Jerry M. Hiatt graduated
with honors from Harvard University in 1973. He received his J.D.
from the University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law in
1977 under a grant from the East-West Center. During his final year
of law school, he attended Harvard Law School and was selected as an editor
of the Harvard Environmental Law Review. Mr. Hiatt clerked for the
firm of Baker and McKenzie in Hong Kong in 1975 and then for the firm
now known as Carlsmith Ball LLC in 1976. He joined the Carlsmith
firm in 1977 as an associate. He became a partner there in 1983
and assisted Mr. Bays in directing the Real Estate and Business Litigation
section of that firm, before leaving to help form Bays Deaver Hiatt Kawachika
& Lezak in 1986. He founded his own firm in January 2001 and
now has a general civil litigation practice in Kamuela, Hawaii.
Some of the cases he
has personally either tried, arbitrated and/or handled on appeal include:
Mathewson v. Aloha Airlines, Inc., 82 Haw. 57, 919 P.2d 969 (1996);
Calleon v. Miyagi, 76 Haw. 310, 876 P.2d 1278 (1994); Stratton
v. Hawaii Electric Light Company, No. 95-16142 (9th Cir., Dec. 16,
1996); Morishige v. Spencecliff, 720 F.Supp. 829, U.S.D.C. (D.
Haw., 8/4/89); Mailhiot v. Grand Wailea Co., 85 Haw. 83, 937 P.2d
924 (1997); Pancakes of Hawaii v. Pomare Properties Corp., 85 Haw.
286, 944 P.2d 83 (App. 1997); Finley v. Home Insurance et al.,
Supreme Ct. #20830 (1998); Gonsalves v. Nissan, No. 23505, Hawaii
Supreme Court; Morita v. County of Hawaii, No. 25304, Hawaii Supreme
Court; In Re the Matter of The Marilyn Mueller Goss Family and Marital
Trusts, T. No. 03-1-0023, First Circuit Court; In Re The Ferdinand
John Henry Schnack and Mary Pearson Schnack Trust, S.P. No. 92-0268;
and Jaz, Inc. v. Foley, 85 P.3d 1099 (Hawai`i App. 2004).
He has extensive trial and arbitration experience in estate, corporate,
partnership, construction, medical malpractice, legal malpractice, real
property, banking and labor and employment matters for both management
and individuals.
Mr. Hiatt is rated "Av" in the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory
(a peer rating which denotes very high to preeminent legal ability).
He has been included in the publication, Best Lawyers in America,
each year from 1994 through the present. He is a member of the American
Board of Trial Advocates ("ABOTA") and the National Board of
Trial Advocacy ("NBTA"). Mr. Hiatt is also a mediator
and an arbitrator for Dispute Prevention & Resolution, Inc. ("DPR")
and a mediator for the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD).
Mr. Hiatt's current clients include, Hyatt Hotels, Hawaiian Electric Company,
Hawaii Electric Light Company, Waikoloa Village Community Association,
and the Waikoloa Land Company. Clients for whom work has been concluded
include Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons Hualalai, the County
of Hawaii, the State of Hawaii, Pomare, Ltd., and its President James
Romig, Norman Fogelsong, Managing Director and General Partner of Institutional
Venture Partners (IVP), Arthur Levinson, the Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Genentech, Inc., Jack Gifford, President of Maxim Integrated
Products, Continental Pacific, LLC, and Kohala Ranch Community Association.
