as 1988. In-nocence Projects in 37 states have freed more than 330 individuals using DNA evi-dence alone.

Under the direction of Associate Dean Ronette M. Kawakami ’85 and Associate Faculty Specialist Kenneth Lawson, the

Hawai‘i Innocence Project is part of the Law School curriculum with law students involved in research about Hawai‘i pris-oners who claim wrongful conviction.

Through the work of the Innocence Project in Hawai‘i, founded and then led by Professor Virginia Hench, for example, Alvin Jardine of Maui was freed in 2011 after spending 20 years in prison for a rape and burglary he maintained he did

not commit. When advanced DNA evi-dence indicated that Jardine was not the perpetrator, a Maui Circuit Court judge overturned his conviction.

The new leadership of the Hawai‘i Innocence Project expects to take on a larger load of cases. They will utilize Kawakami’s background as a public de-fender in felony jury trials and Lawson’s past experience as a criminal lawyer and his powerful personal teaching message. Lawson will focus on classroom material and working with students.

In helping lead the Hawai‘i Innocence Project, Lawson speaks of the importance

of introducing law students to this work. “I can teach you law, but I can’t teach you how to feel, how to care, and how to stand up for someone who has been wrong-fully accused,” he tells students. “If you don’t care about your client, why should the judge care? Why should the jury care? You, as the attorney, have to make them care. No one was born being a bad person.”

The HIP includes a number of Law School lecturers who help teach: attor-neys Susan Arnett, Bill Harrison, Brook Hart, and DNA expert David Haymer.

No one was born being a bad

person.““

N THE AFTERMATH of natural disasters like Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Phil-ippines in 2013 killing more than 8,000 people, there is another national disaster, according to Philippine attorney Mia An-dal Castro, Philippines managing director of the Consuelo Foundation. The second disaster is the fate of the children.

“When you see natural disasters, the most vulnerable people are the children,” Castro told an audience at the William S. Richardson School of Law during a discussion on human trafficking and the work of the foundation in the Philippines to protect women and children. Her talk was sponsored by the Law School, the Fil-ipino Community Center, and the Hawai‘i Filipino Lawyers Association.

“In times of disaster, it’s then when the traffickers prey on the children,”

Castro said, describing how children are easily lured to accept “help” not real-izing that they are being sold into prosti-tution by human traffickers.

But natural disasters are only one scenario in a $32 billion underground criminal network surpassed only by arms smuggling and narcotics trafficking, said Castro. Globally more than 2.5 million people are victims of human trafficking, a

and Undercover Work

Fighting Human Trafficking Through Law—

Attorney Mia Andal Castro, Philippines managing director of the Consuelo FoundationUriah Courtney was exonerated and freed by the Innocence Project in 2013. At right, Brian Banks was freed in 2012 after wrongful conviction.

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MAXINE BURKETTNEW WEBSITE

crime that often capitalizes on the hopes of poverty-stricken people longing to get their families out of poverty, she said.

“Human traffickers would go out to far-flung areas enticing young girls to ap-ply for jobs in the big cities as waitresses or clerks and convince them this is their tick-et out of poverty,” she said. “It’s not uncom-mon to have a relative who has migrated, and if someone comes and is introduced by someone they knew, they would fall for it. Over and over again these girls fell into this trap – not knowing they had been sold already. They end up in bars, prostitution dens, brothels, (sometimes) deeply brain-washed by their pimps, with some even groomed to be the next traffickers.”

Castro said that victims trafficked in the Philippines may also end up being sent abroad, making them much more dif-ficult to trace and rescue.

As an attorney working for the Ma-nila International Justice Commission before joining the Consuelo Foundation, Castro went undercover to rescue young victims and then prosecute their traffick-ers. Her work with the Consuelo Foun-dation carries on this mission by provid-

ing programs that help victims reclaim their lives.

The foundation has already spent more than $75 million in programs that have helped 400,000 women and chil-dren in the Philippines. While some have been helped to escape trafficking, others

have received training for jobs that offer hope for the future.

But the challenges continue. Many ar-eas of the Philippines are still not meeting even the most basic needs of the people, a situation that increases the vulnerability of those living in those areas. Castro also discovered corruption in the court system as her agency attempted to bring traffick-ers to justice. On one heartbreaking occa-sion, for example, a child was kidnapped in front of the courthouse, and witnesses were powerless to intervene.

However, a new kind of criminal en-forcement is making a dent in catching online trafficking, said Castro. Interna-tional law enforcement is cooperating to create “virtual” webcam people enabling enforcement agencies to track traffick-ers and their customers online. Already a number of countries have moved to arrest and prosecute numerous cases through such “sting” operations.

“There are success stories,” said Cas-tro, “but also many painful stories. This goes beyond just helping one child, but trying to incorporate ways the victims can be protected.”

This goes beyond just helping one

child, but trying to incorporate

ways the victims can be protected

“

“A NEW WEBSITE FOR THE UH LAW LIBRARY

If you have clicked on the William S. Richard-son School of Law Li-brary website, you may have noticed something different.

The new website went live in early Janu-ary. It runs on an open source platform using WordPress. It features a cleaner, updated ap-pearance. The website also features a built-in blog so we no longer depend on a separate blog site (like Weebly).

The primary uses of

the library website are categorized in the top-right menu: Research Resources, Services/Policies, About, and Blog. The site also has a customizable Google search engine that allows you to search all content on the website, the library’s research guides, and the library archives website.

