Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani welcomes Bennett J. Chin as partner and Sabrina Kawana as an associate in the firm’s Honolulu office.
The addition of Chin and Kawana to the Honolulu office is part of the firm's strategic national growth, fortifying the firm’s 50-state platform which provides clients with seamless and uninterrupted service nationwide.
“Last year the firm opened in Honolulu to complete our 50 state platform,” said Dion Cominos, Firmwide Managing Partner. “Today we enhance that location with the addition of Bennett and his team and look forward to further growth in the region as well as to having expanded capabilities to handle an even wider variety of matters with this outstanding group.”
Bennett J. Chin joins the firm's Construction and Commercial Litigation practice groups. He is primarily focused on representing and counseling architects and engineers. His construction law practice includes construction defect claims, delay impact and loss productivity claims, professional negligence claims, construction contract and payment disputes. He has assisted clients on a wide variety of projects including shopping centers, airports, municipal works, transportation projects, residential projects, hospital projects, commercial high-rises, restaurants and government buildings. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in the areas of Construction Law, Construction Litigation and Commercial Litigation.
Chin is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law. He frequently gives seminars on loss prevention and risk management and has lectured for numerous organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, the American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Society of Interior Designers, the Structural Engineers Association of Hawai‘i, the University of Hawai‘i School of Architecture, the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley and the Pacific Building Trade Expo.
Chin is admitted to practice in Hawai‘i and California and is a member of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association and the State Bar of California. He earned his law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sabrina M. Kawana joins the firm’s Construction and Commercial Litigation practice groups. Kawana is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Hawai‘i. She is a graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and received her undergraduate degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Before joining Gordon & Rees, she was a litigation associate at a civil law firm in Honolulu, served as a law clerk for the Intermediate Court of Appeals and clerked for the Honorable Jeannette H. Castagnetti at the First Circuit Court of Hawai‘i.
Kawana is a member of the Federal Bar Association, American Bar Association, and currently serves as a board member for the Young Lawyers Division of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association.