Education

J.D., Stone Scholar, Columbia University School of Law

B.S., cum laude, Computational Mathematics, Arizona State University

Licenses

Hawai’i License No. 11695, Admitted November 2022

Washington License No. 42969, Admitted November 2010

 

Makalika Destarte Naholowaʻa

Executive Director

Makalika Naholowaʻa is the Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, the only law firm in the world dedicated exclusively to Native Hawaiian rights. Under her leadership, NHLC’s team of legal professionals serve hundreds of clients each year, including cultural practitioners, kiaʻi, ʻohana, and communities across the lāhui. NHLC advocates before federal and state courts and administrative agencies to uphold Native Hawaiian constitutional protections, government trust duties, and the legal safeguards for Native Hawaiian identity and culture embedded in federal and state law.

Makalika has practiced law for more than 15 years, with a career spanning indigenous rights, intellectual property, technology, and nonprofit leadership. She began in private practice at Perkins Coie LLP, spent eight years at Microsoft Corporation where she led the company’s global trademark practice, served as Chief of Staff to the General Counsel, held the role of Assistant General Counsel, and taught as an Adjunct Professor at Seattle University School of Law. Her background in IP, technology law, and the management of complex legal operations at scale shapes how she leads the firm and approaches the protection of Native Hawaiian rights and culture.

Makalika advises and speaks frequently on the protection of traditional knowledge and cultural intellectual property, an area of law where Indigenous communities face serious gaps in the legal frameworks available to them. She has published on these issues in the ABA Human Rights Magazine, ABA Landslide Magazine, the Hawaiʻi Bar Journal, and World Trademark Review. Makalika also works on this issue in her role as Vice Chair of the Native Hawaiian Intellectual Property Working Group established by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in 2023. Her expertise also extends to the ethical dimensions of AI and technology as they affect Indigenous peoples. She has presented on these topics at the National Judicial College and AISES, and has consulted with the U.S. government, including the USPTO, on the protection of traditional knowledge.

Beyond the practice of law, Makalika is deeply engaged in governance and institutional leadership. She serves as Board Chair of the Women’s Fund of Hawaiʻi and Vice Chair of the Hawaiian Council, and holds board positions with the Native American Rights Fund, the Association on American Indian Affairs, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. She is a Past President of the National Native American Bar Association, where during her tenure the organization celebrated its 50th anniversary, launched new awards recognizing excellence in Native legal leadership, and published the first national study of Native American women attorneys. She is a Commissioner on the Hawaiʻi Access to Justice Commission and a lifetime member of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association.

Makalika is a Hawaiian cultural practitioner and a haumāna hoʻoponopono under Kumu Lynette Paglinawan. In law school she trained under Tonya Gonnella Frichner (Onondaga), a mana wahine who served as North American Representative to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and was a tireless advocate for indigenous peoples worldwide.

Current Leadership and Service

Hawaiʻi
National

Publications

Representative Speaking Engagements

  • Intersectional Advocacy Panel, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy Annual Conference, Chicago, IL (May 2025).
  • Native Hawaiians 101 Webinar, Native Americans in Philanthropy, Virtual (April 2025).
  • Mana Wahine Panel, Actions of Aloha (March 2025).
  • Justice for Women: Using Legal Activism and Strategic Litigation for Social Change, Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, Virtual (March 2025).
  • 2025 Annual Repatriation Conference, Opening Remarks, American Indian Law and Policy Association, Marksville, LA (February 2025).
  • Assessing Hawaiʻi’s Justice System: Addressing Over-Incarceration, Disparities, and Pathways Forward, Hawaiʻi Access to Justice Commission, Honolulu, HI (February 2025).
  • IP and Cultural Property Workshop, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs Convention, Honolulu, HI (November 2024).
  • Indigenous Peoples Day Reframed: Toward an Intersectional, Decolonial and Transnational Vision for Indigenous Sovereignty, Keynote, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO (October 2024).
  • Stewardship of Mauna ʻAla Panel and Stewarding Kanaka Cultural Property, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement Convention, Waikoloa, HI (September 2024).
  • Symposium on Judicial Independence, AI and Judicial Independence Panel, National Judicial College, Boston, MA (March 2024).
  • Deb Haaland and a Panel of Native American Women “Firsts,” Moderator, ABA Presidential Speaker Series (November 2023). Coinciding with the launch of Excluded & Alone.
  • Guest Lecture on Indigenous Land Management and Sovereignty, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT (November 2023).
  • Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Ethical AI Workshop, AISES National Conference (October 2023).
  • Cultural Intellectual Property Panel, NaHHA Ka Huina Convention, Honolulu, HI (October 2023).
  • National Affinity Bar Women Presidents Panel, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession (March 2023).
  • 2023 Access to Justice Conference: 20 Years After Paoakalani, Hawaiʻi Access to Justice Commission, Honolulu, HI (2023).
  • The Hearing — A Legal Podcast, Ep. 128, Thomson Reuters (July 2023).