 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome to Making Leadership Work on Think Tech, and I'm your host today, Carol Monli. Our show is called Back from the Bench, Life After Judicial Retirement, and we're going to talk with retired Judge Leslie A. Hayashi as a teacher, author, artist, and dedicated volunteer and her life after retirement from the bench. If you want to ask a question or make a comment, you can contact us at Think Tech Hawaii H.I. or call us at 374-2014. After 25 years as a judge, Judge Hayashi retired from the district court bench for the first circuit in Honolulu in 2014, but she has never retired from the service and leadership in civic and charitable organizations that we so greatly need in our community. She teaches around the world and does creative work as an artist and prolific award-winning author. Judge Hayashi just began a three-year term as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Judicial College. What are the deeper motivations guiding her beyond the judiciary? What's happening on the national level on judicial education and current events? Welcome to the show, Judge Hayashi. Thank you so much for having me, Carol. We've known each other for many years, right, Leslie? Yes, quite a while. Now, I know I'm going to start out with a new one because you just came back from the National Judicial College, which you are currently a member of the Board of Trustees, right? That's right. So what can you tell us about the latest item of interest that was a topic of discussion at the National Judicial College? So the Board of Trustees are very concerned with judging and teaching judges all around the world. And right now, given the state of the current administration, there may be some questions about whether or not we can get the assistance of the State Department in helping us to educate judges throughout the world. We are—one of our main missions is to promote the rule of law. And so we are very much concerned with being able to do that. So you mentioned educating lawyers—judges not just in the United States, but around the world. That's right. That, as part of our mission, is to promote the rule of law. And so we often have international judges that come to our college in Reno and take part in understanding the difference between their system of law and our system. I see. And who funds the National Judicial College? We do—we receive funding from various sources. We had some federal funding—I'm not sure if we're going to still be able to count on that given the current administration. We have private donations, and we do raise money through the courses that we teach. I see. And so typically you have judges from Europe, from Asia, from South America? We generally have judges that will come from even Africa. I've had some in my courses that I've taught. We have judges that will come from Germany. Again, it just depends on the particular course that's being taught. Yeah, I see. So it sounds like a very important organization to have for both America and for international education for the rule of law. Yes. We like to promote, again, the rule of law, but we're also looking at helping judges become professional judges, because in the United States, unlike some other countries, there's no degree for becoming a judge. You get your law degree, you practice law, and then you plan to become a judge, and there's no real curriculum, unlike some other countries, where you opt to become a judge and you take that track throughout your career. Right. So you might be appointed judge or elected judge without necessarily any training to be a judge. That's correct, and that's what the Judicial College offers. Great. Okay, so let's backtrack. Okay. Okay, so you've been, I know you've practiced law, you've been a partner in a law firm, you've actually done a lot of non-profit work, and then you were appointed to the bench 25, when, and what year was that? I actually started as a per diem in 1989, and then in 1990, I became a full-time judge. And you were a district court judge, and what is that? You were a trial court judge? What kind of cases? A trial court judge, and so I handled traffic. My claim to fame was I was one of the judges hearing the van cam cases. And what is the van cam case, remind me? That was when the cam, the vans had cameras, and they were issuing tickets to people. I see, and what was your role, and how did you rule on that? I actually had to decide whether it was constitutional or not, and I found that given the current way that the law read, it was not constitutional. So as a result? As a result, it was actually when the governor heard, Governor Cayetano heard of my ruling, he just completely quashed the whole thing. Whole program. So now there are no more cameras on vans? There's no more van cams right now. Right now. Okay. So 25 years on the district court branch, and all in all, what did you find was the most challenging of being on that bench? For me, the challenge came in helping people understand what was going to happen to them. For many people, this was their first exposure to court, and they were very nervous. They were unsure where to go, what to do, how to present their case if they were going to represent themselves. And just explaining to them all of their rights, if it was a criminal case, because they have very important rights if they're charged with a crime. And so a lot of the challenge came in just making sure that I had the time, because we were a high volume court. How many cases would you have? Oh, we have thousands and thousands of cases. I mean, we could have a traffic calendar that in the morning alone would have 500 cases. You would hear 500 cases? You could hear as many as processes, as many as 500 cases. In one morning. In one morning. Oh, my goodness. Right. So it was just being able to take the time with each person to be able to tell them, you know, this is how the process works, these are your rights, these are your options. So that was the big challenge. So you handled both civil and criminal cases? Yes. Towards the end, mainly criminal cases. I