David C. Farmer, Trustee vs. Harmon - Witness Susan Ichinose

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

SUSAN ICHINOSE

Address: Dillingham Transportation Bldg
701 Bishop Street
Honolulu, HI 96813-4814

Fax: (808) 545-4015

Susan Ichinose, Esq. is a civil litigation advocate, arbitrator, and mediator. She concentrates her practice in these areas and in the following fields of law: employment-related claims, contract actions, real estate disputes, business torts (including fraud), antitrust, breach of trust, and appeals.

After 20 years of practice as a litigation partner in downtown Honolulu commercial law firms beginning with Mukai Ichiki Raffetto & MacMillan (joined in 1977), Susan established her own sole proprietorship in 1999 to focus on ADR, litigation and employment consultation, as well as on commercial litigation....

She has also served as an Adjunct Professor in Appellate Advocacy and in Pretrial Litigation at Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii for several years; has been a speaker and panelist at dozens of law seminars; and has authored numerous articles on the law.

Representative litigation cases: pro bono representation of plaintiff in Parnar v. Americana Hotels, which in 1984 established in Hawaii the right of an at-will employee to sue for a wrongful termination of employment; representation of Plaintiff Kay Austen in Austen v. State of Hawaii, the first sex discrimination case in Hawaii to be successfully tried and upheld on appeal; representation of the Trustee in the bankruptcy adversary action, In re Airwest International, Inc. dba Air Hawaii (actions for securities fraud, professional malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, and racketeering); successful defense of USA v. ORS, Inc., et al. (criminal antitrust action); defense of the sublessee in The Queen Emma Foundation v. Poseiden Limited Partnership, et al. (commercial lease dispute); representation of plaintiff in Discovery Airways, Inc. v. Sanwa Bank (business fraud); representation of the intervening charging party in EEOC v. The Queen’s Medical Center; representation of two widows of decedents in the Xerox killings, in Kanehira et al. v. Uyesugi, et al., and other cases.

Representative arbitration and mediation cases include public record cases (e.g., appointed by First Circuit Court in employment-related cases Sharon Black v. Honolulu Police Department, et al., and Kornya v. HSI, Inc., both successfully mediated; an appointment by the U. S. District Court of Saipan to arbitrate issues in Hollman v. Imeong, between heirs to the billion dollar estate of the founder of DHL Larry Hillblom), and private confidential cases, with references submitted on request. She is also a member of the Mediator Panel for Federal Court in Hawaii.

She is presently a Board member of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, a Bencher of the American Inns of Court (Aloha Inn), and chair of the Employment Law subcommittee of the Supreme Court’s Civil Jury Instructions Committee. She is a former elected Board member (2000-2001) of the Hawaii State Bar Association, President (1997-98) and Board member (1996-00) of the Hawaii Women Lawyers, Board member of the YWCA of Oahu (2002-04), founding Chair of the Hawaii Library Foundation (1993-97),and Lawyer Rep to the 9th Circuit Court Judicial Conference Executive Committee (2002-05).

http://www.dprhawaii.com/d.aspx?nid=37

~ ~ ~

March 3, 2004

Lingle gets recommendations
for two judgeships

Pacific Business News (Honolulu)

Gov. Linda Lingle has released two lists provided to her by the Judicial Selection Commission from which she will make one appointment to the Circuit Court of the First Circuit to fill the vacancy created by the Dec. 31 retirement of Dan Kochi.

The other appointment will be to fill a vacancy created by the addition of a seventh associate judge to the Intermediate Court of Appeals, the governor's office said Wednesday.

"In her continuing effort to maintain openness in her administration, Gov. Lingle has again elected to make the lists available prior to making the appointments," the governor's office said in a statement.

Nominees to fill a vacancy in the Circuit Court of the First Circuit:

Bert Ayabe.

James Hershey.

Ronette Kawakami.

Gerald Kibe.

Dale Lee.

Michael Tanigawa.

Nominees to fill the vacancy of Associate Judge, Intermediate Court of Appeals:

Alexa Fujise.

Susan Ichinose.

Victoria Marks.

Richard Perkins.

Michael Town.

Frances Wong.

The commission does not rank the candidates. Lingle has 30 days from receipt of the lists to make her selections. The governor's office invited public comment to Governor.Lingle@hawaii.gov or by fax to (808) 586-0006, by March 19.

