David M. Forman '93

David M. Forman is Co-Director of the Environmental Law Program (ELP), in addition to his affiliations with both the Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law and the Pacific-Asian Legal Studies program.  He is a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL), as well as the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP), and an active participant in the IUCN's Academy of Environmental Law.  He is a co-founder of the Tony Oposa Intergenerational Moot Court, an innovative, collaborative moot court designed to highlight cutting edge international issues and their impact on future generations.  See, e.g., https://manoa.hawaii.edu/elp/tea-with-elp/tony-oposa-intergenerational-moot-court/.

 

Mr. Forman joined the Law School faculty full-time in Summer 2010, and teaches: Administrative Law, Domestic Ocean and Coastal Law, Appellate Advocacy, Food Law and Policy, in addition to the legal writing courses Lawyering Fundamentals I and Second Year Seminar. He previously served as the Law School's Faculty Pro Bono Advisor from 1998-1999, co-taught an Advanced Legal Seminar on Reparations with Professor Eric Yamamoto in 2006, and served as an Adjunct Professor/Lecturer in Appellate Advocacy (then Legal Practice II) from 2006-2010. He served as ELP Interim Director from July 2011-March 2014, and ELP Director from March 2014-June 2022.

 

Mr. Forman is a 1993 graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law, and served on the University of Hawai‘i Law Review. He received one of three initial Environmental Law Certificates issued by the Law School, and also obtained a Graduate Ocean Policy Certificate from the School of Oceans, Earth Sciences & Technology at the University of Hawai‘i. Mr. Forman was a member of the law school’s first National Environmental Law Moot Court team in 1991, and its 1993 Jessup International Law Moot Court team (national champions, runners-up in the international finals, and recipient of the Dillard Award for Best Memorial in the World Regional Rounds). He also took a year-long leave of absence from law school as a John A. Knauss National Sea Grant/National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fellow in Washington, D.C.

 

Mr. Forman began his legal career as an Ocean Policy Consultant for the Pacific Basin Development Group. His diverse professional experience includes stints as: Clerk for Associate Justice Robert G. Klein (retired) of the Hawai’i Supreme Court, Jan. 1994-Aug. 1996; Staff Attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Nov. 1996-Dec. 1997; Executive Director of the Hawaii Appleseed Public Interest Law Center, Oct. 1997-Mar. 2002; Associate Attorney with Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, Mar. 2000-May 2004; and, Enforcement Attorney with the Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission, June 2004-July 2010.

 

Appointed to the Hawai‘i State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1995, Mr. Forman served two terms as Chairperson until the imposition of term limits in 2006. He is a Past President of the Hawai‘i Filipino Lawyers Association and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Honolulu chapter. He served as Chair of the Public Relations and Marketing Committee for the 75th Anniversary JACL National Convention (2002-2004). In 1998, the Hawai‘i State Legislature appointed him to the PASH Study Group (on traditional and customary Native Hawaiian rights), and the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission appointed him to its Ocean Management Advisory Group (1998-2000).

 

Mr. Forman has written numerous articles and delivered multiple presentations on environmental and cultural resources law, civil rights, and social justice issues. .  

 

In New Roles, Forman '93 and Baker Will Expand UH Law School’s Environmental Law Program