had a lot of the high-profile cases. So the crime would happen very recently, and so there was a lot of emotion involved in that, especially if it were involved a murder or a sexual assault. And so you had to handle those cases quite differently given the emotions on both sides. And the rights. And the rights. Right, of course. In the civil cases, what was your jurisdiction limit for the types of cases? So we have small claims, and we have regular claims. And small claims is anything under $5,000, and all summary possession cases, regardless of the amount. So you could have summary possession cases that were over a million dollars. But for the regular claims, it was $20,000. So in your 25 years, did you ever calculate how many cases you actually… No. No. I can't even imagine. It was funny because I ran into a public defender after I retired, and he goes, I just think of the thousands of people, the thousands of cases, and I go, no, you're making me tired. Right, so you became a judge after you'd already been a partner in a law firm. Yes. And was that something that you had wanted to do? Was that your plan? Was that you would practice law, but ultimately you wanted me on the bench? Or was it… I hadn't really thought about being on the bench until one of the judges called me and said, you know, we need per diem judges. Do you consider, you know, applying to be a per diem judge? And so I said, oh, that sounds interesting. And I found that I really enjoyed the work. I just really loved that aspect of public service. And so after 25 years, you retired? Yes. And so I think we have a couple of pictures of Judge Hayashi on the bench. Let's see what's our first slide, Ray. This is a picture of you on the cover of Midweek Magazine in… What year was this? I think it was early 2000s. And they were profiling me because they were interested in the fact that I wrote children's books. On the side? Yes, my nighttime job. Right. So there you are, a very distinguished looking sitting in your robe and it says, Book them, Judge. Great. And we have another slide. And this one is a picture of you surrounded by some very distinguished just… justices. Yes. This is my retirement party at District Court and the Chief Justice, Recton Wall, Justice McKenna, Justice Pollock, and Justice Wilson, who were able to attend. And actually Justice Anakumura came afterwards. I see. So the five of the Supreme Court justices honored you by… Actually came to my retirement. That was special. And that was when? 2014, he said. That was… October 31st, 2014. Great. So… And while you were on the bench, I know you also did a lot of work including the National Judicial College. So let's talk about some of your work beyond the bench, but while you were a judge. So you were very involved and you've been very involved in local, whether it's the State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and National Judicial College, Hawaii Women Lawyers. So give us some sense of how you were interested in these different organizations and what did you do with them? Well, actually Hawaii Women Lawyers was my first foray into an organized effort to do some good outside of whatever you were doing as an attorney. And you and I both went through that. And it was just a wonderful experience to connect with the community. I was also very involved with the Bar Association's civic education. In fact, that was… I had never really planned to be a practicing attorney. But one of the courses that I took while I was at Georgetown was called Street Law, which was teaching high school students about the law. And I got hooked on that because I thought, this is so great that you can learn a little bit about the law. I mean, the law is everywhere. It's everywhere, every day. I mean, from the water you drink to your car to buying clothes, I mean, the law is just everywhere. And I think it's so important for people to understand the law, especially since you don't want to break it and get into trouble. So I became involved with that education. And from that, I got an appointment to the APA Standing Committee on Public Education. I've also been involved with the Hawaii Justice Foundation. So we give out grants to organizations such as mediation centers. And I'm also on the Access to Justice Commission, one of the subcommittees, coming up with new ideas of ways to provide access to justice for people. One of the things that I was always concerned about as a judge was, although it was my job to be in court, it's not a citizen's job to be in court. And if they have a conflict, you know, they have to take off work. And sometimes the choice is not available to them. They cannot take off work. They will lose their jobs. And so that becomes a real problem. So I always am looking for ways that people don't have to actually physically come to court, but still can have their day in court, so to speak. And so this is through the Access to Justice. Through the Access to Justice. And so what are some of the solutions or some of the pathways you're thinking or you've been working on that might help those people? So one of the things that we're looking at is the ability for people to, on traffic citations, to actually email instead of having to physically come to court. Right now they can submit written statements, so they still don't have to come to court. But if they had the ability to email, because that's where the, that's where our generation is going. Everybody is on a computer, on a cell phone. We need to have, you know, ready available ways of communicating. And so we're looking into whether or not that would be a possibility. Michigan is doing that, and so we're very excited to find out how they're doing that and whether or not that can interface with our judicial system here. Great, and you're working on that right now. That's one of the things that we're proposing. Many projects. Okay, well great. This is Carol Monly, and we're going to take a short break with my guest judge Leslie Hayashi talking about life after retirement from the bench, and we'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. The