Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct: Duties, Fees, Discipline

The Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct, adopted and maintained by the Hawai’i Supreme Court, set the binding ethical standards every attorney licensed in the state must follow. They cover competence, confidentiality, loyalty, fees, advertising, and how a lawyer ends a case, and they borrow heavily from the ABA Model Rules while adding two Hawaii-specific wrinkles: a mandatory duty to disclose certain client fraud, and a 30-day waiting period before soliciting personal injury victims. Violations are investigated by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and can lead to sanctions as serious as disbarment.

What Every Client Can Expect: Competence, Diligence, Communication

Three duties run through nearly every attorney-client relationship in Hawaii. Rule 1.1 requires competence, meaning the legal knowledge, skill, and preparation a matter actually demands, including staying current with developments in the law and relevant legal technology.¹ A real estate lawyer who takes on a complicated tax dispute cannot wing it; they either learn the area properly or bring in someone who already knows it.

Rule 1.3 requires reasonable diligence. Attorneys are expected to control their caseloads so each client receives real attention, and to push a matter forward despite obstacles or personal inconvenience. Rule 1.4 requires them to keep clients reasonably informed and respond promptly to reasonable requests for information.¹ Poor communication is one of the most common complaints clients file, and it often points to deeper problems in how a case is being handled.

Running underneath all of this, Rule 8.4 prohibits dishonesty, fraud, or criminal conduct in any professional or personal setting. The misconduct does not have to occur during client representation to be a violation.¹

Confidentiality and Its Limits

Rule 1.6(a) bars an attorney from revealing information related to a client’s representation without informed consent. The protection covers everything the client shares, not just formal meetings, and extends to email, text, and electronic files.¹

Rule 1.6(b) permits disclosure in several limited situations when the attorney reasonably believes it is necessary: to prevent a client from committing a crime or fraud likely to cause death, serious bodily harm, or substantial financial injury to another person; to mitigate the consequences of a client’s past criminal or fraudulent act when the attorney’s services were used to carry it out; to seek ethics advice; to defend the attorney in a dispute with the client; or to comply with a court order or other law. Hawaii adds two provisions for government lawyers not in the ABA model: a government attorney may disclose to prevent, or to address, a public official’s or agency’s criminal or illegal act likely to harm the public.²

Rule 1.6(c) is where Hawaii departs sharply from most states. When a client’s criminal or fraudulent act was carried out using the attorney’s services and has caused substantial financial injury to another person, disclosure is required, not optional.² An attorney who discovers their work was used to facilitate fraud resulting in real financial harm must disclose enough information to address the consequences. The ABA model and most jurisdictions leave this to the lawyer’s discretion. Hawaii does not.

Conflicts of Interest

Rule 1.7 prohibits taking on a representation that creates a concurrent conflict. A conflict exists when work for one client would be directly adverse to another, or when there is a significant risk that the attorney’s responsibilities to another client, a former client, a third person, or the attorney’s own interests would materially limit the representation.¹ A conflict check is expected before any new matter.

Rule 1.9 carries loyalty forward to former clients. An attorney cannot later take on a different client in the same or a substantially related matter against a former client without that former client’s informed written consent, and cannot use or reveal information from the earlier representation to that former client’s disadvantage.¹

Rule 1.8 covers specific recurring problems. A business transaction between attorney and client requires fair and reasonable terms disclosed in writing, written advice to the client to consider getting independent counsel, and the client’s written consent to the arrangement and to the attorney’s role in it.¹ The paperwork reflects the power imbalance in the relationship.

Fees and Client Money

Rule 1.5 requires fees to be reasonable, measured against factors including time and labor, complexity, the attorney’s experience, and the customary fee for similar work. Fee structures should be communicated in writing at the start of representation, and contingent fee agreements must always be written and must clearly explain how the fee is calculated.¹

Rule 1.15 requires client funds to be kept entirely separate from the attorney’s own money. Client money goes into a dedicated trust account, records must be complete, and the attorney must account for the funds on request.¹ Commingling is one of the most common grounds for serious discipline. An attorney may deposit only enough personal funds to cover bank service charges on the trust account.

When client deposits are too small or too short-term to earn meaningful interest for the client individually, the funds go into an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA). The interest earned flows to the Hawai’i Justice Foundation and similar organizations that fund legal aid. The Rules Governing Trust Accounting require annual compliance certification, and failing to certify can lead to administrative suspension.³

Rule 5.4 generally bars attorneys from sharing legal fees with non-lawyers, which protects the attorney’s independent judgment from outside business pressures. Narrow exceptions cover payments to a deceased attorney’s estate, purchase of a deceased or disabled attorney’s practice, profit-sharing retirement plans that include non-lawyer employees, and sharing court-awarded fees with a nonprofit that referred the case.¹

Advertising and Solicitation

Rule 7.1 prohibits false or misleading communication about an attorney’s services, including statements that omit something necessary to keep the overall message from being deceptive.¹ Rule 7.2 permits advertising through any medium, provided each ad names at least one responsible attorney or firm with contact information.

