Credit: This seminar qualifies for 2 CLE Credits (including 1 CLE Ethics Credit)

This program is a recording of the Live Seminar held on April 24, 2025.

If you attended the live seminar and received credit, then you cannot claim credit for watching this recorded program.  

This seminar will be available in your classroom to view for 1 year from the date of purchase OR until April 24, 2027, whichever comes sooner.

Summary:
Learn the basics of appellate procedure, appellate jurisdiction, and appellate advocacy. 

The Hawaii Appellate Pro Bono Program will give an overview of the nuts and bolts of the appeal process including:

• The common issues with accepting an appeal that a pro se litigant has initiated
• The steps that must be taken if an appeal isn’t accepted by/or resolved in the Appellate Mediation Program
• Practice pointers on preparing opening briefs and reply briefs
• Orientation to the Appellate Pro Bono Program intake process and housekeeping (e.g., responsibility for costs; the need for attorneys to do their own conflicts check) 

Hawai‘i Judiciary Appellate Mediation Program (AMP) will present a training aimed at guiding attorneys on how to best represent clients throughout a mediation process. 

Introduce the Appellate Mediation Pro Bono Legal Services Pilot Project, currently in development stage, so we can get on the radar of attorneys who wish to give back to the community by increasing access to justice for self-represented litigants on appeal.

Speakers:

Judge Jeffrey Crabtree (ret.), Director of the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution and AMP Mediator, who will discuss the difference between mediation and settlement conference, and why appellate mediation is a viable alternative to litigation; and how attorneys can best prepare their clients for mediation to increase their chance for success.   

Judge Jeffrey P. Crabtree (ret.) is the Director of the Judiciary’s Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution (CADR). Judge Crabtree practiced civil litigation for 30+ years and became a First Circuit Court judge in 2014. He served in the Civil Trials Division from 2017-2024, and as Senior Judge, First Circuit Environmental Court (2017 to 2024). He also served on the Domestic Violence and Felony Trials calendars. He conducted about 100 circuit court trials, most of them jury trials.

His public service includes teaching at the William S. Richardson School of Law, serving as a judge for the state-wide annual High School Moot Court Competition, Judicial Advisor to the NYU School of Law Civil Jury Project, and past Co-Chair, Civil Litigation Committee, American Judicature Society. 

He earned his J.D at New York University School of Law (1979), and was named a Root-Tilden Scholar in Public Interest Law. His undergraduate work was at Williams College and the University of San Francisco (B.A., 1976). Honors/awards include the Pro Bono Award (Volunteer Legal Services of Hawai‘i); Honolulu Star Bulletin's Editorial Board award for "Ten Who Made A Difference," and the Hawai‘i State Bar Association's "Justice Award."

Judge Mahilani Hiatt (ret.), AMP Mediator and solo practitioner, will talk about how counsel advocacy for settling a case in mediation (versus litigation) can be critical to the success of the mediation; and tips on ways attorneys can best represent clients in mediation.

Judge Mahilani Hiatt (ret.) is a proud graduate of the Kamehameha Schools (Kapalama), Colorado College and the William S. Richardson School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Michael Porter Dean's Scholarship Award for First Year, the American Jurisprudence Awards for Civil Procedure and Commercial Transactions, the Law Alumni/Friends Golf Tournament Scholarship for Service Award, and the National Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Woman Law Graduate from the University of Hawai?i 1993.   

In Ms. Hiatt’s prior private practice, she concentrated on civil and commercial litigation, for both plaintiffs and defendants, with a focus on labor and employment law. Some disputes went to traditional trials, but many others were resolved via arbitration and mediation.  During this period, Ms. Hiatt was recognized in Hawai?i’s Best Lawyers in the area of Litigation – Labor and Employment in 2016, 2017, and 2018.  She left private practice when she was appointed as a Third Circuit Per Diem Judge in 2017 and then as a District Family Court Judge in 2018.  She retired from her full time position on the bench in 2021, but she was reappointed as a Per Diem Judge in 2022 and regularly serves in Hilo, Kona and Waimea. 

She is now partner in the law firm of Hiatt & Hiatt, where she has a neutral practice which involves services as an arbitrator and/or mediator in family law as well as a wide variety of civil, labor and employment cases.  In her role as a mediator, Ms. Hiatt is regularly selected for complex family and civil matters and she has also been appointed as a Special Master by the courts. Ms. Hiatt also serves as a volunteer mediator with the Hawai?i Appellate Mediation Program and West Hawai?i Mediation Center.