host of Voice of the Veteran, seen here live every Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. As a fellow veteran and veterans advocate with over 23 years experience serving veterans, active duty, and family members, I hope to educate everyone on benefits and accessibility services by inviting professionals in the field to appear on the show. In addition, I hope to plan on inviting guest veterans to talk about their concerns and possibly offer solutions. As we navigate and work together through issues, we can all benefit. Please join me every Thursday at 1 p.m. for the Voice of the Veteran. Aloha. Welcome back. This is Carol Monly, and making leadership work with my special guest today, Judge Leslie Hayashi, retired from the District Court in Honolulu. Hi, Carol. Hi. So we were talking a little bit about your many activities once you retired from the bench, and among them is your work in education, both on the federal and the national level and local level and high schools. And I think we have a couple of interesting slides. So what is the first one we have here? Ray, I think this is a picture of you in front of a very distinguished wall called the Hall of Honor. What is this, Leslie? So I've been teaching at the National Judicial College for 20 years, and when you make 20 years, your name goes on this wall. And so this was a real milestone for me, because it was just something I wanted to be able to have as a legacy. I think there's one other judge from Hawaii, Marie Milks, who's on the Hall of Honor as well. And of course, this is a volunteer activity. It's a volunteer activity. Totally volunteer in terms of time, and all the many. Class preparation and traveling. Traveling. Everything. Right. Okay. And we have one more picture, and this one is a picture of you in a classroom. Yes. Last year, I went to Sichuan University in China, and I taught as part of their scholars and residents program. It was so exciting for me, because I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to teach. And basically what it is, is they invite scholars from all over the world. There were 194 of us. So I met people from Turkey, from England, from Germany, all over the world. And the students, the idea is that they know that not all of their students can travel abroad. So the idea is to provide them with a world-class education. So students are required to sign up for courses, and this is a two-week period. And they are exposed to these scholars from all over the world. And it's just a wonderful opportunity for them. So is this a law school, our undergraduate program? So in China, you can actually get your undergraduate degree in law. So I had a mixed class of those that were undergraduate in law, as well as some graduate students. But I also had students that were in biology, pre-med, music, studio art. So it's just an opportunity for them to get exposed to something that they normally wouldn't take. So what actually did you teach? What law? General law? So the first week, what I taught was some basic law, basic information about torts, because their tort system is different than ours, this is when you have an accident. I also exposed them to a jury trial, which is something they don't have in China. And this was the most fascinating experience, because they actually selected a jury, they gave their opening, they asked questions of the witnesses, and then the jury actually got to deliberate. And at the end of all this, they were so excited about the process. And one of them asked me, they said, Professor, how is it that an ordinary citizen can make a decision and not the government? And I felt really, you know, this was why we were there, to expose them to different ways of thinking about the process. So that was so exciting. Was that a criminal case or a civil case? That was a civil case, a tort case. And then the second week, I taught law and literature. So we took pieces of literature, and we talked about how that interacted with the legal system. European literature, or Western literature? I did African folk tales, again, because some of my students, although they are supposed to be able to speak English, some are more proficient than others. So I had to make sure that I had pieces that weren't too complex for them. So that's so exciting. So you have been involved in education, and I know you've actually received, in addition to the Hall of Honor, you've received awards. For instance, I know the HSBA awarded you a leadership award and leadership and other work that you've done. And tell me a little bit more about that, the HSBA Award for Leadership, because apparently it was the first time that award had been given. It was for diversity. And it was the work that I was doing for our Equality and Access Commission under the Supreme Court. Nice. So what we had done, as some of our projects, was we were really interested in getting out to the different communities. And so language access became a big issue. We had brochures that were printed in different languages about landlord-tenant, about family law, about the traffic system, the court system. What to do if you're arrested. And so we had them in eight different languages. We also had a multilingual line going so that people could actually use their phones and get some information. But again, we felt that language access was a really important thing at that time. And now that our judiciary has done great things in language access, we were like rated number three in the country, as far as our ability to provide language access during the court process. You're being very humble, because I know you say we. And of course you didn't do it by yourself, but you spearheaded the program. Great committee, yes. And then the other award that I'm really proud of is, I received the ABA's Franklin Blaschner Award, which is given to the most outstanding judge in special jurisdictions. So I was really proud of that award. And when was that? That was 2003. Special jurisdictions, what does that mean? That means it was the trial level that I'm on, as opposed to circuit courts