Former city lawyer in line to be general counsel for UH

Former city Corporation Counsel Darrolyn Lendio is in line to become the next vice president for legal affairs and university general counsel for the University of Hawaii system.

The Board of Regents is scheduled to vote next week on Lendio's appointment for the position.

If approved, her contract would begin Sept. 1 and continue until Aug. 31, 2009.

Lendio is a partner in the law firm of McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP and served as city corporation counsel in the Harris administration from 1994 to 1996. She was among a team of attorneys, including her law partner William McCorriston, hired by the Board of Regents to assist the board during the dismissal of former UH President Evan Dobelle.

The previous UH general counsel, Walter Kirimitsu, a former state appellate judge, recently resigned to become president of Saint Louis School.

Kirimitsu, who held the job since 1999, made $256,248 a year.

Lendio's potential salary will not be disclosed until after she is approved for the job, said Carolyn Tanaka, the university's associate vice president for external affairs.

Lendio is a 1983 graduate of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California-Berkeley and got her undergraduate degree in political science and journalism at the University of Southern California. She is also a graduate of Waialua High School.