 Welcome to Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii's sixth annual Taste of Justice fundraiser. This year is extra special as we celebrate our 40th anniversary of providing pro bono legal services to Hawaii residents in need. Since its creation, Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii has provided these services to over 100,000 clients. My name is Trevor Assam and I'm honored to serve as VLSH's board president. 2020 was an unprecedented year for our community. With the ongoing pandemic and its impact on Hawaii's economy, demand for our services continues to grow even as funding for and delivery of those services has become more difficult. We have made a number of adjustments to maintain our programs including shifting to remote and online platforms and we are grateful that we have been able to continue operating and assisting Hawaii's residents in the midst of funding and safety challenges brought on by the pandemic. With your support, last year our pool of 200 attorneys donated over 3,000 hours of pro bono services including at-person clinics that are downtown offices, pop-up clinics on Oahu and the neighbor islands, virtual clinics over the phone, and online advice given at Hawaii Online Pro Bono. These attorneys together provided legal services valued at over $770,000. Many of our attendees today are included in our pool of volunteers. Thank you and we look forward to continuing our good work with your support. We are also very thankful to be holding this event today and are glad to see everyone over the web. We hope that as conditions improve in Hawaii, we might be able to see each other in person later this year. I'd like to make a few introductions to start today's program and celebration. First to recognize some special guests including Chief Justice Mark Rectonwald and Honoree Judge Rebecca Copeland. Now before we get to tonight's guests of honor, I have a few special thank yous. First, thank you to Jay Fidele and Carol Mon Lee from Think Tech Hawaii for their help in coordinating and airing today's celebration. Thank you also to all of our volunteer attorneys who are the backbone of the organization without whom access to justice could not be achieved. And thank you to our champion of justice, guardian of equality and advocate of pro bono sponsors and to all of the individual donors who continue to support the LSH. With the generous support of our sponsors, we have been able to make this virtual celebration free for all attendees and memorialized as a history piece for future generations. For those of you who have not yet donated to the event, we welcome you to visit our website VLSH.org and make the suggested donation to allow us to continue our good work in the community. Thank you also to our staff who work hard behind the scenes every day to screen clients, match clients with pro bono attorneys and do all the little things that make it possible for our volunteers to do their work. Thank you again to Chief Justice Rectonwald and the judiciary for their constant support of volunteer legal services for Hawaii. Finally, thank you to our executive director, Angela Min, who I'd like to introduce now. Aloha to all of our esteemed guests and attendees. My name is Angela Kulmin and I am the executive director for volunteer legal services for Hawaii. I'm very proud of the work volunteer legal services for Hawaii has done for the last four decades and continues to do in Hawaii, especially during these unprecedented times. Volunteer legal services Hawaii is grateful to have the unwavering support of Chief Justice Mark Rectonwald and the judiciary. Chief Justice Mark Rectonwald would like to share a message with our attendees today. Aloha, congratulations to volunteer legal services of Hawaii on this landmark occasion. Forty years of providing pro bono services to the people of Hawaii. And thank you to ThinkTech for making this virtual celebration possible. Congratulations as well to tonight's honorees, Judge Rebecca Copeland and the law firm of Maccorsen Miller-Mukai McKinnon LLP or M4. Judge Copeland has been a leader and innovator in so many ways. She founded the HSBA's appellate section and was critical to establishing the appellate pro bono project. Judge Copeland has worked tirelessly to foster high quality appellate advocacy in the Hawaii bar and to improve access to justice in the appellate courts. I'm deeply grateful for her work. She has truly earned the champion of justice award. M4 is receiving the Kahiao Award for its work at the Weinberg Village Outreach Project in Waimanalo, which the firm adopted. Through the project, attorneys from the firm have helped numerous residents navigate the rental process provided education on landlord tenant issues. This work represents M4's sustained commitment to giving back and its culture of pro bono service. Thank you to all of the attorneys at M4 for their contributions to the LSH and for their dedication to access to justice. Far too many in our community have unmet legal needs. The Legal Services Corporation reported that in 2017, 71% of low-income households nationally had experienced at least one civil legal problem in the prior year. Yet 86% of those problems received inadequate or no legal help, overwhelmingly because of a lack of available resources. This issue named the justice gap exists here in Hawaii too. For example, approximately 50% of all eviction cases filed in Hawaii result in a default judgment against the tenant. And less than 10% of tenants involved in evictions have access to representation. The services VLSH provides, which range from education