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The Maui News
The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Thursday to recommend the appointment of District Judge Kirstin Hamman to the 2nd Circuit Court.
The committee, meeting online, also voted to recommend the appointments of Clarissa Malinao, Kevin Morikone and Shanlyn Park to the 1st Circuit Court on Oahu, Wendy DeWeese to the 3rd Circuit Court and Kimberly Taniyama to the 3rd Circuit District Court on Hawaii island.
The full Senate, meeting in special session, is set to vote today on the judicial appointments.
Hamman has been a District Court judge since June 2018, after serving as a per diem or part-time District Court judge for four years.
In a letter finding her qualified to be a 2nd Circuit Court judge, Hawaii State Bar Association President Levi Hookano said Hamman has "dedicated her professional career to public service and the protection of individual civil rights."
She previously had a private practice focusing on family law and special education law. She also worked as an attorney with the Maui County Office of Council Services, the public defender's office and the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii.
"Judge Hamman's passion to help people, and her calm temperament, establish a framework that litigants can understand clearly," Hookano said.
Hamman is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, West Oahu, and the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
She has been licensed to practice law since 1997.
Gov. David Ige selected Hamman from a Judicial Selection Commission list of four nominees to fill the seat previously held by 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo, who retired in May.