On December 27, 2022, the Honolulu law firm of Clay Chapman Iwamura Pulice & Nervell, AAL, ALC was changed to Clay Iwamura Pulice & Nervell, AAL, ALC. The change, done quietly and without fanfare, was necessitated by the resignation of named partner Robert Chapman, who gave up his law license to avoid being disbarred for “egregious violations” of nine different provisions of the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct, which govern attorneys who practice in the state.
Pacific Business News, in the annual update to to its list of Hawaii’s Top 50 law firms published last week, ranked the firm as the 14th largest law firm in the state.
Chapman took advantage of the option of resigning in lieu of discipline after the Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed a petition asking the Hawaii Supreme Court to suspend him from the practice of law while it moved forward with a formal disciplinary hearing, which would lead to Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and a formal Recommendation for Discipline. Among the words that appear most frequently in ODC’s petition to the Supreme Court are “fraud” and “fraudulent,” terms that no lawyer wants to hear applied to their work.
I reviewed the underlying allegations in an earlier post (“Fraud allegations lead to resignation of prominent business attorney“).
In an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court on January 5, Chapman turned over his original law license issued on September 26, 1980, and signed by then-Chief Justice William S. Richardson.
Chapman reported that he had not arranged to return case files to any clients because each client for whom he performed any services were clients of the firm.
“Each and every one became a client of the Firm, not of myself personally,” Chapman wrote.
“I do not maintain a presence in an office where the practice of law is maintained.”
End of career.
Given the nature of the allegations presented by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel based on its staff investigation, it seems odd that no mainstream media have reported on the circumstances of Chapman’s resignation from the practice of law. To the best of my knowledge, only Andrew Walden’s Hawaii Free Press reported the story.
But I suppose it’s just par for the course. Findings by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel are rarely reported on. And a recent article in Civil Beat reported most ODC cases involve private attorneys in solo practice or with small firms. Tackling a well-known attorney in a larger firm is unusual. That’s one reason I thought this case would be news. Go figure.
It’s a huge void in reporting, similar to the failure to provide ongoing coverage of the internal workings and politics of Hawaii unions, another of my pet peeves.
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We all know that Honolulu Magazine’s and Pacific Business News “lists” issues – ie Best Doctors, Best Lawyers, Biggest Law Firms etc etc are 100% pay to play, and the former Chapman Clay firm was PAYING. So those media companies aren’t going to touch this story especially since they are counting on future business from this firm.
That leaves the Star Advertiser, Civil Beat, and broadcast/radio news. This is pretty sensational, forging documents to get $2m in unclaimed property! Not sure why Hawaii News Now, KHON2, and KITV aren’t going after it. Maybe they are afraid other law firms won’t advertise. As far as the Star Advertiser goes, I’m sure one of the 30+ attorneys at this firm has a friend on the inside at the Advertiser, if not Chapman himself.
I hope you continue reporting on this, Ian. Chapman was our family attorney for over a decade, and not only did his billing become more erratic over the last few years, but his productivity and ability to resolve matters decreased. Now we are left to wonder whether he was purposely trying to increase our legal bills, or worse, colluding with the opposite side.
In-depth investigative journalism of “non sexy” stories here are now solely in the hands of independent citizen journalists or formerly active mainstream journals such as yourself.
The reality is, as we all know, independent print journalism is dying a slow, protracted death and any outlet that survives is usually part of a large corporate owned entity that falls in line across the board with reporting what the owner’s corporate ideology is.
There are some that choose to go all online but they too have learned they need money to attract good journalists and more and more frequently, the line is blurred between journalism and sensationalism.
TV news is another matter entirely. There used to be a solid group of dedicated and excellent TV reporters (mostly veterans of print) here in Hawaii but even they have scattered in the wind with many moving on to less stressful and probably just as secure pay in government as “spokespersons” or public relations shills for organizations like HART. TV news is now mostly endless updates on the weather, rehashing press releases, sports and chasing whatever comes out on the police/fire/ambulance monitor. I’m guessing TV stations must have a news entity in order to keep their licenses and maintain that altruistic mission of “serving the public good”?
I hold some hope that organizations like Pro Publica, NPR and various other sites that are still not paywalled completely like The Guardian, The Atlantic or Mother Jones can continue their ways but they serve a very specific audience that aren’t as afflicted with ADD as those tuned into cable “news” 24-7.
Anyway, I enjoy reading your articles and if you even put up a donation link, I’m sure I’d throw in a few shekels once in a while 😉
Disappointing for sure, but I’m glad to see that you’re still reporting things like this.
You fill a big void Ian!
Accountability is a must. This attorney avoided that, proudly with his firms approval. Shame.
We know that corruption is thick everywhere and paradise is no exception. At least you get a side of Shaka with it.
Where did you see anything that indicated the firm not only knew what Chapman did but approved of it as well?
one of my many cases I investigated while at ODC