to limited legal services to referrals for full representation, are therefore critical closing the justice gap here in Hawaii. I'd like to extend a special mahalo to executive director Angela Kulman for her strong leadership. Angela is a commissioner on the Access to Justice Commission, which advocates on behalf of legal services providers, encourages attorneys to volunteer their time pro bono, and makes self-help resources available to those who cannot afford an attorney, among many other initiatives. Thank you, Angela, for all that you do. VLSH and the judiciary have forged a strong partnership working together on several important projects aimed at improving access to justice in Hawaii. For example, VLSH has been critical to the creation and administration of the appellate pro bono program, which I mentioned earlier. Launched in 2015, the appellate pro bono program was created in recognition of a critical gap in Hawaii's pro bono services. While there was infrastructure in place to connect self-represented folks to services in the trial courts, those who were pro seyan appeal had no centralized place to turn to define an attorney to take their case pro bono. The appellate pro bono program helps fill that gap and provides community members with limited financial means, access to appellate counsel. Now more than 40 attorneys are in the pool of volunteers to take cases, and 15 cases have been matched with volunteers. There are also plans to expand the program to cover additional areas of the law in order to serve more appellate litigants. We are deeply grateful to VLSH and all of the volunteer attorneys for making the appellate pro bono program a success. Another program which VLSH and the judiciary have partnered is the Reemployment and Community Service Program, or RACS. VLSH worked with the Honolulu District Court to develop this program in which participants work with VLSH attorneys to recall traffic cases. As a result, unpaid fines can be converted to community service, reduced, or put on a payment plan. RACS has been a successful and popular program through which many with unpaid traffic fines have found a path forward. I speak for everyone at the judiciary when I say that VLSH is an indispensable part of our access to justice efforts. We're deeply grateful to VLSH's dedicated staff, board, and all of the attorneys who have generously volunteered their time to help countless people connect with much needed legal services. It's an honor to speak today in celebration of VLSH and its 40 years of hard work in service of our community. Mahalo and here's to 40 more. Aloha. Thank you, Chief Justice Mark Rickenwald, for your kind words and support for Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii. As many of you know, due to the uncertainty of COVID-19 and for the health and safety of our Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii, Ohana, we canceled our annual fundraiser in 2020 with the hope that we'd be able to hold an in-person event in 2021. When the new year arrived and I started a plan for the event, I soon realized that an in-person event did not seem like a realistic objective. Although it's true, we couldn't postpone again. This year was too important to miss as we reached a noteworthy milestone, Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii celebrating 40 years of pro bono in Hawaii. Now, I'd like to share a brief history of Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii and where we are today. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2021. We would not be here today without the support of the community and the hundreds of attorneys who have given their time to help the people of Hawaii over the last four decades. Since its creation, Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii has provided over 100,000 Hawaii residents with pro bono legal services. In 1981, leaders of the Hawaii Bar Association's Young Lawyer Division created a pro bono project then known as the Hawaii Lawyer's Care Hawaii Lawyer Pro Bono Referral Project. At the time, the Hawaii Bar was voluntary and there were no organizations coordinating and providing pro bono services to those in need. The goal of the pro bono project was to refer clients to the Hawaii Bar members who were eager to take on pro bono cases. Within its first year of operating, the pro bono project matched and placed over 100 cases. The pro bono project was well received by the community with room for expansion. By the following year, the pro bono project applied to become its own nonprofit and open office front in downtown Honolulu. A few years later, Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii moved to our current office location at 545 Queen Street, Suite 100. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii's mission is to increase legal access for those Hawaii residents who cannot afford an attorney due to financial hardship. