Honolulu Magazine:
The Best Lawyers in Hawai‘i 2021

The number of legal practice areas here—97!—attests, life is complicated. But there’s no need to face those complications without an advocate.

January 11, 2021

There are 4,933 active attorneys in Hawai‘i, according to the Hawai‘i State Bar Association. Which means that the 435 attorneys listed here are the top 9%.

We turned to Best Lawyers®, publisher of The Best Lawyers in America©, for this list. The research method is pure peer review—no attorneys can buy their way onto the list, nor is any purchase necessary. To determine the list, Best Lawyers takes nominations (and no, lawyers may not nominate themselves, either) in each practice area. Lawyers who appeared in previous lists also make this first cut. Best Lawyers then polls lawyers, asking, “If you were unable to take a case yourself, how likely would you be to refer it to this nominee?”

There are even more layers of research than this, and a detailed explanation of the methodology can be found at bestlawyers.com/methodology.

Don’t see your lawyer on the list? Don’t worry. As Best Lawyers notes: “Ultimately, a lawyer’s inclusion on these lists is based on the subjective judgments of his or her fellow attorneys. While it is true that the lists may at times disproportionately reward visibility or popularity, we remain as confident today as we were three decades ago that the breadth of our survey, the candor of our respondents and the sophistication of our polling methodology largely correct for any biases and that these lists continue to represent the most reliable, accurate, and useful—as well as the most transparent—guide to the best lawyers available anywhere.”

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