Banner Community

Community

Like our clients, Cades Schutte is a proud contributor to our community.

We are proud to serve our community with the same commitment that we give to our clients. Through pro bono work, volunteerism, and charitable giving, we ensure our community’s access to the justice system and support Hawai‘i’s nonprofit sector.

Pro Bono Service

Our attorneys regularly accept the representation of individuals and organizations who would otherwise be unable to retain counsel, ensuring that the justice system is available to all who need it. Our pro bono clients receive the same levels of diligence, commitment, and zealous advocacy provided to all of our clients.

Recent pro bono matters include:

  • Advising the Puʻuhonua O Waiʻanae village in its effort to build a community for the unsheltered;
  • Successfully representing a single mother from Guatemala and her two children in an asylum case in the U.S. Immigration Court (our full article detailing this representation);
  • Securing access to public records on behalf of education transparency advocates (our full article detailing this representation);
  • Preserving one of Honolulu’s last natural springs feeding Maunalua Bay;
  • Protecting an ethnobotanical garden on Hawai‘i Island from development in perpetuity (our full article detailing this representation);
  • Representing a World War II Veteran who was forcibly separated from his wife in the State nursing care system (our full article detailing this representation);
  • Assisting a charter school in obtaining a lease for its campus; and
  • Aiding religious and other nonprofit organizations otherwise unable to afford representation in corporate, tax, and transactional matters.

We participate in Legal Lines, a program in which attorneys answer a telephone hotline and provide free legal information to the public (not legal advice), and the Access to Justice Room, which allows attorneys to provide pro bono services to self-represented litigants in Honolulu District Court. Our attorneys also pursue better systems of justice through the leadership of organizations such as the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i, Volunteer Legal Services Hawai‘i, Hawaii Women Lawyers, and the Hawaii State Bar Association. Several attorneys are also lecturers or visiting professors at the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law.

The Legislature of the state of Hawai‘i has recognized, commended, and thanked Cades Schutte for its commitment and dedication to increasing equal access to justice and to selflessly providing legal services without compensation.

Building Our Community

Our attorneys are proud to dedicate their time and resources to support community organizations across Hawai‘i including the following:

  • Partner Trever K. Asam is the firm’s Pro Bono Coordinator and currently serves as the Board President of Volunteer Legal Services Hawai‘ He is the 2020 recipient of the Outstanding Professional Advisor in Philanthropy award from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, which recognizes professional advisors in the community who have demonstrated a personal and professional commitment to philanthropy.
  • Partner David F.E. Banks serves on the board of Hawaii Aquatics Foundation and Accessurf.
  • Associate Pōhai Nu‘uhiwa Campbell is on the Board of Directors for Hawaii Women Lawyers and the Hawai‘i Nature Center.
  • Partner John P. Duchemin serves on the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i
  • Associate Stacey F. Gray sits on the Board of Directors of the Early School and the Ambassador Board of the Blue Planet Foundation.
  • Partner Rhonda L. Griswold has served as former President and current Director of Hawai‘i Women’s Legal Foundation, Secretary and Director of the Hawaii Justice Foundation, and Treasurer and Director of The Cades Foundation, among other roles. In 2021, Rhonda was awarded the Spirit of Justice Award by the Hawaii Justice Foundation for her contributions.
  • Partner Martin E. Hsia serves on the Board of Directors for Hawaii Youth Symphony Association.
  • Senior Counsel Grace Nihei Kido is on the board of the Hazel H. Takumi Foundation.
  • Partner Michele S. Loudermilk serves as a Director for Family Programs Hawai‘i and as Vice President, Secretary, and Director of The Cades Foundation.
  • Partner Chris S. Mashiba volunteers his time and talents with the DCCA Business Action Center, providing assistance to entrepreneurs and the community, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the River of Life Mission. He taught Corporate and Partnership Taxation as an adjunct professor at the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law and continues to periodically provide pro bono legal advice to various Christian churches in Hawai‘i.
  • Senior Counsel Cary S. Matsushige is Director and Secretary of the Hazel H. Takumi Foundation and Secretary/Treasurer/Director of the Hawaii Cat Foundation, a Hawaii nonprofit corporation with IRC 501(c)(3) status.
  • Senior Counsel Colin O. Miwa is an active member of the American Judicature Society (AJS) and a recipient of the 2021 AJS Special Merit Citation, having served on the AJS Board of Directors since 2009 and actively participating on several of its committees. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Diamond Head Theatre (DHT) since 2015 and is currently the Chair-Elect and Chair of the Facilities Committee working on the construction of DHT’s new theater.
  • Partner Allison Mizuo Lee is the past president of the Kaua‘i Bar Association, has staffed the Kaua‘i Self-Help Center and Disaster Relief Clinic to aid victims of the historic Hanalei flood, and has participated as a volunteer attorney for the Courts in the Community program.
  • Partner Michi Momose is past president of Hawaii Women Lawyers, a local non-profit organization with approximately 300 members committed to improving the lives and careers of women in the legal profession, enhancing the status of women, and promoting equal opportunities for all people.
  • Senior Counsel Peter S. Olson is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF). The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission, the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally.
  • Partner Jeffrey S. Portnoy has served for twenty-five years as the Board President at Manoa Valley Theatre and is a Past President of the Hawaii State Bar Association.
  • Partner Summer G. Shelverton is on the Board of Directors for Community Helping Schools and is the former chair of the Probate Estate Planning and Elder Law sections of the Hawaii State Bar Association.
  • Partner W. Keoni Shultz is on the Board of Directors for the Coalition for a Drug Free Hawaii.
  • Partner Andrea K. Ushijima serves as a Director for the Real Property and Financial Services Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association, and also serves on the Board of Managers for the Nu‘uanu YMCA, and on the Board of Directors for Ballet Hawaii.