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii relies primarily on a clinic-based pro bono model with volunteer attorneys providing legal services. Volunteer Legal Staff conducts a thorough intake with a client, which includes asking questions related to his or her case, as well as obtaining any relevant documents for the volunteer attorney. Clients are then matched with a volunteer attorney specializing in the specific area of law that their legal needs fall under and they have the opportunity to speak to an attorney one-on-one for individualized and customized appointment. Oftentimes, after speaking with a volunteer attorney, and given the proper tools and resources, many are able to proceed and represent themselves in court per se. There are likewise many that require additional assistance and get further placed with a volunteer attorney for help with drafting a will or a power returning or attending hearing at court. As important as direct legal assistance is, Volunteer Legal also believes that educating the community on their legal issues and needs is just significant. Volunteer Legal regularly visits local transitional shelters and senior homes to educate their residents on various legal topics throughout the year. Additionally, Volunteer Legal will be present at local community events, including those providing resources to veterans and families with young children. The Supreme Court of Hawaii, Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 6.1 provides an aspirational goal that attorneys provide at least 50 hours of pro bono service each year. The reason why Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii has been so successful and well received by the community is that it's volunteer attorneys do pro bono out of the goodness of their hearts and not because there are rules making pro bono mandatory. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii pro bono attorneys are willing and eager to wake up early on a Saturday morning and drive to Waianae for a legal clinic. They're also willing to come and volunteer in our office after working a full day at their own offices. These volunteer attorneys know that our clinics are an essential legal resource and without them, these residents would not have the opportunity to speak to an attorney at no charge. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii is full of 200 volunteer attorneys provide legal education, advice and counsel, brief services and full representation cases in family law, estate planning, Chapter 7 bankruptcy, private landlord tenant issues, collections, small claims and veteran benefits. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii is full of pro bono attorneys as comprised of professionals who have a wide range of experiences and backgrounds including associates and partners of firms at all sizes, in-house attorneys, solo practitioners and government attorneys. These pro bono attorneys continue to be a critical element in filling legal service and advocacy gaps in Hawaii's community. Lawyers hold special skills and are privileged to be able to navigate the legal system. With these tools, they have the ability to help otherwise unrepresented persons navigate through our legal system in an effective way. To bring our volunteer attorneys up to date on new case law and keep them current illegal materials, Volunteer Legal offers free CLEs to Hawaii licensed attorneys led by attorneys from our amazing pool. These CLEs are also a great resource to help recruit new pro bono attorneys. We're interested in volunteering and providing training and mentorship. Prior to COVID-19, Volunteer Legal regularly operated in-person legal clinics at our downtown office as well as pop-up clinics by traveling to local community centers and school cafeterias. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii has brought our free pop-up legal clinic to Waianae, Waipahu, Wahiwa, Waimanalo, Kaliki and even Outer Islands to Hilo and Kona. Since COVID-19, we have had to adjust many of our outreach programs but have not refused any of our services. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii continues to operate legal clinics over the telephone and the internet. We're thankful that this past year we've been able to keep our programs running and at the same time expand current programs. We've also been able to develop new programs including the restricted license program for the residents of Hawaii in addition to our existing re-employment and community service program neighborhood legal clinics, appellate pro bono program and the veterans benefits program. During this time, Hawaii online pro bono has seen the most use and demand since commencement in 2016. Hawaii online pro bono, a project in partnership with the American Bar Association allows individuals to ask legal questions online at any time of the day and a way to response from volunteer attorney all free of charge. In 2020, Hawaii online pro bono saw a 250% increase in answered questions with questions being answered at the clients fingertips daily. Volunteer Legal continues to build on existing programs and continues to adapt to new changes in light of COVID-19. Now, more than ever before, volunteer legal needs and relies on the help of pro bono attorneys with the delivery of legal assistance to the low and moderate income persons and families in Hawaii. Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii would not be able to do what we do without our volunteer attorneys. This would have been our sixth annual fundraiser event, but while we cannot celebrate in person, we are thankful to each of you in attendance today and we are grateful for the past and present sponsors and guests who have supported our work through the 40 years and especially during these difficult times. Because of your support, it has allowed Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii to continue to strive to provide access to justice for all. On behalf of the Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii Board of Directors and the staff, we are honored to have serviced the community of Hawaii for the last 40 years. Mahalo, from all of us here at Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii for 40 years and we look forward to many more with you. I hope you enjoyed our video on Volunteer