Pro Bono Attorney Experiences
The RILC is always looking for attorneys interested in working on pro bono cases. Work with the RILC team, either independently or together with the RILC students or other pro bono attorneys, to assist clients seeking asylum, temporary protected status, special immigrant juvenile status, citizenship/naturalization, J-1 waivers, green cards, and more.
Read about the experiences of some of our pro bono attorneys below, learn more about the difference that legal representation makes, sign up using our Google form, or contact the RILC at rilcinfo@hawaii.edu for more information.
greg kim
For almost 40 years, Greg Kim has been a corporate lawyer, practicing in the area of corporate and securities law, including startup work and venture capital. As someone with an entrepreneurial mindset, who is not afraid to try and learn new things, Greg answered the call to service last year when the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic was looking for a pro bono attorney to assist a stateless Palestinian asylum seeker from Egypt with his defensive asylum case in Immigration Court.
Greg has always viewed learning as a lifelong endeavor. After obtaining his B.S. in Engineering and Applied Sciences from Yale University and his J.D./M.B.A. from UC Berkeley, Greg served as a law clerk to the Honorable Herbert Y.C. Choy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He began training as a corporate lawyer in the Bay Area at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, before returning home to Hawai‘i in 1988, where he joined Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel. In 2004, he launched Vantage Counsel as one of the nation’s first virtual law firms. He then joined several other Silicon Valley-based virtual law firms, before returning to Vantage Counsel in 2018. During his career, Greg founded or co-founded multiple organizations dedicated to entrepreneurship and served on boards at business educational institutions. He has also long taught the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Clinic at the William S. Richardson School of Law.
A shortened version of Greg’s pro bono experience with the RILC is provided below. Visit our news story to read his full responses.
Why did you volunteer?
“Our country’s commitment to immigration seemed to be waning. Immigration is the backbone of our country. I decided to take action to help immigrants.”
Why is doing pro bono work important to you?
“As lawyers, we have the training and experience to do many things, and to learn new things, which can be a powerful tool for change. The question is whether and how we take the opportunities to use the law to help others. Even if you can take only one pro bono case, to the client, it is their whole life that you are trying to save. That is a powerful and huge source of inspiration.”
What is one thing you have learned from this pro bono experience?
“We can learn new things and do them well. We just need the courage to try.”
What is one thing that has surprised you about this pro bono experience?
“There are so many bright, capable, and passionate people who are willing to help immigrants in pro bono asylum cases. I have not experienced this type or level of support in the private sector. I attribute it to working on the right side of justice. This experience has renewed and strengthened my faith in humanity.”
jan tamura
Jan Tamura, WSRSL ‘85, has the distinction of serving not only as Chair of RILC’s Advisory Committee but also as a pro bono attorney for RILC. Guided by her philosophy that she can only fully support an organization when she understands what it is that they do on a day-to-day basis and sees the impact they make, Jan dived right in and has been assisting a young asylum seeker from Myanmar this year with her affirmative asylum application and her application for Temporary Protected Status.
A retired attorney, Jan was a partner and counsel at a Honolulu law firm where she litigated civil matters in state and federal courts for over 20 years. During her legal career, Jan served as legal services director for both the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse & Legal Hotline (now the Domestic Violence Action Center or DVAC) and Volunteer Legal Services Hawai‛i. More recently, she worked in the area of Title IX in higher education. Jan’s lifelong pro bono work has included advising and representing survivors of gender-based violence, serving as a court appointed volunteer guardian ad litem for sexually abused teens, and serving on numerous non-profit boards including those of the Hawai‛i Women’s Legal Foundation, Hawai‛i Women Lawyers, Planned Parenthood (Hawai‛i region), DVAC and the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‛i. She has also served as a member of the advisory committees for Na Loio and the Hawaii Immigrant Justice Center as well as various committees of the Hawaii State Bar Association. Jan received her M.S.W. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and is a proud member of the William S. Richardson School of Law Class of 1985.
For more information about Jan, visit our news story for her full profile.
Why did you volunteer?
“I became inspired to volunteer after meeting several asylum seekers and learning about what they have endured to rebuild their lives in Hawai’i.”
Why is doing pro bono work important to you?
“I have an ethical and moral responsibility to use my privilege as an attorney to serve others. I believe we should use our skills, training, and experience to represent those who need but cannot afford legal representation.”
What is one thing you have learned from this pro bono experience?
“Legal representation makes a remarkable difference in securing favorable outcomes for refugees.”
What is one thing that has surprised you about this pro bono experience?
“Despite the many frustrations and hurdles that we and our clients face navigating our broken immigration system, the experience has been truly joyful and fulfilling.”