The website was designed to work on every device and every browser. Our visitors will have the same on-

line experience regard-less of whether you visit us from a phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop computer. Go to http://

library.law.hawaii.edu/ and try it out for your-self. Feel free to contact us with any suggestions or comments.

BY BRIAN R. HUFFMANElectronic Services Librarian, UH Law Library

AW PROFESSOR MAXINE BURKETT, who has lectured extensively on climate change throughout the world, was chosen as a Public Policy Fellow last summer at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Interna-tional Scholars in Washington, D.C., con-sidered one of the top 10 think tanks in the world.

Burkett was also appointed last year to the new federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate As-sessment, one of 15 experts in physical and social sciences, communications, education and related topics reflecting the broad scope of issues relevant to this assessment process. The committee was established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The committee’s advice and recom-mendations go to the White House Of-fice of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for use by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a confederation of the research arms of 13 federal departments and agencies. It is charged with carrying out research to develop and maintain ca-pabilities to support the country’s under-standing and response to global climate change. Members represent a wide range of viewpoints and geographic sectors.

“I’m honored to be a part of the critically important conver-sations we’re having on the se-vere impacts of climate change, particularly on the most vul-nerable communities currently at the frontlines,” said Burkett, who last fall also received the Williams College Bicenten-nial Medal, the college’s dis-tinguished achievement award for alumni. She graduated from Williams College in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, and earned her JD from the Uni-versity of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of law. She also attended Exeter College at Oxford University.

Burkett also was singled out this year as one of Hawaii Busi-ness magazine’s annual “20 for the Next 20” which highlights

outstanding leaders who will continue contributing to the community. In 2016, she was named one of “40 Under 40” for 2016, an annual honor from Pacific Business News also spotlighting community leadership.

In 2009, Burkett joined the Richardson Law School faculty, where she teaches the broad scope of climate law, including climate change law and policy, torts, and ocean and coastal law. She has written extensively on diverse areas of climate law, with a particular emphasis on climate justice — exploring the impact of climate change on communities that suffer disproportionate impact in the U.S. and globally.

Also in 2009 she became the inaugural director of the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy, a program initiated by five colleges at the University of Hawai‘i and within the Sea Grant program.

Burkett focuses much of her research on the impact of climate change on islands, both in the Pacific and other low-lying regions. In numerous writings, she has looked at climate ethics and equity, including in 2010 when she served as the Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics at the Wayne Morse Center, University of Oregon.

Burkett was a White House intern and an Omidyar Fellow. She is also a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. After her graduation from law school, she served as a law clerk for The Honorable Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. Before joining Richardson, she taught at the University of Colorado School of Law.

for Expertise in Climate Change

Professor Maxine Burkett Honored

Professor Maxine Burkett

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STACEY GRAYSTACEY GRAY

TACEY GRAY ’19, who spent seven years as an environmental scientist and another two and a half as a marine fisheries bi-ologist before entering law school, was named the 2017 Patsy Mink Fellow by the UH Law School.

She spent the 2017 summer work-ing in the office of Hawai‘i Rep. Colleen Hanabusa ’77 on Capitol Hill in Washing-ton, D.C., with funds provided by gener-ous donors and the Law School.

“Merging my scientific knowledge with legal knowledge could be a power-ful tool for change,” said Gray. In addition to her other legal studies at the William S. Richardson School of Law, she is earning a certificate in Environmental Law and hopes to pursue a career in that field.

“The marriage between law and sci-ence is where I see myself operating be-cause sometimes they just don’t under-stand each other. Hopefully I will be able to bridge that divide. As a former scientist I speak their language.”

Gray was honored at the Law School in a spring ceremony keynoted by Hawai‘i State Rep. Della Au Belatti ’03. Belatti was one of four UH law students who launched the fellowship to honor Mink’s accomplishments and to provide oppor-

tunities for Hawai‘i law students to spend time in Washington as interns with the state’s congressional delegation. The first intern 15 years ago served in the office of the late U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

This year’s event was organized by 2016 Patsy Mink Fellow Nahelani Web-ster ’17, who spent last summer serving in the office of U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. The internship is supported by Hawai‘i’s Con-gressional delegation, which rotates the internship each year.

Law School Dean Avi Soifer recalled the courage and the accomplishments of the late Congresswoman and he not-ed the direct connection to her legacy through the Mink Fellowship.

Soifer said, “We are proud of the Richardson students who began this pro-gram on behalf of those who would fol-low them. These visionaries such as Della Au Belatti, as well as the Mink Fellows who have benefited from the internship, have continued to honor Patsy Mink di-rectly through their many accomplish-ments.”

Gray has spent the last decade work-ing in the environmental field between Hawai‘i and Alaska, including for a time as “the eyes and ears of the National Ma-rine Fisheries Service” on fishing boats, as well as spending time in the field in Hawai‘i as a conservation biologist as-sessing native species. At one point, she worked for Pono Pacific, on a subcontract with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers Army Branch, doing monitoring and con-servation work with the Hawaiian native ‘elepaio by locating nests and recording the success of fledglings.