Legal Services Past and Present. The underlying message in it is that Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii would not be able to do what we do without our volunteer attorneys. As such, today's event includes two special honors for those who would exemplify pro bono work and embody Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii's mission. This year, we want to honor the law firm of McCorsten, Miller, Makai, McKennan, LLP with the Kahiaw Award. Kahiaw means Selfless Generosity Spirit and Selfless Giving, a willingness to help and give service without expectation of receiving anything in return. We could not just pick one attorney for this award and instead, we wanted to honor the entire firm for all their contributions to Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii and to pro bono work. The firm adopted one of Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii's outreach projects known as Weinberg Village in Waimanalo. Each month, attorneys from McCorsten, Miller, Makai, McKennan, LLP took turns with visits at Weinberg Village. At these visits, the M4 attorneys spent time with their residents educating them on various topics, including but not limited to collections and landlord tenant issues. Many of the residents had never rented on their own before and had no experience with signing leases or how to interact with landlords. The McCorsten, Miller, Makai, McKennan, LLP attorneys provided legal education and gave the residents practical tips of being lieutenants. We also answered questions from the residents and provided further services where they sought me. We are truly thankful for the attorneys that McCorsten, Miller, Makai, McKennan, LLP who regularly sat in the weekday traffic for dog traffic if they were lucky to get from downtown to Waimanalo by 5 p.m. on a Tuesday evening to help hundreds of residents who are living at Weinberg Village. For these reasons and many more, we want to honor the entire firm of McCorsten, Miller, Makai, McKennan, LLP for the Kahia award because they're all truly examples of selfless generosity giving their time volunteering at Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii. Catherine Sachner, formally of McCorsten, Miller, Makai, McKennan will be accepting the award for the firm. Thank you so much. I wanted to say a huge mahalo on behalf of the McCorsten law firm to VLSH for honoring the firm with the prestigious Kahia award. M4 has been fortunate to partner with VLSH for many years to provide pro bono services to our community. VLSH are the real embassy. They go into the community, identify the need and coordinate the opportunities. Without VLSH, these vital services wouldn't exist and M4 has been grateful to partner with VLSH to create opportunities for their attorneys to help fulfill the professional responsibility to do pro bono work. Thank you again for honoring M4 with the Kahia award. Thank you, Catherine. Governor David Ige would also like to share his appreciation with a special recognition to McCorsten, Miller, Mackay, McKennan for their pro bono work. Thank you Governor Ige and his staff for putting this together. Our next award will be presented and introduced by Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii board member, Trent Erling. Judge Copeland sits on the family district court of the First Circuit. Previously, Judge Copeland practiced in Texas and then moved to Hawaii where she served as the deputy solicitor general with the attorney general's office. She later became an associate at my firm, Damon Key and subsequently opened her own practice to focus on appellate work before being appointed to the bench. She was also an adjunct professor at William S. Richardson School of Law and served on the HSBA board of directors. While at Damon Key, it became obvious that she was a go-getter and went to follow her passion. In addition to her legal practice, she created and authored her blog which focused on appellate work. In 2011, she founded the HSBA's appellate section and served as a section's first chair. That section has thrived ever since. While practicing law, Judge Copeland was a prime example of an attorney who believed in and promoted access to justice, educating and mentoring fellow colleagues to do the same. She helped design and implement the appellate pro bono project in 2015. She understood the need for representation of individuals at the appellate level and made it her mission to launch this pilot project. As the liaison for the pro bono project, Judge Copeland worked with BLSH on a regular basis to ensure its success and longevity. Her hard work paid off when in less than two years, the Supreme Court rendered the Hawaii appellate pro bono pilot project permanent. By participating in the appellate pro bono project, our volunteer attorneys are given the opportunity to work on appellate briefs and to present oral argument for the Hawaii appellate courts. We owe much of this program's success to Judge Copeland. In addition to all the work she has done with the appellate project, Judge Copeland is also a member of the following, access to justice commission's committee on increasing pro bono legal services, the Hawaii judiciary committee on equality and access to courts, the Hawaii Supreme Court's commission on professionalism, the Hawaii Justice Foundation, HSBA's committee on diversity, equality in the law and the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation. BLSH thanks Judge Copeland for all of her efforts and dedication to pro bono work, especially with the appellate program. We hope to continue her good work with the