Attorney is finalist for state Supreme Court
Maui’s Ben Lowenthal, deputy public defender, one of four in running
The Maui News
Ben Lowenthal, a deputy public defender on Maui, is among four nominees for an associate justice position on the state Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, the Judicial Selection Commission submitted the list of nominees to Gov. David Ige, who has 30 days to make the appointment to the state’s highest court.
The seat has been vacant since Justice Richard Pollack retired in June.
The other nominees are Todd Eddins, a 1st Circuit judge since 2017; David Forman, director of the Environmental Law Program at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; and Darolyn Lendio Heim, a District Court judge in Honolulu.
Lowenthal, a Baldwin High School graduate, was a law clerk for Judge Corinne Watanabe of the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Honolulu and worked as an attorney in private practice before becoming a deputy public defender.
Lowenthal attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, Maui Community College and San Francisco State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. In 2003, he received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.
His award-winning column “The State of Aloha” appears every other Friday in The Maui News.
People can submit comments on any of the nominees at https://governor.hawaii.gov/contact-us/comments-regarding-judicial-nominees/.
The nomination is subject to state Senate confirmation.
Justices are appointed for a 10-year term.
Nine people, including one woman and eight men, applied for the seat. Two were government attorneys, two were private attorneys and four were judges.
Four applicants were between ages 51 and 60 and four were between ages 61 and 70. One was between ages 31 and 40. The number of years applicants have been licensed to practice law ranged from 13 to 37.