Name: Richard Turbin
Age: 52
Position: Vice chair, ABA tort/insurance practice
First job: Making souvenirs
Hobbies: Reading history, tennis

Tackling torts for the ABA

Honolulu attorney Richard Turbin has been elected vice chairman of the tort and insurance practice section of the American Bar Association.

This is the first time a Hawaii attorney has headed the tort and insurance practice section, he said. It is the fourth largest section of the ABA with about 30,000 members.

"Tort and insurance law needs some fixing but, at the same time, we must protect the rights of the common citizen," he said.

Turbin will take over as chairman in August 1999, and he hopes to organize a national meeting of attorneys in Hawaii during the spring of 2000.

Turbin graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell University and earned his law degree at Harvard University. He started his career in 1969.

He has been chairman of the Waialae Kahala Neighborhood Board since 1990. He also is a board director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

---

By Jerry Tune, Star-Bulletin