Isle lawyer to In his more than 25 years as a private attorney in Honolulu, Richard Clifton knew he eventually wanted to be a judge.
take seat on
federal appeals court
Colleagues say that Richard Clifton
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will be a welcome additionBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comSo Clifton, who has represented the local Republican party for 10 years, did not hesitate when the rare opportunity arose after President Bush was elected and there were vacancies on the federal bench.
"There's things I'll miss about private practice, but I knew at that point in my career if I was going to be a judge, it was the right time," said Clifton, 51, the newest judge to be appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Clifton will be invested in a ceremony today in U.S. District Court by Chief Judge Mary Schroeder of the 9th Circuit. He is the second Hawaii judge since statehood to be appointed to the nation's second-highest court.
In legal circles, Clifton is regarded as a solid choice for the federal appeals court. Supporters point to how he sailed through confirmation in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate where other nominations have stalled.
State Rep. Barbara Marumoto (R, Kahala), who nominated Clifton, said his credentials carried him through the arduous confirmation process.
In 1977, Clifton joined Cades Schutte Fleming & Wright, one of the state's largest and oldest law firms, where he specialized in business and commercial litigation. He became a partner in 1982 and was with the firm until his appointment in July.
Over the years, Clifton made a name for himself as one of the firm's most sophisticated and talented litigators, said Nick Dreher, a longtime friend and partner at Cades.
Clifton has the creativity and ability to work with people and get them to cooperate with each other, Dreher said. "He has a great sense of compassion, humor and perspective I think will be a welcome contribution to the appellate court," he said.
"People in town find him to be extraordinarily honest, very bright, a very tough litigator but someone who clearly plays within all the rules," said Jeffrey Portnoy, another civil litigator who has worked with Clifton for nearly three decades.
As a graduate of Princeton and Yale, Clifton's intellect impressed his colleagues. But it was the intellectual practice of law that Clifton really wanted to focus on, Portnoy said.
"He wasn't interested in being a trial judge. His interest lied in writing precedent, writing decisions that would provide precedent for future lawyers," he said.
Clifton was fresh out of Yale Law School in 1975 when he had his first contact with the bench. Originally from Chicago, he came to Hawaii to clerk for Senior Circuit Judge Herbert Choy, the first federal judge from Hawaii to be appointed to the Court of Appeals. During that year, Clifton said, he was drawn to the appellate court's "fascinating and important work."
Now that he's becoming a judge, Clifton said he tries to take his work seriously without taking himself too seriously. Some judges feel that upon becoming a judge, they're "next to God," he said.
"I'm mindful about it that I don't want to take myself as an individual so seriously that I forget that I'm the same guy I've always been, but that the work is so important that it has to be taken seriously," Clifton said.
"I'm honored by the opportunity and intend to do everything I can to live up to the trust and confidence of the people who gave me this opportunity," he added.
The 9th Circuit is based in San Francisco, but Clifton will maintain chambers here. Because there is no room at the federal courthouse, he expects to move into offices in the First Hawaiian Bank building.
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Age: 51 Richard Clifton
Married: 14 years to Terry
Children: David, 12, and Katherine, 10
Position: Circuit Judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles federal appeals from nine states, including Hawaii and Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Other states are California, Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska and Washington.
Hobbies: Diehard fan of the Chicago Cubs (his office is full of Cubs memorabilia and his car's license plate reads CUBS); also pitches for the Bad News Barristers, Cades' softball team.