that they're considered general jurisdiction courts. Has anybody else from Hawaii ever received this award? Yes, actually Judge Walder got the award. Aha, Marsha Walder. Marsha Walder. Right. Just the year before I got it. Oh, no kidding. Yes. That's great. So congratulations on this. I wasn't sure that they'd give it again to another judge from Hawaii, but they did. So worthy. Well, now we're going to get into something really fun, which is among your many interests and activities has been your writing. And your writing is extended beyond, of course, the professional writing that you do and the writing you do with education, but some of your children's books, and we have a wonderful array of these children's books. Maybe we'll show one more slide and get that to show our audience. Now what is this a picture of you? And it looks like a really fun environment. Yes. This is at the Maui Ocean Center, and I was doing a book signing for the book that came out that time, which was a fishy alphabet. Fishy alphabet. A fishy alphabet, yes. I was able to find fishes A through Z in the Hawaii waters. I cheated with X. I had to use a scientific name, but it was just a lot of fun. Okay, so we have some of these books here. So tell us about your books. Tell us about how you got started to write children, because I know you have two children. I do. Did you start writing when they were younger? Yes. The way I started was, we would read to our children every night. And some of the books I thought were a little okay, but maybe we could do better. So this is what, 25, 30 years ago? Yes. This is when I had my first son. I think he was maybe about five or six. And so what we decided to do was we would start writing our own little stories. And he at that time was into gardening, and so he had a green thumb. And he just put his thumb in the ground, and everything was growing. So we started with fables from the garden. And that's this one? Yes. Right, fables from the garden. And that's just 10 short stories with a little life lesson, like stubborn cucumber, fighting minors. And you're the author? And you have an illustrator? I'm the author, and my illustrator is my childhood girlfriend since first grade. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. Kathleen Wong Bishop. Yes. Right. And then so from that, we like to go to the beach on Sundays. So from that, I decided, oh, let's try fables from the sea. And then the other fable story came out of, after I was doing all this research about the ocean, I said, oh, I'd love all these things that are in the deep. I mean, you can't imagine there's these creatures in the deep that we've never seen and never will see because they must live in the depth. And so I thought, well, OK, deep ocean. And then I thought, well, can't just do ocean again. So I thought deep caves and deep space. So that became fables from the deep. And then I thought about all the endangered species in Hawaii. We are the, unfortunately, the endangered capital of the world. Really? And so, yes. And so I decided to do fables beneath the rainbow. So you have four in the fable series. Yes. The first one written. That one was published, actually, in 1998, fables from the gardens. And are they still in the market? Yes, they're still out there. And then you moved on from children's stories, right? Is that Aloha Oye? Is that a? Aloha Oye is not really a children's book, but it's a gift book. It's the story of the song, which is a fascinating story. It is actually our first hit, international hit. In Hawaii. Hawaii. It was written by Princess Lydia before she became Queen Lillio Kalani. And she had been over, visiting over on the other side of the island. And she saw Two Lovers Park in the evening. And from that, she wrote this song Aloha Oye, which is a love song. Ah. Yes. And so it became a big hit when we had Henry Berger as our band leader. And they played it in the San Francisco, one of the exhibits in San Francisco, and it won the contest. Oh, my goodness. And it's been covered by so many different artists. Right. I mean, you can even hear it as part of Lillio and Stitch. Right. Ah. So, yes. Disney, yes. So it was a fantastic hit for the Princess, Ben Princess. Right. And now we have three more books. I have a fishy alphabet, the one I mentioned, and the baby dinosaur's luau in Hawaii. I thought, you know, in Hawaii it's very special when a baby has the first birthday. So I wanted to celebrate that. And then His Majesty's Goldfish is a very interesting book because it is based on a true story that happened during King Kalakaua's time. And the publisher asked me to adapt it into a children's book. Right. This just is a reflection of Judge Hayashi's broad interest in community involvement. And it's really interesting and exciting. And I'm going to give you now a few seconds to look into Camera 4 and maybe give some parting words to those young lawyers, professionals, people who are trying to do a lot, maybe balance both the professional life and community and family work. So do you have some thoughts? I do. I think that it's very important for you to figure out what you want to do in life, what matters to you, and you have to make sometimes sacrifices if it's that important. So it's really something to take the time to think about. Now we're in such a rush, rush world, but you really need to take the time to think about what life means and how you want to make it better for yourself and for the world. Okay. Well, thank you. And on that note, thank you so much, Judge Hayashi. Your work is so inspiring and we are so enthusiastic about all of your books and they are still on sale. Hi. Absolutely. Barnes and Noble and online. And online. I'm sure Amazon. Yeah. Well, this has been a thoughtful and enjoyable half hour, and this brings us to the end of our show. We have enjoyed bringing it to you. I'm your host, Caroline Lee, and our guest has been Judge Leslie A. Hayashi from the first circuit of Honolulu. We've been talking about back from the bench, life after judicial retirement. 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