“It was heavy field work, boots-on-the-ground work,” she said. Even during her undergraduate studies at Ohio North-

ern University she spent time outdoors doing stream surveys as part of a course in ichthyology – the study of fish science - that first piqued her interest in conser-vation and the environment. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Studies with a

Business Option.Gray expected her summer in D.C. to

be eventful. “With the Republican major-ity there will be environmental regula-tions potentially coming under fire, and it’s good to have passionate advocates in D.C.,” she said. “It could be important to have people with both legal and scientific training to speak truth to power.”

That very much fits the role exem-plified by Congresswoman Mink, who spent her career in politics fighting for

Is UH Law School’s 2017 Patsy Mink Fellow

Environmental Advocate Stacey Gray ’19

It could be important to

have people with both legal and

scientific training to

speak truth to power.

““

civil rights, gender equality, and speak-ing truth to power until she passed away in 2003.

Mink championed and co-sponsored a portion of the Education Amendments act of 1972 – Title IX – that gives women equal access to opportunities in educa-tion. That act was renamed The Patsy T.

Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act to honor Mink’s contributions.

Mink served for 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the first woman of color in Congress. Pas-sionate and determined, she was an out-spoken advocate of equal rights for wom-en – as well as all minorities.

Mink, who faced discrimination and many closed doors as a young woman trying to begin her professional career in Hawai‘i, often said: “I can’t change the past, but I can certainly help somebody else in the future so they don’t have to go through what I did.”

We are proud of the Richardson students who began this program on behalf of those who would follow them.

“

Stacey Gray ’19 and Hawai‘i State Rep. Della Au Belatti ’03

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SABRINA MCKENNAAWARDS

AWAI‘I SUPREME COURT Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna ‘82 had high praise for law students in the UH Law School’s Eve-ning Part-Time Program – and the pro-gram itself - during a celebration last fall to honor the 100th graduate of the pro-gram, now nine years old. As the keynote speaker, McKenna also shared her own personal story of night school and the im-pact it made on her early life.

McKenna compared the strength, re-silience and conscientious attitude she saw in her mother’s attendance at night school to the same strengths she sees in the part-time program participants today, and the strength of so many of her own Richardson classmates who worked their way through Law School while also rais-ing families long before there was an Eve-ning Part-Time Program.

The program, launched in 2008, was specifically designed for working pro-fessionals, and especially for those who have professional, financial, and family obligations during the day. The students who have participated and graduated have brought a wide variety of skills and interests to the student body, enriching

Strength—And its Participants

Justice McKenna ’82 Praises Evening Program

Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna ’82 of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court

HE WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON School of Law has again been ranked as one of the best in the nation in the 2017 edition of The Princeton Review, with top rankings in several key categories. Included in the list of the 172 best American Bar Association (ABA)-accred-ited U.S. law schools, the UH Law School was ranked: • 2nd as the “Best Environment for Minority Students.” • 3rd as the school “Most Chosen by Older Students.” • 2nd as the school with the “Most Di-verse Faculty.” Richardson Law School repeatedly ranks among the country’s most out-standing law schools, and it is consis-tently among the top schools in each of the above categories. The UH Law School ranked even higher than it did a year ago in terms of its choice by older students and its faculty diversity. The annual survey uses 11 lists to look more closely at what the accredited law schools offer and to consider the students’ sense of the environment on their cam-puses. “We pride ourselves on offering a school that welcomes students, nurtures

their growth, and inspires them to excel, but also to give back to their communi-ties,” said Dean Avi Soifer. “These rank-ings again testify to the creative and in-clusive feeling Richardson provides for our students, and the high quality of our faculty.” The rankings are drawn from surveys of 19,400 students attending these law schools, and from administrators. The surveys asked students about academics, student body characteristics, and campus life, as well as about themselves and their career plans. Only about 33 percent of the best law schools appear on one or more of the lists used by The Princeton Review, notes Robert Franek, Senior Vice President and

publisher of the educational survey. The Princeton Review editors ex-plained: “We don’t have a ‘Best Overall Academics’ ranking list nor do we rank the law schools 1 to 172 on a single list because we believe each of the schools offers outstanding academics. We believe that hierarchical ranking lists that focus solely on academics offer very little value to students and only add to the stress of applying to law school.” The Princeton Review (www.Princ-etonReview.com), headquartered in Natick, MA, is an education services com-pany known for its tutoring, admission and test-prep services, books, and other student resources. It is not affiliated with Princeton University.

School a ‘Best’ for 2017 and Awards It Several Top Rankings

The Princeton Review Again Names UH Law

‘Stew Day’ – a tradition in which faculty honor students with a free meal - is one of manyat Richardson which has been ranked one of the best environments for minority students.

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RANDY ROTHSABRINA MCKENNA

the Richardson Law School experience for all.

“From a young age I felt the strug-gles of those who choose to improve themselves through evening education programs while working full-time,” said McKenna. “Forty-nine years ago, when I was nine, my father suddenly died of a heart attack.

“We were living in Japan where my dad had been employed by the U.S. gov-ernment. My mom had been naturalized as a U.S. citizen but had lived in Japan her entire life. She now had to immediately re-enter the work force to support us.

“Three weeks after my dad died she took a job as a front desk clerk at the U.S. military hotel at Yokota Air Force Base in the Tokyo area. In order to improve her skills, my mom went to night classes on base to learn typing and shorthand. As a nine and 10-year-old, I went with her to

these classes and served as her English-Japanese interpreter and translator.”

