Board of Directors
President
Peter W. Olson, Esq.
Mr. Olson is a partner in the law firm of Cades Schutte, specializing in litigation in the areas of insurance coverage and liability, professional liability defense, personal injury and product liability defense and mass media law.
Vice-President
Joachim P. Cox, Esq.
Mr. Cox is a litigation attorney with Cox Fricke LLP, where he specializes in commercial and business disputes. He formerly served as Defense Counsel in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps and Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Hawai‘i.
Secretary
Wayne Tanna, Esq.
Mr. Tanna is a tax attorney and an accounting professor at Chaminade University. Non-profit boards and management are among his areas of expertise.
Treasurer
Joanne C. Hoe, CPA
Ms. Hoe is a CPA and principal at Gilford Sato & Associates since 2008. She specializes in taxation.
Immediate Past President
Lincoln Ashida, Esq.
Mr. Ashida serves as Corporation Counsel for the Big Island of Hawaii. He is a member of the Administration Division in the Counseling and Drafting Division. He is an instructor in the Political Science Division at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Executive Director
L. Dew Kaneshiro, Esq.
Ms. Kaneshiro has been the Executive Director of Volunteer Legal since May 2011. She served on the Board of Directors beginning in 2006 and was Board Secretary from 2009 until April of 2011.
Deputy Director
Jan Tamura, Esq.
Ms. Tamura served as Director of Legal Services for the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse (now known as the Domestic Violence Action Center) in 2005 and 2006 and co-authored the chapter on domestic violence in the 2005 Hawaii Divorce Manual. At Burke, McPheeters, Bordner & Estes, her civil litigation practice focused on the defense of hospitals, clinics, physicians, nurses, nurse midwives, and other health care professionals in malpractice actions. Ms. Tamura represented clients in selected family court matters until her retirement from the firm in March 2011.
Director
Sidney K. Ayabe, Esq.
Mr. Ayabe is a name partner in the law firm of Ayabe Chong Nishimoto Sia & Nakamura. He has engaged in a variety of personal injury litigation, including professional malpractice, real estate, products liability, aviation and motor vehicle. He is a former Hawaii State Bar Association President and former Chair of the Judicial Selection Committee.
Director
Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland
Sen. Chun Oakland is a state senator and Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.
Director
Thomas D. Farrell, Esq.
Mr. Farrell is a family law attorney and Chair of the Bar Association’s Family Law Section. He is a long-time volunteer at Volunteer Legal’s advice and counsel clinics.
Director
Levi Hookano, Esq.
Mr. Hookano is the immediate past chair of the Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. He is the Director of Career Development and Alumni Relations and the Administrator of the Pro Bono Program at the William S. Richardson School of Law.
Director
Jay T. Kimura, Esq.
Mr. Kimura is the former Prosecuting Attorney for the County of Hawaii since 1992. He has chaired the Juvenile Justice Interagency Committee and was a Governor’s appointee to the Juvenile Justice State Advisory Committee.
Director
Fawn Jade Koopman
Ms. Koopman is a third-year student at the Richardson School of Law. She fills a one-year term on the Board reserved for a law student. She is on the leadership council of the Advocates for Public Interest Law.
Director
Prof. Justin Levinson
Professor Levinson has been a faculty member at the Richardson School of Law since 2004. In 2008, he founded the Culture and Jury Project, an interdisciplinary and international research collaboration devoted to facilitating the study of human decision-making in the law.
Director
David P. McCauley
Mr. McCauley is a Director at Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, a Law Corporation. He is the head of the firm’s Immigration law Section. His practice includes Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Visas and Consular Practice, U.S. Citizenship, Family-based and Business-based Lawful Residence, Deportation Defense, Asylum, and Administrative Appeals and Federal Court litigation.
Director
Gary Singh, Esq.
Mr. Singh is a private attorney specializing in Immigration Law in Honolulu. He does family basded adjustment of status, consular processing, removal/deportation proceedings before Immigration Court, working visas and nonimmigrant visas. He also practices criminal and family law.