~ ~ ~

Board Minutes December 2007

MINUTES
HAWAII STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
BOARD MEETING

1132 Bishop Street, Suite 906
Honolulu, HI 96813

Thursday, December 20, 2007, 11:30 a.m.

CALL TO ORDER

President Jeffrey Portnoy called the meeting to order at 11:40 a.m. with a quorum present. The following persons were present for all or part of the meeting:

Officers Present

Jeffrey Portnoy

Jeffrey Sia

Hugh Jones (by phone)

Robert Godbey

Directors Present

Nathan Aipa

Roxann Bulman (by phone)

Jackie Erickson (by phone)

Gregory Frey

Geraldine Hasegawa

Louise Ing

Ronette Kawakami

Carol Kitaoka

Steven Songstad (by phone)

Trudy Burns Stone

Suzanne Terada

Jodi Kimura Yi

Nichole Shimamoto

Board Members Absent

Alfred Castillo

Steven Chow

Janice Kim

Others Present

James Branham

Darren Ching

Rai Saint Chu

Rosemary Fazio

Mark Gallagher

Michael Gibson

Joanne Ha’o

Jill Hasegawa

Philip Hellreich

Susan Ichinose

Shelton Jim On

James Kawachika

Ralph La Fountaine

Catherine Levinson

Douglas Moore

Mark Recktenwald

HSBA Staff

Lyn Flanigan

Iris Ito

Debra White

Hisae Ishii-Chang

- - -

... e. Judicial Selection Commission – JSC Chair Rosemary Fazio and JSC members Philip Hellreich, Susan Ichinose, Shelton Jim On, and Ralph La Fountaine were present to describe the JSC procedures. Ms. Fazio shared JSC concerns over HSBA’s involvement in the judicial selection process. She referred to an earlier report by the American Judicature Society which stated that it would be more helpful if HSBA gathered comments on the list of judicial candidates which are presented to the appointing authority by the JSC, an issue which has already been addressed by the HSBA Board. Ms. Ichinose stated that JSC is doing more now in the way of trying to get more applicants, visiting neighbor islands to discuss the judicial selection process, working on an electronic application form, etc. President Portnoy welcomed the HSBA-elected representatives on the JSC to come to board meetings more often and report on its activities. ...

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT – Ms. Flanigan encouraged board members to refer to the HSBA website for all of its activities and even links to the Judiciary’s opinions/calendar. She reported that in 2007, fifty CLE programs were presented and 101 CLE hours offered. She also commented that there were many questions and much confusion on the registration forms, especially question 5 regarding pro bono reporting and question 6 regarding professional liability insurance reporting....

b. Board Procedures on Judicial Appointments – Board members who agreed to review the current board procedures on judicial/executive appointments and present recommendations to improve upon those procedures have met once and will continue to work on proposed amendments to the board procedures.

c. Proposed Amendment to Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 7.2 (see agenda item 6.c. and Exhibit C) - Ms. Flanigan reported HSBA is awaiting specific language changes from the Disciplinary Board on this proposed rule that would allow a percentage fee assessment for not-for-profit lawyer referral services....

7. NEW BUSINESS

a. Access to Justice Report (see agenda item 7.a. and Exhibits D and E) - Delivery of Legal Services to the Public Committee Co-chair Mike Gibson presented the proposed resolution of the Access to Justice Hui and asked for HSBA’s support. He noted that results of the legal needs assessment conducted by the Hui indicate that 80% of the legal needs of the poor in Hawaii are unmet.

Action taken: After some discussion, a motion was made, seconded, and carried without opposition to support the proposed resolution of the Access to Justice Report. Ms. Flanigan commented that this is a major commitment of the Board, strategic plan, and staff....

http://www.hsba.org/minutesdec07.aspx

~ ~ ~

Hawaii Dispute Prevention & Resolution

Keith Hunter, President & CEO

Fax: (808) 537-1377

E-mail: www.dprhawaii.com/Contact.aspx

Website: www.dprhawaii.com

~ ~ ~

PANEL OF NEUTRALS

http://www.dprhawaii.com/indresult.aspx

~ ~ ~

RECOMMENDED MEDIATORS