Richard W. Pollack served as an Associate Justice of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court from August 2012 to June 30, 2020.  During his tenure on the court, Justice Pollack authored more than 150 published opinions addressing a range of issues in diverse areas of the law, including contracts, personal injury, foreclosure, taxation, property, employment, environmental, and criminal procedure.

Prior to serving on the supreme court, Justice Pollack was a circuit court judge for 12 years.  While assigned to the civil calendar, Justice Pollack held settlement conferences in  numerous cases and conducted jury and bench trials.  On the criminal calendar, he presided over more than 100 jury trials.

Justice Pollack served as the State Public Defender from 1987 to 2000 and as a deputy public defender beginning in 1980 handling both bench and jury trials and appeals.  As part of his supervision of the office’s appellate division for many years, he reviewed or edited approximately 750 appellate briefs and argued more than 50 cases before the supreme court.

Justice Pollack has been a frequent lecturer at the William S. Richardson School of Law over the past 20 years.  He has taught the Evidence course on several occasions, most recently in 2020 and again in 2021.   Additionally, he has presented continuing legal education sessions on Evidence and other areas of the law.

Over the course of his legal career, Justice Pollack has served on various committees to improve the judicial system, including standing committees on court procedural rules and jury instructions.  Since 2013, Justice Pollack has served as Chair of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism.

Justice Pollack obtained his B.A. from University of California at Santa Barbara and his J.D. from Hastings College of the Law.