McKenna also praised the evening students for the way they exemplify the spirit and grace with which CJ Richard-

son lived his own life.“As CJ Richardson did, live your life

with grace,” McKenna advised the stu-dent graduates. “Remember, it is not necessary to be disagreeable when you disagree. Be humble, be kind, be under-standing, and have a smile, whether for a friend or a foe. And, as often happened with CJ, your grace, humility, kindness, understanding, and smile might just turn a foe into a friend.”

Associate Faculty Specialist Liam Skilling ’07 is Director of the Evening Part-Time Program and also Academic Success. Each year since its inception, the Evening Part-Time Program has grown and last fall had an incoming class of 18 students. The program consistently ranks well nationally, recently earning 28th place in the U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2017, up from 30th place a year ago.

As CJ Richardson did,

live your life with grace.

““

AW PROFESSOR Randall W. Roth, a long-time activist who, among other things, helped topple former trustees of the Bishop Estate through his “Broken Trust” essay and book, retired June 1 as a profes-sor at the William S. Richardson School of Law after 35 years of teaching.

Dean Avi Soifer called him “a coura-geous, stand-up guy who has changed this whole community” during a retire-ment party at College Hill that honored Roth’s distinguished teaching career and celebrated the impact he has had on

Hawai‘i through his committed involve-ment. Roth’s publication of “The Price of Paradise,” which detailed inequities in both laws and practices in Hawai‘i, and his scrutiny of the abuse of the trust obli-gations of former Bishop Estate trustees, for example, have influenced public life and gained national recognition.

The City Council honored Roth with a laudatory resolution read by Coun-cilman Ernie Martin, a ’95 Richardson graduate, during the gathering. Martin chaired the Committee on Budget for

Retires after 35 years Teaching at Richardson Law

Community Activist Professor Randy Roth

Professor Randall Roth and Susie Roth

CHILD WELFARE CLINIC HELPS BUILD ‘Happy Memories’ in a 2017 Project

UH law and social work students pooled their talents and aca-demic skills again this year to complete three youth-oriented commu-nity-based projects as part of the Child Welfare Clinic sponsored by the Richardson Law School.

This course brings together students from several disciplines at the university each year to complete projects that not only help community partners but begin build-ing important profes-sional networks within the future workforce.

“The social workers now know someone who is going to be an attorney and the lawyers know someone who will be a social worker,” said Liam Skill-

ing ’07 who has been involved with the Child Welfare Clinic since its founding at the urging of Law Dean Avi Soifer. “We hope these con-nections will continue.”

Student members of the clinic work with actual child welfare files to consider where they can create projects that fill real needs. This year they worked with Youth Outreach, Family Projects Hawai‘i, and the Office of Youth Services. Among the projects they tackled was one to create a bet-ter referral form to offer young runaways a more complete selection of services and to wrap them into what’s called the homeless manage-ment system.

“All agencies had their own assessment forms,” said Justin Jo ’17, noting that the students in the clinic utilized those to create a comprehensive, com-mon form.

A second group of students worked with the Hawai‘i Youth Correctional Facility on a legislative bill meant to tackle child sex traf-ficking and to detain the children involved in a safe place where they can go through detox and receive a thorough assessment in order to help them enter treat-ment. Meanwhile, a third group of students created a Family Strengthening Center brochure describing the services for children

entering the child welfare system. One of the impor-tant purposes of the center was “creating happy memories” for the children, said Jacob Tokunaga ’19.

“Connect-ing with positive role models can be therapeutic in itself,” added Tokunaga.

The Child Welfare Clinic has included participa-tion by the Law School, and the UH Schools of Social Work, Nursing and Teaching, and it seeks to build inter-connections for the future to provide more complex and fully-

rounded services to people served by all of these disciplines. “We have become so silo-ed in our own disciplines,” said Skilling. “But, be-cause problems are so multi-dimensional, we need a different kind of team to tackle them.”

Faculty Specialist Liam Skilling ‘07

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RANDY ROTHRANDY ROTH

the City Council. The Law School’s Stu-dent Bar Association passed a similar congratulatory resolution recognizing Roth’s service that was read by SBA pres-ident Alex Chun ’18. “We thank you very much,” said Chun. “We’ll miss you.”

In 2000, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin named Roth to a list of “100 Who Made a Difference in Hawai‘i During the Twen-tieth Century,” and five years later the City of Honolulu’s Centennial Celebra-tion Committee included him on a list of “100 Who Made Lasting Contributions During the City of Honolulu’s First 100 Years.” Roth also received a screen credit for his work as a script consultant for the movie “The Descendants,” starring

George Clooney, which won the Acad-emy Award for Best Screenplay in 2012. Roth’s skillful treatment of complicated legal issues, particularly in the realms of trust and tax law, repeatedly has gained praise from such publications as Forbes Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

The party was highlighted by a “mag-ic show” presented by Roth’s wife, Susie Roth, who has had a part-time career as a clown. Another highlight was a medley of old rock music favorites sung by “The Casualettes,” an informal singing group that includes a retired judge and a sitting Supreme Court Justice, both Richardson graduates.

as a law clerk and gave me my start. I will be eternally grateful.” Lawson now teach-es at the Law School full-time and serves as co-director of the Hawai‘i Innocence Project.

Law School Dean Avi Soifer spoke briefly, stressing the partnership of Ran-dy and his wife Susie, and ending his cele-bratory haiku by terming the couple “one pair excellence.”