program. It is appropriate therefore that BLSH honor her with a champion of justice award this year. Thank you Judge Copeland for all that you do. All right, thank you, Tred. We've all been through so much over this last year, but I do want to acknowledge all the work that BLSH volunteer legal services of Hawaii has done and continues to do. I also want to thank everyone for their support of BLSH, especially during this trying time of the pandemic. I remember back in 2015, when we held the first planning meeting of what would then be the pilot project that would become the appellate pro bono program, BLSH was present at that first meeting and they've been a key partner ever since. In fact, this program could not exist if it wasn't for BLSH's support. The program has also been fortunate since it's beginning to have the support of the Hawaii Judiciary and Chief Justice Rectonwall. It is because of Chief Justice's consistent and continued commitment to pro bono program that partnerships like these have been formed. In case you're not familiar with this particular program, the appellate pro bono program is a partnership between the Hawaii Judiciary, the HSDA appellate section and BLSH. The appellate pro bono program matches low to moderate income pro-stay appellate litigants with attorneys who are willing to provide pro bono appeal representation at either the Intermediate Court of Appeals or the Hawaii Supreme Court level. As Tread explained, the program has successfully matched a number of clients. In doing so, the program has provided individuals with much needed appeal assistance and many of those matched clients have won their cases with the help of their volunteer attorneys. Our volunteer attorneys have included those at law firms like Damon King, attorneys who work for state agencies but are still able to give up their time when they're not at work and solo practitioners. In addition to providing representation, the program has mentored young attorneys who are interested in getting more appeal experience. And of course, if anyone listening today is interested, the program is always looking for more volunteers. So if you are interested, please contact Angela at BLSA or a member of the appellate section. I'm so thankful that I was able to be part of this program and have been fortunate to work with so many giving individuals at the judiciary, with the HSBA, with BLSH and in the legal community. And I'm even more thankful that the appellate pro bono program and others like it continue to provide much needed access to justice and representation for those who wouldn't otherwise get it. I'm not sure that I deserve the recognition that BLSH is giving me today, but I certainly know that all the hardworking attorneys who volunteer for the appellate pro bono program do deserve this recognition. I wish that we could all be together in person so that I could call them up one by one and introduce you to them. But even though we cannot be together, I do share this recognition with them. We still have much to do and there are still many areas of pro bono assistance that can be expanded either through full representation or as discrete past representation. For everyone attending today, for your support of BLSH, I thank you because it is because of them that this type of representation continues to be made available for so many members of our community. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations, Judge Koblin. I will now hand the remaining portion of today's celebration over to volunteer legal services Hawaii board member, vice president, Nick Karpowski. Closing, I wanna share some highlights from 2020. Last year, volunteer legal services Hawaii opened over 2,000 intakes. 19% of those health are homeless or at risk of being homeless. 11% suffer from domestic violence. 6% of those health are veterans, 26% of those health are disabled and 15% of those health are seniors. 270 neighborhood legal clinics were held virtually since March, 2020 with our last pop-up clinic in Waukewa in February 2020. Over 700 cases were placed for brief and or full representation cases with an attorney attending court with a client. Without volunteer legal services Hawaii, many Hawaii residents would be lost in the legal system. We look forward to continuing to help those in need to navigate the court system, especially during these challenging times. Thank you to all of volunteer legal services, Hawaii's volunteer attorneys, and our honorees, McChorrest and Milistrum Kai McKinnon, LLP and Judge Rebecca Koblin. Thank you to all of our title sponsors for supporting today's events, as well as those past and present who have donated to the organization. Volunteer legal services Hawaii would not be here today if not for the support of this community. We have always valued ourselves as a small local organization, directly supported by the community and directly giving back to the community. Whether you are familiar with VLSH or are not very familiar with VLSH before today, I hope you were able to learn much of our rich local history from our video program previously shown. I ask that you do take a few minutes to browse our website, learn about our many programs and opportunities to volunteer. Additionally, I ask that you consider making a donation to support our work and access to justice for all. We are thankful to have shared what we've accomplished in the last 40 years and look forward to celebrating with you in person in the near future. On behalf of the Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii Board of Directors, the staff and the people we serve, mahalo.