Sharla Manley, Esq., Counsel Attorney, Lahui Services, at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. who will discuss Appellate Court Skills Training, and Appellate Pro Bono opportunities. 

Sharla Manley is currently of Counsel Attorney, Lahui Services, at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. She is also an Equal Justice Works Disaster Resilience Program Fellow. She has over ten years of experience working on Native Hawaiian rights litigation and policy, including eight years as a staff attorney with NHLC. She was lead counsel on a landmark decision, Clarabal v. Department of Education of the State of Hawai‘i, 145 Haw. 69, 446 P.3d 986 (2019), wherein the Hawaii Supreme Court addressed Hawaiian language rights for the first time and ruled that the state has a constitutional duty to provide reasonable access to a kula kaiapuni education in our public school system.

Sharla volunteers her time as the coordinator of the Appellate Pro Bono Program in the ICA and Hawai‘i Supreme Court.

Daniel Gluck, Deputy, Corporation Counsel with the City & County of Honolulu

Daniel Gluck is a Deputy Corporation Counsel with the City & County of Honolulu, where he focuses on constitutional law and administrative law.  He previously served as Executive Director and General Counsel of the Hawai‘i State Ethics Commission and as Legal Director of the ACLU of Hawai‘i; he has also worked as an associate attorney in private practice and as a law clerk in U.S. District Court and the Hawai‘i Supreme Court.  Gluck earned a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Daniel has been an active volunteer with the Appellate Pro Bono Project for the past seven years for several matters.  He took one of the appeals to the Hawaii Supreme Court and prevailed for his client.

When she worked in private practice in California and Hawai‘i, Sharla has served as pro bono counsel in various matters including voting rights, civil rights, asylum, and child custody.

Ashley Kaho‘omino‘aka Kaiao Obrey, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation

Ashley Kaho‘omino‘aka Kaiao Obrey is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Lahui Services practice group at Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. Based out of Kona, Hawai?i Island, Ashley’s work focuses on Native Hawaiian land and water rights, the protection of natural and cultural resources, sacred places, and traditional and customary practices, as well as the enforcement of the State’s kuleana to provide reasonable access to Hawaiian immersion education. Most recently, she served as lead counsel in Kanahele v. State of Hawai‘i, 154 Hawai‘i 190, 549 P.3d 275 (2024), where the Hawai‘i Supreme Court held that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and other state entities breached their fiduciary duties under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act when the Department of Transportation took control of the Hawaiian homes trust lands underlying the Mauna Kea Access Road and put it into the state highway system.

Ashley currently serves on the Hawai?i Judiciary’s Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Board, the board of directors of Kahalu‘u Kuahewa, a Native Hawaiian non-profit focused on the revitalization of Kona’s Kahalu?u Field System, as well as the Kamehameha Schools Class of 2001 Scholarship Board. She is also a member of the Daughters of Hawai’i and a pa?u rider in Kona’s annual Kamehameha Day parade. Ashley is a proud mom of two keiki ?olelo Hawai‘i and is committed to the normalization of Hawaiian language in her community.

Ashley was an associate editor of the Native Hawaiian Law, A Treatise (2015) and co-authored a chapter for the next edition of the treatise. She also previously worked as a law clerk to Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon of the Hawai?i Supreme Court.

Anne Marie Smoke, Hawai‘i Judiciary Appellate Mediation Program Administrator, will review the important tenets of mediation; guidelines for attorney conduct expected by ABA and the Hawai‘i courts; and what attorneys need to know regarding confidentiality and privilege in mediation per HRS 658H the Uniform Mediation Act.

Anne Marie Smoke serves as the Administrator of the Judiciary Appellate Mediation Program and Government Trainer for the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution (CADR). With an emphasis in meeting facilitation and mediation, Anne applies her 20 years of experience in conflict management and conflict management training to her work in CADR. Anne has taught conflict resolution skills across a range of State and City and County departments including DOH, DOE, and the Board of Water Supply.

Anne earned a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace in the College of Social Sciences who in 2024 honored her with a UH Distinguished Alumni Award.

Duration: approximately 2 hours

NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN FOR ONLINE SEMINARS. 

ADA Accommodation: In Accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you require accommodation for a disability, please contact us 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.