One of the most touching moments came when Associate Faculty Special-ist Kenneth Lawson spoke emotionally of how Professor Roth had helped him regain his foothold in life, after Lawson had become addicted to prescription painkillers and had been sentenced to serve prison time. They met when Roth invited Lawson to speak to his law class about Lawson’s personal experiences,

Professor Roth said he is not yet to-tally sure about his next step, but he added that he is “looking forward to this adventure.” He said his years at Richard-son have enriched his life and the lives of his family, and that his teaching has been a labor of love because of his students and his colleagues.

In 1970 Roth earned a BS summa cum laude from Regis College; in 1974 a JD

and the ethical issues he faced as a result, and they have become like brothers, said Lawson.

“He helped me when we were down,” Lawson told the assembled faculty and staff members, his voice emotional. “The entire Roth family has been nothing but amazing. They took care of my wife and kids when I was gone…And when I got out of the halfway house Randy hired me

from the University of Denver; and in 1975 an LLM from the University of Mi-ami. During his career at Richardson, he earned many awards, including a Board of Regents’ Excellence in Teaching Award,

and the Robert W. Clopton Distinguished Community Service Award and he was named as a Carlsmith Ball Faculty Schol-ar from 2012-14. He has served as presi-dent of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association, Hawai‘i Justice Foundation, Hawai‘i In-stitute for Continuing Legal Education, and Hawai‘i Estate Planning Council. He also served as Associate Reporter for the Restatement of the Law (Third) Trusts project of the American Law Institute.

In 1993 and again in 1997, Roth was named Civic Leader of the Year, and in 2009 he received the Gandhi, King, Ikeda award for pursuit of social justice from Morehouse College.

Roth joined the Richardson faculty in 1983 after a one-semester visit the year before. He had been an Assistant Profes-sor of Accounting at Metropolitan State College, where he taught fulltime while attending law school. He joined the law faculty at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota for one year in 1978, and then was on the law faculty at Washburn Uni-versity in Topeka, Kansas for three and a half years, and won teaching awards at all the law schools where he taught. During his tenure at Richardson he spent a se-mester as a visiting professor at both the University of Wisconsin and the Univer-sity of Chicago.

…. a courageous, stand-up guy

who has changed this whole

community.

““Dean Soifer presents Professor Roth with a koa rocker from the faculty

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DALE W. LEEDALE W. LEE

ALE W. LEE RETIRED from the UH Law School on June 30 to pursue a career as a Realtor associated with Berkshire Hatha-way HomeServices Hawai‘i Realty. Lee has served as the Director of Professional Development & Externship Programs at the Richardson School of Law – a critical role that introduces law students to the world of the law in many different venues, and prepares Richardson students to per-form in professional capacities through hands-on real life experiences.

“In recent years experiential learning has been coveted for the practical train-ing and exposure that employers want law graduates to have, and our program has blossomed as a result,” said Lee. “This year 114 students served in Externships in law offices, courts, governmental agen-cies, and non-profit organizations – 50 in this summer alone – the largest number

I can remember.” This summer another 10 students have been involved in paid clerkships, and many others are doing pro bono volunteer work, Lee explained.

“Richardson students are out there busy in the community,” he said. “Our graduates, whom we proudly call ‘Rich-ardson Lawyers,’ now dominate the Hawai‘i Bar and can be found in every major law firm as partners and associ-ates, in governmental agencies as direc-tors and deputies, in our courts as Jus-tices and Judges, in business, and in the Legislature. Our connection with ‘down-town’ is critical; I sought to strengthen it and to take advantage of Richardson’s leadership position for the entire Pacific Region as Hawai‘i’s only law school. The connections have been ‘win-win’ going both ways.”

For the past several years Lee also has led popular student visits to Honolulu law firms, the Supreme Court, the Inter-mediate Court of Appeals and the Circuit Courts, the offices of the Attorney Gener-al and the Prosecuting Attorney, and non-profit agencies. “Much like ‘college tours,’ the students have the chance to walk through the offices, visit with the lawyers and judges, and get a feel for the different atmospheres, cultures, and people who serve there,” he said. “A fun memory was finding ourselves sitting in Chief Justice Recktenwald’s office on a Friday after-

noon just shooting the breeze with him. I wanted the students to see that under-neath all of the pomp and circumstance, CJ was a genuinely caring, wholly down-to-earth individual. And that character of his showed through, brightly.”

Lee has been a favorite with over 1,000 students he has worked with dur-ing his decade at the Law School. And he was well known for his annual April Fool’s Day spoof message to students announc-ing that he had “accepted appointment as Dean of the Shigatsubaka Law School in Japan.” (Shigatsu translates as April; Baka as Fool.)

Staff, administrators, and students surprised him with a farewell ceremony during the Law School’s annual “Stew Day” when faculty and staff serve a free hearty lunch to the student body. They presented him with gifts, and students and alumni spoke emotionally about what his counsel and mentoring meant to their understanding of, and growth in, the law. Lee was so touched by the outpouring of respect and affection that he donned dark glasses to disguise tearing up.

Lee took the real estate exam a year ago - “and felt more pressure than I did when I took the Bar Exam,” he said. But, he added, his legal experience offers read-ily transferable skills to his work as a Re-altor. “We lawyers know what it means to represent another’s interests. The re-

To Join Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Faculty Specialist Dale W. Lee Retires

sponsibility demands discharge of obliga-tions that we respect, greatly.” He added, “Gonna do the same thing, just in a differ-ent arena.”