Hawaii’s Rule 7.3 is stricter than the ABA model on direct solicitation. In-person, live telephone, or real-time electronic contact to solicit business is prohibited when a significant motive is money, unless the person contacted has a family, close personal, or prior professional relationship with the attorney. Hawaii does not include the ABA exception for people who routinely use similar legal services in business.¹

Written solicitation in personal injury and wrongful death cases carries an added restriction. An attorney cannot send a solicitation letter to an accident victim or the victim’s family until at least 30 days after the incident. All written or electronic solicitation to someone known to need legal help in a specific matter must carry the label “Advertising Material” on the envelope and at the beginning and end of any recorded or electronic communication.¹

Ending the Representation

Rule 1.16 draws a line between mandatory and permissive withdrawal. An attorney must withdraw when continuing would violate the ethics rules or other law, when the attorney’s physical or mental condition seriously impairs the ability to handle the case, or when the client fires them.¹

An attorney may withdraw in several other situations: the client insists on a course the attorney reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent; the client fails to meet financial obligations after fair warning; the representation has become an unreasonable financial burden; or there is a fundamental disagreement about the client’s chosen course of action. If a case is pending in court, the attorney needs the court’s permission to step away, and the court can order the attorney to continue even when good cause exists.¹

Whatever the reason for termination, Rule 1.16(d) requires the departing attorney to protect the client’s interests: give reasonable notice, allow time to hire new counsel, surrender the client’s papers and property, and refund any unearned fees or unused expense advances. Hawaii’s comments clarify that clients are generally entitled to the entire file, with narrow exceptions for purely internal firm documents, materials subject to third-party confidentiality obligations, and documents under court-ordered restriction.¹

Reporting Another Lawyer

Rule 8.3 obligates a lawyer who knows another lawyer has committed an ethics violation raising a substantial question about honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness to practice to report it to the appropriate authority. The same duty applies to judicial misconduct raising a substantial question about a judge’s fitness for office. “Substantial” refers to the seriousness of the potential offense, not how much evidence the reporting lawyer has. Two exceptions apply: information protected by Rule 1.6 confidentiality, and information gained through the state’s Attorneys and Judges Assistance Program, which exists so lawyers and judges can seek treatment without triggering a report.¹

How Discipline Works

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) investigates and prosecutes ethics complaints. The Disciplinary Board of the Hawai’i Supreme Court reviews ODC’s work and has authority to impose some sanctions directly while recommending others to the Supreme Court.⁴

Sanctions, from least to most severe:

Private informal admonition, issued by the ODC or the Disciplinary Board for minor violations.
Private reprimand, a more formal private sanction imposed by the Board with the consent of the attorney and the ODC.
Public reprimand, imposed by the Board with the same consent, but entered on the public record.
Public censure, issued by the Hawai’i Supreme Court.
Suspension, ordered by the Supreme Court for up to five years.
Disbarment, ordered by the Supreme Court, permanently revoking the license.

Private and public reprimands are final at the Board level when the attorney and the ODC both consent. Suspension and disbarment recommendations go to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.⁵

Filing a Complaint

Anyone can file a complaint against a Hawaii attorney. The complaint must be written, signed, and submitted on paper to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel; electronic submissions are not accepted. Include a detailed explanation and supporting documents such as the fee agreement, correspondence, cancelled checks, and any relevant court filings.⁶

After intake, the ODC decides whether investigation is warranted. A finding that a rule was violated requires clear and convincing evidence. If the ODC determines that a finding of liability and discipline is unlikely, it closes the investigation and notifies the complainant in writing. The ODC also keeps discretion not to pursue a complaint even where evidence of a violation exists, when discipline would be unlikely.⁶

CLE and Unauthorized Practice

Hawaii’s continuing legal education requirement is among the lightest in the country. Active bar members must complete at least 3 CLE credit hours each calendar year, and at least once every three years one of those hours must be ethics or professional responsibility (which still counts toward the 3-hour annual total).⁷ Newly admitted attorneys must also complete a specific Hawaii Professionalism course by December 31 of the first full calendar year after admission.⁸ An attorney who falls short gets a certified notice of noncompliance from the HSBA Executive Director and has 15 days to prove the hours were completed, show the notice was issued in error, or resign. Failing all three brings automatic suspension.⁹

Hawai’i Revised Statutes Section 605-14 makes it unlawful to practice law or offer to practice law in Hawaii without authorization from an appropriate court, agency, or statute, and unauthorized practice is treated as criminal contempt under HRS Section 710-1077.¹⁰ For out-of-state attorneys, Rule 5.5 allows limited temporary practice in Hawaii in good standing when working with a locally admitted attorney who actively participates, when the work relates to a proceeding where the out-of-state attorney is authorized to appear, or when the services arise from arbitration, mediation, or other work reasonably connected to the attorney’s home-state practice.¹ Going beyond those narrow situations without Hawaii admission is itself an ethics violation.

Pro Bono

Rule 6.1 sets an aspirational target of 50 hours of pro bono work per year, with at least 25 of those hours going to people of limited means or organizations serving them at no charge. Attorneys who prefer not to donate time may instead contribute at least $500 annually to the Hawai’i Justice Foundation or a similar organization providing free or reduced-fee legal services. The rule’s own commentary makes clear the obligation is aspirational and will not be enforced through discipline.¹

1
The Judiciary State of Hawai’i. Hawai’i Rules of Professional Conduct
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The Judiciary State of Hawai’i. Hawai’i Rules of Professional Conduct
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The Judiciary State of Hawai’i. Hawai’i Rules Governing Trust Accounting
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Disciplinary Board of the Hawai’i Supreme Court. Disciplinary Board of the Hawai’i Supreme Court
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The Judiciary State of Hawai’i. Rules of the Disciplinary Board
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Disciplinary Board of the Hawai’i Supreme Court. How to File a Complaint with the ODC
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Hawaii State Bar Association. About Mandatory Continuing Legal Education
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American Bar Association. Hawaii CLE Requirements and Courses
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The Judiciary State of Hawai’i. Rules of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai’i
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Justia Law. Hawaii Revised Statutes 605-14