Senator Hanabusa to receive national ABA award

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UPDATED on February 23, 2009

View the Spirit of Excellence Award presentation and Senator Colleen Hanabusa’s acceptance speech here!

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, a licensed attorney, will receive the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award at a ceremony at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts on February 14, 2009. The Spirit of Excellence Awards celebrate the efforts and accomplishments of lawyers who work to promote a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession. Senator Hanabusa is the first woman to preside over either chamber of the Hawai‘i State Legislature, and the first Asian-American woman in the nation to preside over a state legislative body.

“Senator Hanabusa is a role model for women and for Asian-Americans,” said Fred Alvarez, chair of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. “She has used her visibility to encourage young minority women to see law as a viable career, and a way to advance both their own success and their goals for improving society. She has supported other minority women’s professional careers across the state of Hawai‘i.”

“This is a tremendous honor,” said Hanabusa, “particularly when I look at the others who have been selected for this year’s award. When I think of all the people who have encouraged me along the way—growing up in Wai‘anae, as a woman practicing in the largely male field of labor law, and as I began and advanced my political career—I feel I am accepting this for our state and our people, who have made diversity and mutual respect such a part of our everyday lives. I hope we will all continue to work together to support diversity in the best sense of the word. I will continue to give it my best efforts.”

Senator Hanabusa was nominated for the Spirit of Excellence Award by Margaret Matsunaga, a Deputy Corporation Counsel for the County of Hawai‘i. She related how her daughter, Colette, then thirteen, submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, which Senator Hanabusa chaired at the time. “Senator Hanabusa emailed Colette and encouraged her to keep a journal, write a book, and suggested the title be ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Jana’s Older Sister,’” said Matsunaga. “As a parent, I was totally impressed by how empowering she made my daughter feel.”

2009 Spirit of Excellence Awards honorees will also include Julius L. Chambers, a civil rights lawyer and educator from Charlotte, N.C.; Joan Mei Haratani, a partner with Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP in San Francisco, CA; Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Professort of Law and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA; Richard A. Soden, Of Counsel, Goodwin Procter LLP, Boston, MA; Chief Justice Daniel Sosa, Jr. (Ret.), Supreme Court of the State of New Mexico, Las Cruces, NM; and William A. Von Hoene, Jr. (Corporate Award), Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Excelon Corporation, Chicago, IL.

Senator Colleen Hanabusa has been a state senator since 1998, and has chaired committees on Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs and on the Judiciary, and co-chaired joint House-Senate committees on drug abatement and state legal affairs. She has served on numerous other committees and as a member of the state Department of Education commission on gender equity in sports. She has practiced law in Honolulu since 1978, and established her own firm in 1990. She received her law degree and both a master’s and bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawai‘i. Senator Hanabusa has been recognized as one of Hawai‘i’s Best Lawyers in Labor and Employment Law since 1993, and honored with numerous awards, including recognition from the Humane Society of the United States, the Hawai‘i Medical Association, the Council of State Governments, the University of Hawai‘i, the American Business Women’s Association and Small Business Hawai‘i.

The ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession is a catalyst to change the legal profession to reflect the society it serves. It helps racially and ethnically diverse lawyers advance their careers and standing in the profession. Its leadership, programs and information help the profession understand and eliminate racism, bigotry and discrimination. The commission works to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession, and thus enrich it.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

For more information: http://www.abanet.org/minorities/spirit/