Law Dean Avi Soifer said, “Dale has been a remarkable resource and ‘go-to

guy’ for Richardson students. They ben-efitted immensely from his personal warmth, concern, and responsiveness and from his deep knowledge of local attor-neys and judges.”

Before joining the Law School in 2007, Lee had a distinguished career as a Senior Litigation Partner with the Hono-lulu law firm of Kobayashi, Sugita & Goda. He also has been a deputy prosecuting at-torney and a member of the Hawai‘i State Bar since 1974, serving as president of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association in 2004. Lee graduated from Brown University in 1970 and received his JD from Southern Methodist University in 1974.

During the Law School Commence-ment at Andrews Amphitheater, Lee again was recognized, and thanked, and Master of Ceremonies Elyse Oyama ’17 said, “He has always been our ‘go to’ advi-sor. He made sure we learned the basics of life,” she joked, “like how to use a screw-driver to hang up our diplomas.”

The connections have been

‘win-win’ going both ways.

““

Richardson students are out there busy in the community.

“Professor Dale W. Lee

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KAY LORRAINERECOGNITION

OTH THE NATIONAL JURIST and preLaw magazines have named Richardson Law School among the best in the nation in a number of categories, and have singled out the school for strengths in many areas.

In a recent survey by The National Jurist magazine, Richardson was named among the top American law schools in providing practical training for its stu-dents.

The Spring 2017 issue gives Richard-son an ‘A-‘ for an array of clinics and ex-ternships that offer hands-on training to law students.

In the most recent full year - Fall 2016-Spring 2017 - of 212 second and third-year law students, there were:

• 134 students participating in clinical courses.

• 139 students participating in simula-tion courses.

• 107 students doing externships.Many students were involved in more

than one activity.Practical training is being emphasized

nationally, and increasingly has become a required part of the law school curricu-lum. In 2015 the American Bar Associa-tion added a standard for accreditation that requires all students to complete six credit hours of practical training courses in order to graduate. That has been a stan-

dard at Richardson for many years.“Around the country, law school students are getting experience with clients and in

courtrooms,” noted an article in the magazine. “Students may work in clinics and extern-ships. They may compete in moot court and trial skills competitions. Or, they may participate in simulation courses, where they can practice their lawyering skills in a controlled setting.”

All these activities have long been available to Richardson law students. Such practical training, through the Law School’s 10 clinical programs, as well as its 12 institutes, centers and projects, offer students exceptional real world experiences.

Meanwhile, preLaw’s spring 2017 issue also singled out Richardson for the high qual-ity of its practical training as well as for the unique classes it provides. The issue profiled many Far West law schools, and included photos of Richardson’s unique graduation cer-emonies, with students draped in lei and honoring their families by performing a tradi-tional hula.

The story also pointed out that not only do Richardson students study and work to-gether, but they hike, swim, surf, and paddle together in competitive water sports that help them bond as a class and as a future legal network.

Included in the discussion of these law schools is a full-page graphic with photos as well as the average GPA and LSAT scores of the class of 2015. Scores for incoming stu-dents at Richardson compared favorably with those of the other law schools surveyed.

Richardson placed 11th in the ‘A-’ Honor Roll evaluating the 64 western schools sur-veyed, based on their practical training offerings. The school’s practical training, and lo-cation in Hawai‘i, and beautiful Mānoa Valley, aren’t all that Hawai‘i’s sole law school has to offer, the story notes. Richardson has scored as a Best Value school, as a most diverse law school, and is among the smallest schools, says the magazine’s managing editor, Katie Thisdell. She continued: “And the faculty and staff are supportive of students of all ages and their families.”

Richardson Law Named Among Top in the Nation

LONG-TIME HAWAI‘I businesswoman Kay Lorraine, 70, became the oldest student to graduate from the UH Law School when she walked across the stage at An-drews Amphitheater on May 14 with a graduating class of 114.

In addition to being the Law School’s oldest graduating student, Lorraine be-lieves she’s also the oldest full-time law

student in the country. After doing some research, she reports that a 74-year-old man graduated from an East Coast law school last year, and an 80-something-year–old woman may be a current part-time student in another East Coast law school. At Richardson, the oldest gradu-ate before Lorraine was 66.

“It has been fascinating, frustrating, interesting, intense, and one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” says Lorraine, who also admits to throwing up - twice - on the way to her first law exam. She adds: “It’s maybe the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life” - minus throwing up, of course.

Lorraine’s lifelong dream of law school has been 50 years in the mak-ing, ever since she first imagined a le-gal career back in high school in Ohio. “Sometimes life intervenes,” she says. But even without a college degree – until

six years ago – she has excelled, running a film production company as president and CEO, working as a professional ‘jin-gle’ singer with celebrities such as Mel Torme, and becoming the executive di-rector and spokeswoman for a number of local nonprofits – including Hawai‘i

Women Lawyers - through the manage-ment company she formed when she and her second husband, Brad Bate, settled in Hawai‘i in 2003. While caring for her terminally ill mother, Lorraine was able to take an online college degree in order to improve her employment prospects as nonprofit jobs began drying up in the re-cession, and to maybe – finally – rekindle her dream of law school.

