Our Team
Overview
Team
- Esther Sungeun Yoo, Esq., Director
- Danicole Ramos, Esq. ’23, Associate Director
- Pilar Kam, Esq. ’24, Senior Postgraduate Fellow and Immigrant Advocate
- Steven Manso ‘26, Postgraduate Fellow and Immigrant Advocate
- Kasandra Isabel Manacio Morse, Legal Assistant
Advisory Committee
- Corianne W. Lau, Chair
- Kevin Block
- Maile M. Hirota
- Greg Kim
- Jan Tamura
- Krysti Uranaka-Yamashiro
- Melinda (“Minda”) Yamaga
Emeritus Advisory Committee Members
- John Robert Egan
Law Fellow Alumni
- Ethan Higa
- Taylor S. Brack
- Beverlyn Simina
Past Advisory Committee Members
- Joshua Nam
- Leeyannah Armaine Santos
- Stephanie Haro Sevilla (Flores) ‘23
team
Esther Sungeun Yoo, Esq.
Director
Esther Sungeun Yoo is an Assistant Professor of Law and the Director of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law Refugee and Immigration Law Clinic. At Richardson, she teaches the Immigration Law and Immigration Clinic courses.
Prior to joining the law school, Professor Yoo was the founding attorney for The Legal Clinic in Honolulu. She counseled and represented hundreds of low-income Hawai‘i immigrants in a wide range of immigration matters before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Before entering public interest law, she served as Director of Academic Success at the University of Maine School of Law. She also worked as a litigator in private practice, where she maintained an active pro bono asylum practice.
Over her career, Professor Yoo has represented asylum seekers, including children, both affirmatively before USCIS and defensively in Immigration Court. Her clients have fled various forms of persecution, including FGM and forced marriage, on account of their race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group, including those based on LGBTQIA identity, gender, or familial ties. They have arrived from countries such as Afghanistan, Brazil, Burundi, Djibouti, El Salvador, Honduras, Myanmar, Peru, and Russia. She has also represented unaccompanied children and other youth who are eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.
Professor Yoo received her bachelor’s degree in Social Studies from Harvard University and graduated Order of the Coif from the UCLA School of Law. In law school, she served as an editor of the UCLA Law Review and was a member of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. She began her legal career as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dolly M. Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Professor Yoo is the child of immigrants from South Korea and the granddaughter of refugees from North Korea.
Danicole Ramos, Esq. ‘23
Associate Director
Danicole Ramos ’23 is the Associate Director of the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic (RILC) at the William S. Richardson School of Law. In addition to overseeing the clinic’s daily operations, Danicole focuses his practice on providing immigration legal services to noncitizen veterans, servicemembers, and their families in Hawai‘i. His work includes naturalization, military parole in place, family reunification, humanitarian parole for deported veterans, and removal defense.
Danicole is also a Captain in the Hawai‘i Air National Guard, where he serves as a Military Equal Opportunity Advisor. In this role, he works to ensure equal opportunity and fair treatment for all service members by overseeing the military equal opportunity complaint process and providing training on human relations and sexual harassment prevention.
During law school, Danicole served as a summer law clerk and extern with The Legal Clinic. As a RILC clinical student, he represented an asylum seeker in Immigration Court. He also served as a legal extern for Honolulu City Councilmember Matt Weyer and previously worked as a Legislative Aide to Hawai‘i State Representative Sean Quinlan.
Danicole earned his B.A. in Business Administration and Management from Seattle University, his Master of Public Administration from American University, and his J.D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law. Before attending law school, he worked as a policy analyst and lobbyist for Elemental Excelerator, a nonprofit investor focused on climate technologies, and as an administrative coordinator for United We Dream, the nation’s largest immigrant youth-led network, based in Washington, D.C.
Danicole has also served as President of Faith Action Hawai‘i and Vice President of the Young Democrats of Hawai‘i. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Hālau Nohona Hawai‘i, a Hawaiian cultural organization based in the Washington, D.C. area.
The child of immigrants from the Philippines, Danicole was born and raised on the North Shore of O‘ahu.
Pilar Kam, Esq. ‘24
Senior Postgraduate Fellow and Immigrant Advocate
Pilar Perdomo Kam ’24 is a Senior Post-J.D. Fellow with the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic (RILC) and a 2024 graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law. Before returning to Richardson as a Postgraduate Fellow, Pilar briefly served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu.
During law school, Pilar interned with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawai‘i in 2022 and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu in 2023. She also served as a staff writer for the University of Hawai‘i Law Review. Pilar became involved with RILC as a volunteer interpreter and translator and developed a passion for advocating on behalf of immigrant communities.
Before attending law school, Pilar spent six years as a human resources professional with the Department of the Army’s Civilian Human Resources Agency. As a military spouse, she has lived in several countries, including France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Belgium, and has held various positions supporting the U.S. Army.
Pilar was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, where she initially attended law school before moving to France and later Germany to study languages. Her experiences as an immigrant, military spouse, international student, and longtime traveler have shaped her commitment to serving immigrants and their families.
Pilar earned a Master’s in International Management with a concentration in International Business from Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany. She also holds a B.S. in Criminal Justice and an M.S. in Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigation from the University of Maryland Global Campus, as well as her J.D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law.