The Cades Foundation

Separate from the firm’s continuing charitable giving, The Cades Foundation, founded in 1991 by firm partners Russell and Milton Cades, is a non-profit that supports our community by promoting advocacy, volunteerism, and funding support.

Since its organization, The Cades Foundation is among the largest private funders of arts in Hawai‘i.

With a mission to support efforts that promote innovation in academics, medicine, and the arts, as well as the improvement of the legal profession and promotion of justice in Hawai‘i, the Foundation’s contributions support organizations that promote education, the well-being of children, the arts, and health and human services.

We are proud to support the following organizations:

  • Aloha United Way
  • American Heart Association (Hawai‘i Chapter)
  • American Red Cross (Hawai‘i Chapter)
  • Artists For Appleseed
  • Assets School
  • Ballet Hawaii
  • Bamboo Ridge Press
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters
  • Bishop Museum
  • Boys And Girls Club Of Hawaii
  • Chamber Music Hawai‘i
  • Diamond Head Theatre
  • Family Programs Hawaii
  • Family Promise of Hawai‘i
  • Hanahau‘oli School
  • Hawai‘i Contemporary
  • Hawai‘i Foodbank
  • Hawaii Justice Foundation (Access To Justice)
  • Hawai‘i Opera Theatre
  • Hawai‘i Public Radio
  • Pacific Business News Awards
  • Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra
  • Hawaii Theatre Center
  • Hawaii Youth Symphony Association
  • Hawaiian Humane Society
  • Helping Hands Hawai‘i
  • Historic Hawai‘i Foundation
  • Honolulu Chamber Music Series
  • Honolulu Museum Of Art
  • Honolulu Theatre For Youth
  • HUGS (Help, Understanding and Group Support)
  • Institute for Human Services, Inc.
  • ‘Iolani School
  • Le Jardin Academy
  • Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i
  • MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
  • Manoa Heritage Center
  • Manoa Valley Theatre
  • McKinley High School Foundation
  • Mid-Pacific Institute
  • Pacific Resources for Education and Learning
  • PBS (Hawai‘i)
  • Sex Abuse Treatment Center
  • Tax Foundation of Hawaii
  • Teach For America (Hawai‘i Chapter)
  • The Nature Conservancy
  • University of Hawai‘i Foundation
  • Volunteer Legal Services Hawai‘i
  • William S. Richardson School of Law

Bg Cta Scaled

Cades in the Community

We continually strive to exceed the expectations of our clients and community. If there is a single trait all Cades Schutte attorneys have in common, it is the drive for excellence and to be leaders in the legal community. Learn more about what we’ve done recently.