With college under her belt with stel-lar grades in two and a half years, Lor-raine applied for Richardson, starting classes the same day her best friend, at-torney Bernice Littman, retired from the Cades Schutte firm. “I went to her retire-ment party during orientation week,”

Calls UH Law ‘Most Fun’ Ever

‘Den Mother’ —and Oldest Graduate

I would love to be Perry

Mason…““

Kay Lorraine ’17

UH Law students enjoy a hike on Diamond Head

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GRADUATIONKAY LORRAINE

says Lorraine.In her three years at Richardson,

Lorraine has held two part-time jobs, become a favorite among her classmates as a ‘go to’ student always ready to help out, and stood out as someone everyone knows in the Law Library because she’s the one behind the desk who also hands out the earplugs.

But she worried at first that other students would hesitate to accept a white-haired woman old enough to be their grandma. On the Monday morning after the costume party that first-year students throw annually for their sec-ond and third-year classmates, her fears evaporated.

“In Contracts class they awarded me a little trophy for the scariest costume,” she remembers. “That was so sweet of them, and that’s when I knew they had accepted me. But I had to tell the class the truth - that it wasn’t a costume; it was just me, an old woman with no makeup. I just put my head under the tap, washed off all my makeup, put my wet hair up in rollers, dangled a cigarette from my lips, and put on an old white nightgown. I said ‘Think of me as the Ghost of Christ-mas Future.’”

Lorraine is also a favorite among fac-ulty members. At the Law Library, Vic-toria Szymczak, Associate Professor and Law Library Director, thinks of her as ‘the plant whisperer.’

“We wanted some greenery in the Library and Kay took it upon herself to nurture our plants so we wouldn’t kill them,” said Szymczak. “She was able to coax our Peace Lily to bloom and right now we have six blooms on it. I will al-ways think of her as the Peace Lily Whis-perer.”

And Professor Frances Miller, a vis-iting faculty member from Boston Uni-versity, remembers the day she arrived in the morning to find a ready-to-eat salad taped on her office door. The day before, Miller had admired the delicious-look-ing salad Lorraine was having for lunch, and Lorraine responded by bringing a salad for Miller the following day.

“That’s not what you usually find on your door,” chuckles Miller. “I had just said ‘Where did you get it?’ And there

was a salad for me the next day. You can’t not like her. She’s the den mother for the whole Law School.”

Adds Miller: “Anyone who’s ever been within 1,000 miles of Kay knows she has a heart of gold, is the life of the party, and one of the funniest people on the planet.”

At Richardson, and elsewhere, Lor-raine has been an inspiration. An ac-quaintance in his 40s who never finished college told her that she has inspired him to go back to college and finish his degree. Author C.S. Lewis is often quoted as saying: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” Professor Miller notes that over her 45 years of teaching, she’s had just four or five students whose ages can even begin to compete with Lorraine’s, and they’ve all brought a rich, deep dimension to dis-cussions in the classroom.

“I’m a big fan of exercising that brain muscle however and whenever you can,” says Miller. “And what better than this?”

Professor Troy Andrade ‘11, Interim Director of the Ulu Lehua program, called her “smart, dedicated and articu-late, and someone who is going to make a big difference in our community.”

During the annual Ulu Lehua ban-quet Andrade remembers Lorraine shar-ing her early concerns about how the other students would react to her. “She said that it was a huge compliment that by the end of the time in Law School no one called her ‘Auntie.’ She was just one of them, a student.”

Lorraine doesn’t yet know what kind of law she’ll practice, but she has in-terned in family law with Greg Ryan & Associates, and favors elder and health law. “I would love to be Perry Mason, but it takes a lot of time to build up a practice in criminal litigation, and right now I’m focused on passing the Bar Exam,” says Lorraine. But she is also happily accept-ing job offers.

HE LARGEST CLASS IN THE UH Law School’s 43-year history graduated Sunday afternoon, May 14, including 110 graduates earning JD degrees, and four earning Masters of Law degrees. Richardson Law School Dean Avi Soi-fer called the 2017 graduates - “a class that takes hold of things” - and faculty commencement speaker Calvin Pang ‘85 urged them to “work out of love, not hatred.

“I want you never to be a technocrat, never a cog in the machinery of justice,” Pang told them. “May you always be fully human. Always be compassionate.”

Pang, as the speaker chosen by the students to give the annual Faculty Ad-dress, reminded students that he has seen their struggles, their courage and their persistence. And he used a thin-skinned tangerine in an analogy for doing the tough, right thing – mentioning his belief Hawai‘i Attorney General Doug Chin ‘96 did the right thing when the state sued President Trump, and prevailed, over the President’s revised Muslim travel ban.

The JD graduates included 14 mem-bers of the Evening Part-Time Program. It was launched in 2008 to provide op-portunities for those with professional,

Graduates In Sunny Ceremony with 1,000 in Attendance

UH Law School’s Largest Class Ever

Kay Lorraine on graduation day, May 14, 2017.

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THE JOB MARKETGRADUATION

financial, or family obligations to attend evening classes.