Steven Manso ‘26, Postgraduate Fellow and Immigration Advocate
Steven Manso ’26 is a Post-J.D. Fellow with the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic (RILC) and a 2026 graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law.
During law school, Steven conducted research through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations on international atrocity prevention and response strategies. He was also awarded the Sam L. Cohen International Human Rights Summer Fellowship, which supported his work with the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims in the Philippines, Colombia, and Peru.
At Richardson, Steven was a Lehua Scholar and served as President of Advocates for Public Interest Law and La Alianza, Richardson’s revived Latin@ law student organization. He also served as Treasurer of both the Lambda Law Student Association and the Black Law Students Association.
Steven earned his B.A. in Political Science, Criminology, and Spanish, with a minor in Latin American Studies, from the University of Florida. As an undergraduate, he worked with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a nonprofit organization that provides legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children, many of whom are from Latin America. He also worked with Fundación Abrazando Ilusiones in Madrid, Spain, where he helped lead social integration and employment-skills workshops and taught Spanish-language classes to English-speaking migrants arriving in Spain from North Africa.
Steven’s commitment to immigration law is deeply rooted in his family’s own immigration experiences. His grandmother and mother left Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War and came to the United States seeking economic and political stability. His father immigrated from Cuba and was granted asylum in the United States after experiencing persecution based on his membership in a particular social group. These experiences have shaped Steven’s commitment to advocating for immigrants and others seeking safety and opportunity in the United States.
Advisory COMMITTEE
Corianne W. Lau, Chair
Corianne W. Lau recently retired from the law firm of Dentons US LLP where her practice was concentrated in the areas of employment law, government contracts, commercial disputes and administrative law. She now serves as a consultant on state and local government procurement and an investigator in employment matters. Cori enjoys assisting nonprofit organizations and has served on the boards of the East-West Center, the Hawai’i State Bar Association, the Legal Aid Society of Hawai’i and the YWCA O’ahu.
Kevin Block
Kevin Block is an attorney in private practice and the owner and principal attorney of Maui Immigration Law, LLC. Kevin’s areas of practice include family-based petitions, citizenship, deportation defense, green cards through marriage, appeals and specialty visas for athletes and investors. He currently serves as the Vice Chair for the Hawai‘i Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Hawaii Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and The Legal Clinic.
Maile M. Hirota
Maile M. Hirota is the Manager of Hirota & Associates, LLLC, concentrating in business and family- based immigration law, including family visas, business and investor visas, permanent residence and U.S. citizenship matters. Maile’s extensive community immigration involvement includes serving on committees for the American Immigration Lawyers Association; membership in IMMLAW; providing expert witness testimony, clinics, and free legal seminars; and public speaker and advocacy work.
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. 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. In addition to serving as a member of the Advisory Committee, Greg is currently volunteering as counsel for an asylee from Egypt.
Jan Tamura
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 as well as the legal services director at two non-profit legal services organizations. Currently, she is an investigator with the University of Hawaiʻi System Office of Title IX/EEO. Jan’s pro bono work has included advising and representing survivors of gender-based violence and volunteering as a court appointed guardian ad litem for sexually abused teens. She has also served on non-profit boards and committees, including as inaugural Chair of the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic Advisory Committee from March 2022 to January 2024. She has volunteered at the Clinic assisting clients with applications for asylum, temporary protected status, and J-1 waivers. Jan received her MSW from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and JD from the William S. Richardson School of Law
Krysti Uranaka-Yamashiro
Krysti Uranaka-Yamashiro is currently a Staff Attorney with the City and County of Honolulu Office of Council Services. Previously, she served as a Policy Analyst with the Office of the Vice President for Administration at the University of Hawai‘i. Krysti received her J.D., summa cum laude, from the William S. Richardson School of Law in 2016. During her time in law school, she served as the Managing Editor of the UH Law Review and as a Judicial Extern to the Honorable Mark E. Recktenwald, Hawai‘i Supreme Court. She served as chair of the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic’s Advisory Committee from January 2024 to March 2025.
Melinda (“Minda”) Yamaga
Minda Yamaga is currently a Senior Litigator in the Office of the Federal Public Defender, District of Hawai‘i where she represents criminal defendants charged with violations of federal law. Prior to that, from 2010 to 2015, she worked as a Deputy Public Defender at the State of Hawai‘i Office of the Public Defender. From 2009-2010, she was a law clerk for the Honorable Richard W. Pollack, State of Hawai‘i First Judicial Circuit Judge. Minda received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Hawai‘i and a law degree from the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law. She serves as a Board Member of the Japanese American Citizens League, Honolulu Chapter; the Hawaiʻi Chapter of the Federal Bar Association; and SEEQS Public Charter School.
emeritus Advisory COMMITTEE members
John Robert Egan
John Robert Egan is an experienced Immigration Lawyer and served as Chairperson of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Hawai’i Chapter in 2008-2009. In the early 1990’s he worked as a Field Officer for the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, serving in posts in Mozambique and Malawi. This experience, working to ameliorate the impacts of large-scale forced migration, provided a strong motivation to learn the international laws and protocols related to cross-border population movements.
Before recently retiring as a member of the WSRSL faculty, John taught numerous immigration law courses and served as the Director of Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic, providing students with live-client practice opportunities before the Immigration Court, the various immigration agencies and the Federal Courts of Appeal.
