COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

 

Doug Chin, Attorney General of Hawaii 

Hawaii Governor David Y. Ige appointed Doug Chin to become Hawaii’s Attorney General in January 2015 and he was unanimously confirmed by the State Senate on March 15, 2015. Since taking office, he has prosecuted high-profile public corruption cases, negotiated a generous monetary settlement that included environmental mitigation remedies after one of the nation’s largest shipping companies dumped a quarter million gallons of molasses into Honolulu Harbor in 2013, and completed the state’s largest-ever conservation easement land deal on Oahu’s world-famous North Shore. 

The son of Chinese immigrants, Chin was born on July 21, 1966. He graduated from Stanford University and received his law degree from the University of Hawaii.
 

Early Life and Education

After moving to the U.S., Chin’s parents settled in Seattle.  Chin’s father worked as a civil engineer and his mother was a career librarian in the University of Washington system.  They raised Chin and his older sister in the Puget Sound area.  

After graduating from Newport High School in Bellevue, Chin studied English at Stanford University, from where he graduated with honors in 1988.  Chin then worked for IBM in the Bay Area and Honolulu before attending the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii.  In law school, Chin excelled in moot court competitions and in 1995, his team was awarded Best Memorial Brief in the national and international Philip T. Jessup Moot Court Competition.

Career

Chin started his legal career at the Honolulu prosecutor's office in 1998, where he tried approximately fifty jury cases to verdict.  Chin obtained guilty verdicts in notorious cases including a brutal rape-murder committed by the victim’s neighbor and a serial rapist of Honolulu prostitutes.  He was recognized with a “Top Gun” award for winning the most trials in a calendar year out of 100 Honolulu prosecutors.  In 2006, Chin was appointed first deputy prosecutor and later acting prosecutor in 2010.

From 2010 to 2013, under Honolulu mayor Peter B. Carlisle, Chin served as managing director for the City and County of Honolulu, serving a population of almost one million residents on the island of Oahu.  Chin was directly responsible for 23 municipal government and public safety agencies and approximately 10,000 employees with an annual operating budget of $2 billion.  In 2011, Chin oversaw city operations when Honolulu became the first U.S. city to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit since 1992, an event attended by the leaders of 22 economies, including the United States, China, Russia and Japan.  Chin also negotiated tough matters ranging from public employee contracts to energy sustainability initiatives.

Positions

While Attorney General of Hawaii, Chin issued a formal opinion in 2016 recognizing the state’s long-time prohibition against gambling in all forms, including daily fantasy sports.  “Gambling generally occurs under Hawaii law when a person stakes or risks something of value upon a game of chance or upon any future contingent event not under the person’s control,” Chin wrote. “The technology may have changed, but the vice has not.”

Chin has successfully advocated for legislation in support of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  When medical marijuana dispensaries were legalized in Hawaii, he held firm on the inclusion of strict law enforcement terms to regulate the industry. 

As Attorney General, Chin has been an advocate for the rights of minorities and disenfranchised portions of the population.  In 2017, on behalf of the state, he filed a lawsuit against the President’s executive order instituting a ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority nations.  “What makes our country special and a beacon across the world is its inclusive democracy and the rule of law,” Chin said at the time. “Everyone in the United States, including the President, must follow the law and follow the Constitution.”

 

Personal Life

Outside of work, Chin has served on the board of the local YMCA and American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO).  He was awarded Honolulu AYSO’s “Volunteer of the Year” Award for two consecutive years.  Chin has also been a board member for the American Judicature Society since 2007, during which he has served on several task forces related to courts systems and justice. Chin is married and the proud father of two teenage children.

Chin lives with his wife, Kathleen, and his son, Ian, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His daughter, Fiona, is a college student in Philadelphia. He has two dogs, Aristotle and River, and a perfect sense of pitch.