The May 2017 graduation was held under sunny skies, but with sturdy breez-es at Andrews Amphitheater, with more than 1,000 families and friends in at-tendance. Emily Reese was there to see her granddaughter, Alyssa Simbahon ’17 graduate. “I feel like I’m walking on air,” said Reese. “I’m thrilled to death.” And Tina Gray was there to see her son, Taylor Gray ’17, graduate. “It’s the culmination of a lifetime thing,” she said. “He was born to

be a lawyer.”Elyse Oyama ’17 served as Master of

Ceremonies for the afternoon; Leah Bal-lantyne gave the LLM student address; Michele Nakata gave the JD Address for the Evening Part-Time Program; Rochelle Sugawa gave the JD address; and Judge Barbara ‘Bebe’ Richardson (ret.) present-ed the Class of 2017.

In a Richardson tradition two hours before the graduation, 26 children – a few of them born during their parents’ final year of Law School - were honored and received their own diplomas of rec-ognition.

“There’s no way all the students would make it through Law School with-out the support of all their families,” said Associate Faculty Specialist Liam Skilling ‘07, as Dean Soifer handed diplomas to the keiki. “I entered the Law School with one

We owe every-one tolerance,

mutual respect, and discourse.

““

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GRADUATIONGRADUATION

child,” explained Skilling, who is Director of the Evening Part-Time Program and Academic Success, “and left with two.”

Also highlighting the graduation were remarks by two judges involved in re-cent rulings about Executive power. Se-attle Federal District Judge James Robart, who triggered national and international headlines by halting President Trump’s first Executive Order on travel and immi-gration from seven predominantly Mus-lim countries, was the Commencement speaker.

Six days after Robart issued a tempo-rary restraining order, Robart’s decision was upheld by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that included Senior Judge Richard Clifton. The UH be-stowed an honorary law degree on Clifton who has taught courses at Richardson, and has arranged for panels of the Ninth Circuit to hear cases regularly in the Law School’s Moot Court Room, providing a valuable learning experience for law stu-dents.

While neither Robart nor Clifton could speak directly about the case, Ro-bart pointed out that Texas similarly had standing to halt Obama administration Executive Orders and to stall ‘Dreamers’ from gaining legal residency.

“Be careful what you ask for,” Robart cautioned. “The precedent Texas created to resist immigration practices it didn’t like is now being used to challenge other Administration orders.

“When you’re analyzing questions,” he told the graduates, “try and foresee the unexpected consequences, and argue for the best policy.”

Robart said that in the wake of his rul-ing he received 35,000 communications from the public, many of whom were an-gry at his decision. He said many told him “you’re not going to be re-elected.”

Robart’s judgeship is a lifetime ap-pointment.

“We can disagree without condemna-tion,” he said, reflecting on what happened after his decision. “We owe everyone tol-erance, mutual respect, and discourse. My fondest hope is that when anyone leaves my courtroom they feel they were heard, and treated with respect.”

Clifton was circumspect in his re-

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RANKINGSGRADUATION

marks. “When you see a result you don’t like, resist the temptation to blame,” he advised. “Judges sometimes have to make decisions they’re not very happy with.”

Clifton shared some of his personal history with the graduates, their friends and families, telling the crowd that “fate

can change your whole life.” He referred to being accepted after law school for a clerkship with the Ninth Circuit’s Judge Herbert Y. C. Choy, who was the first person of Korean ancestry admitted to the Bar in the U.S., and the first person of Asian American ancestry to be ap-pointed a federal judge. As a result, Clif-ton practiced law in Hawai‘i and made it his home. In 2002 he was appointed to the Ninth Circuit and told the crowd that “50 Richardson graduates” had worked in his chambers since then, and that, with his new honorary degree, he could now also proudly claim to be a ‘Richardson lawyer.’

THE JOB MARKET

e-news

62 | WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON SCHOOL OF LAW

Dear WSRSL Alumni and Friends: I want to share the excitement we are feeling at Richardson these days. Our new state-of-the-art Clinical Building is going up quickly. Even though it took a huge crane to lift pre-cast walls into place, the project is proceeding on schedule and within budget and completion is expected in December 2017. Beginning spring semester 2018, the building is certain to enhance our nationally ranked clinics and practical training programs. It also will further support the access to justice that we provide to our community, particularly to those who are most in need. It is thrilling that a goal we have pursued virtually from the start of my deanship is finally coming to fruition. You have been a tremendous help at every step of the way and your commitment is a real source of pride as well as of great gratitude. I write now because we do need further help to complete this project, including appropriate technology and furniture for this impressive building. It will provide an attractive entrance to our Law School, replacing the old familiar dumpsters and the dark corridor from Lot 17, through which many people, including U.S. Supreme Court justices, have entered for decades. We will be most grateful for a gift of any size to help us finish this project. Everything helps, and we are anxious to replace the tuition money that was pledged to finance the 30-year revenue bonds, so that what our students pay in tuition can be used more appropriately for scholarships, faculty, and program support. A few of the options include donor recognition on the recognition wall in the new building for a minimum gift of $10,000, which can be paid over 5 years. The recognition wall will be prominently featured in the atrium entrance to the new building. Another possibility is to form a “hui” with at least four classmates or friends to join you at $10,000 each--this will allow you to name an office in the new building and to create a “talk story” plaque that will be read by generations of future students. Please call Julie Levine at 808.956.8395 or e-mail her at [email protected] and she can answer any questions and provide more details about these and other options. Mahalo nui and warm aloha,

Dean and Professor Avi Soifer

fall 2016-summer 2017 enews · fall 2016-summer 2017 issue nine the indomitable rbg— lessons in...

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