SAVE THE DATE!: PEJ/ACLU/HSBA Justice Rule of Law CLE (subject to change)

Date/time:

Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 12pm-4:00pm (times pending)

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Location:

In Person:

Hawaii Supreme Court

King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center

417 S. King Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

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Or

Live Webcast

Via your HSBA Account, "My Learning"

CLE Credits:

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Pricing: (Please see how to Register below)

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Parking:

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Materials will be emailed to you later towards the event.

Cancellation/Refunds: Cancellation requests must be received (in writing to cle@hsba.org or mail) by Wednesday, August 5, 2026, for a full refund. There will be no refunds for No-Shows.

Summary:

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Panelists:

Sabrina McKenna, Acting Chief Justice  

Bio pending

Elizabeth A. Strance, Judge (Ret.)

Judge Elizabeth A. Strance (Ret.) has extensive experience across civil, criminal, and public-sector law. A graduate of Willamette University (B.S., 1982) and the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College (J.D., 1987), she practiced law privately from 1988 to 2005 and again from 2015 to 2021, focusing on civil litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and general business and real estate law. 

Her dispute resolution training includes STAR training through the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Basic and Domestic Mediation Training with the West Hawai‘i Mediation Center, and a Mediation and Conflict Management Master Class through the Mediation Center of the Pacific.

Maria Burnett, Acting Senior Legal Coordinator

Maria Burnett is currently Acting Senior Legal Coordinator at Project Expedite Justice (PEJ). She previously served for over a decade at Human Rights Watch, where she conducted research and advocacy on human rights issues across East and Central Africa, including Uganda, Somalia, and Kenya. 

She has also been a non-resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She holds a law degree from Yale Law School and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Princeton University.

Eric L. Muller, Law Professor, UNC Chapel Hill

Distinguished professor in Jurisprudence and Ethics at UNC Chapel Hill, Eric is an award-winning teacher and internationally recognized expert on the removal and imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry in the United States from 1942 to 1946. 

He has published four books on the incarceration of Japanese Americans and articles on this and other subjects in many academic journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the Texas Law Review, and the North Carolina Law Review. He received his JD from Yale Law School in 1987 and his BA from Brown University in 1984.

Salmah Y. Rizvi, Executive Director, ACLU of Hawai‘i

Salmah is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi. An appellate litigator, community organizer, and crisis manager, Rizvi works to build lasting peace that safeguards civil rights by seeking truth, justice, and healing. 

Rizvi is a former Associate of Ropes & Gray LLP and Clerk for Judge Theodore A. McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Judge J. Michael Seabright of the U.S. District Court of Hawai‘i. Rizvi founded the American Muslim Bar Association and was a Board Director for Witness to Mass Incarceration. Rizvi has also provided legal support to the ACLU of Maryland, NYCLU, and the U.S. Department of Justice. 

She holds the following (fully merit-based-funded) degrees: a J.D. from NYU School of Law, an M.S. from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and a B.A. in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. She is a Soros Fellow, Vanderbilt Medalist, and Truman Scholar.

Cynthia Tai, Executive Director, PEJ

Cynthia founded PEJ in 2016 to expand access to justice for victims of atrocity crimes in fragile and failed democracies. Under her leadership, PEJ has partnered with more than 140 organizations worldwide, trained over 1,000 justice actors, documented more than 12,000 pieces of evidence, and supported survivor-centered documentation and strategic litigation to advance accountability and the rule of law. 

She has over 3 decades of experience in both domestic and international strategic litigation covering domestic courts, regional mechanisms, and international tribunals. She served as a trial lawyer for the International Criminal Court (ICC), Office of the Prosecutor, 2007–2013 in The Hague, The Netherlands. At the ICC, she was a principal member of the Jean-Pierre Bemba (Central African Republic) case and lead counsel on the William Ruto (Kenya) case. She is a recognized conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (CR-SGBV) expert. She has also served domestically as a deputy prosecutor for the County of Hawai’i and as a per diem judge for the District Court of the Third Circuit. In recognition of her lifelong commitment to justice and the rule of law, she was selected in 2026 by the Hawaiʻi Women Lawyers non-profit as the recipient of its Outstanding Women Lawyer Award.

Register:

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ADA Accommodation: In Accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you require accommodation for a disability, please contact us by September 9th by email at cle@hsba.org; or by phone at 537-1868 and ask for the CLE Department before purchasing the program.

Questions? Please contact HSBA CLE Department at 537-1868 or CLE@hsba.org.