Eric A. Seitz

Mr. Seitz graduated cum laude from Oberlin College in 1965, and received a law degree in 1969 from the University of California at Berkeley.  After teaching in the Ethnic Studies Program at UH Manoa and serving for four years as a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society, Mr. Seitz entered full time private practice in 1979, emphasizing criminal defense, civil rights, employment, and military litigation.  He has travelled throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia -- including one trip to Afghanistan -- representing American military personnel in a wide variety of proceedings.  He has participated in a range of criminal matters -- trials and appeals -- in the state and federal courts ranging from traffic citations to more than thirty murder cases, successfully pursued civil rights cases involving speech, due process, police misconduct, and prison conditions, including several class actions.  In 1989 he first represented a then-fourteen year old Maui teenager named Jennifer Felix whose name is now commonly associated with enormous improvements in special education and children's mental health programs and services throughout the State of Hawaii.  Over the past twenty-five years Mr. Seitz has advocated for students, parents, teachers, and school administrators in a wide variety of education cases.  He also has represented many professionals -- doctors, lawyers, psychologists, dentists, and others -- in licensing and regulatory matters as well as employees, employers, and small unions and labor organizations in many kinds of employment disputes.

In his current law practice Mr. Seitz and three full time associates handle a variety of cases in the fields in which he has practiced for more than forty years.  More than half of their legal work is uncompensated.  He has taught constitutional law as a Lecturer at the UH School of Law.  In his spare time Mr. Seitz competes in tennis tournaments and leagues, plays recreational soccer, and enjoys traveling -- especially to England where he is an avid soccer fan.