Chief Justice Appoints District Court Judge

HONOLULU - Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald today appointed Michelle N. Comeau to fill a judicial vacancy in the District Court of the First Circuit (island of O'ahu).

Comeau has been serving as a Per Diem District Court Judge since 2017. She is currently affiliated Of Counsel with the firm of Nakashima Ching, LLC where she focuses on property law and other civil matters. Prior to that she was with Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing litigating civil rights, torts, property law, and regulatory law matters, and served as an associate at Morrison & Foerster, LLP in Los Angeles. She also served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway, and to Judge A. Wallace Tashima at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and was admitted to the Hawaiʻi State Bar in 2011.

The Chief Justice made his appointment from the nomination list presented to him by the Judicial Selection Commission on March 1, 2024. The appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.