From time to time, we’ve posted job openings here in the legal field in Honolulu. But never an opening on our home turf.

Well today, we’re soliciting applications for a litigation associate in our law firm, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert. We’re not going to reprint the official job posting (“challenging and rewarding environment, strong writing and research skills, salary commensurate with experience, plays well with others,” & etc., etc.), since if you are reading this post, you likely already understand what we do. For a wider flavor of the firm’s work (we don’t just do land use, condemnation, appeals, and election law, but also commercial litigation, construction, maritime, and pretty much anything that requires courtroom skills), check out our colleagues’ law blogs, insurancelawhawaii.com, hawaiioceanlaw.com, and hawaiiconstructionlaw.com. 

We prefer lawyers who are already members of the Hawaii Bar, but we’re not ruling out those who would sit…

Continue Reading Wanted: Litigation Associate

All you U. Hawaii Law grads (or those who just want a unique piece of apparel), get your newly-released swag (t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts) at this link. You can also get your annual subscription to the U. Haw. L. Rev. (yes, bluebooked that one), since this swag is brought to you by the Law Review. Show your WSR pride.Continue Reading U. Hawaii Law Swag Now Available

An inversecondemnation.com holiday tradition, the Yule Log, updated for current events.Continue Reading Yule Log, Darth Vader Edition 2016

Here’s the first in a series of three recent cases decided by the South Dakota Supreme Court involving a highway renovation project by the SD Department of Transportation.

We think to more easily understand the three separate opinions in South Dakota v. Miller, No. 27198 (Dec. 7, 2016), you should read them out of order. Start of page 18, read the bit about whether the DOT’s taking of a “small triangular piece of property” on Cliff Avenue resulted in a substantial impairment of access to lots on both sides of 63rd Street, and then go back and start at page 1 and read the court’s analysis of whether several lots could be combined to calculate just compensation and damages. 

First, access. The owners claimed compensation for impairment of access to Lots 5 through 8, because in the after condition, drivers could no longer use Cliff Avenue and 63rd Street…

Continue Reading South Dakota Takings Trilogy, Part I: Access Changes And Larger Parcel

For alums of the University of Hawaii Law Review, friends of the publication, or just people who like wine, here’s something to put on your December calendar. 

The Law Review is sponsoring a workshop on December 18, 2016 at 5:30 pm at downtown Honolulu’s Hound & Quail. The kicker is that this isn’t an academic workshop, but a wine workshop. The cost is $40. Now this is the type of workshop we can get behind. Register on-line here. There are limited spaces, so sign up now. 

So come on down, network with your old law school colleagues, and most importantly, support the Law Review. 

A Winter Wine Workshop – UH Law Review (Dec. 2016) 

Continue Reading U. Hawaii Law Review Winter (Wine) Workshop (Dec. 18, 2016)

Do you have “giver’s block” about an appropriate present this holiday season for the dirt lawyer in your orbit? Well fear not, here are our modest suggestions for stocking stuffers.

Timothy Sandefur and Christina Sandefur, Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America (2d ed. 2016).

“Published in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Kelo v. New London, Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America made a powerful contribution to the firestorm of interest in protecting property rights. Now in its second edition, Cornerstone of Liberty has been fully updated by authors Timothy and Christina Sandefur, and examines how dozens of new developments in courtrooms and legislatures across the country have shifted the landscape of private property rights since 2005. Through a combination of real-life stories and solid legal analysis, the authors explain how key issues like eminent domain, civil asset forfeiture, and…

Continue Reading Your 2017 Holiday Gift Guide, Dirt Lawyers’ Edition

Here’s the recording of the October 6, 2016 oral arguments in 

Above stream not work? Download the mp3 here.Continue Reading HAWSCT Oral Arguments In Important Eminent Domain Case: Condemnor “to some extent agrees[s] with the concerns [amici] raised”

Today is Constitution Day, even though every day really is Constitution Day, no?

In that vein, here is what is probably our favorite work of modern art, a piece titled “Preamble,” which hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Yes, those are real license plates, and when read together spell out the preamble to the Constitution. We like the piece so much, we’ve got a print hanging in our office.Continue Reading Happy Constitution Day 2017