Clerkships

Judge Marcia J. Waldorf (ret), First Circuit Court

Education

J.D., University of Hawai’i Richardson School of Law

B.A., Sociology & Spanish, Brandeis University

Kirsha Kaulukane Milianani Durante

Litigation Director

Kirsha Kaulukane Milianani Durante directs litigation for both of NHLC’s practice groups, including the ʻOhana and Lāhui service teams. In this role, Kirsha leads NHLC’s provision of legal services and the development of effective advocacy strategies to achieve clients’ goals and achieve NHLC’s mission.

Prior to the joining the NHLC litigation team, Kirsha was a senior trial attorney at the Office of the Public Defender for sixteen years. While at the Office of the Public Defender, Kirsha took over sixty cases to jury trial, and presented oral arguments on multiple occasions before both the Intermediate Court of Appeals and the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court.

Kirsha has served as a member of the Hawaiʻi State Bar Association Judicial Administration Committee for several years helping to organize the Bench-Bar Conference and the Criminal Law Forum in alternating years. She also serves as a director for the Native Hawaiian Bar Association.

Raised in Wahiawā, Kirsha now resides in Kailua. She has danced hula since she was five and completed the ʻūniki process as an ʻōlapa under nā kumu hula, Michael Lanakila Casupang and Karl Veto Baker of Hālau i ka Wēkiu. As a cultural practitioner, Kirsha understands the critical importance of NHLC’s work protecting Hawaiian culture, and she is honored to be of service to the lāhui.