Education

Yale Law School, LL.M (constitutional law emphasis). University of California, Hastings College of Law, J.D. (law review, Order of the Coif) Stanford University, B.A.

Employment

Michael A. Town is a circuit court judge presently assigned to the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court in Honolulu, Hawaii hearing a wide variety of felony matters. He was first appointed to the bench in 1979. Judge Town served as Senior Judge of the Family Court of the First Circuit from October 1994 to October 1997. He served on the Hawaii Judiciary's Restorative Justice Committee and the Committee on Jury Innovations, among others.

Judge Town speaks nationally and internationally on subjects such as resiliency, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue in judges, judge as coach, problem-solving courts, and therapeutic, preventive and restorative justice. He published several articles on those subjects. Judge Town serves as faculty for Proyecto Acceso, based at the California Western School of Law. The project promotes the rule of law in Latin America. Judge Town received an LL.M. from Yale School of Law, J.D. from Hastings College of Law and A.B. from Stanford University. He was an adjunct professor of law at the University of Hawaii's William S. Richardson School of Law for 11 years.
Judge Town is active in his community sitting on the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Hawaii and Positive Coaching Alliance/Hawaii. He is fluent in Spanish and served with the United States Peace Corps in university athletics in Colombia, South America. He is married with four children, several grandchildren. He is active in his neighborhood church and enjoys being an ocean sports coach.

Activities

COMMITTEES WITH PUBLISHED RESULTS
1. Chair, Full Faith and Credit: A Judge's Bench Card (NCJFCJ, DOJ, NCSC, 1999) (revised 2003)
2. Chair, Model Code on Domestic and Family Violence (NCJFCJ 1994) pdf format available here
3. Children and Families First: A Mandate for America's Courts (NCJFCJ 1993)
4. Family Violence: Improving Court Practice (NCJFCJ 1990)
5. Restorative Justice Committee, Hawai`i State Judiciary (1998-2000) report available online
6. Jury Innovation Committee, Hawai`i State Judiciary (report available on request)

ORGANIZATIONS
Boys & Girls Club of Hawai`i: board member (1986 to present) (program committee chair 2000-06) Hawai`i Justice Foundation: board member (2000 to 2005) National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges; Board of Trustees (1990 to 1997) American Judicature Society member Hawai`i State Bar (admitted 1970) and California State Bar (admitted 1968) National Peace Corps Association (served in Colombia, South America 1962-64 in university education) Positive Coaching Alliance/Hawai`i: board member and certified trainer since 2002. Go-First Foundation (www.go-first.org); Global mentor for youth as first responders
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Married: four children, fluent in Spanish Personal Interests: ocean sports coach, Polynesian culture and tradition, public speaking Member, New Hope Diamond Head Church

Bibliography

Articles written by Michael A. Town
1. Town, "Coaches, Judges Have Much in Common"; Honolulu Advertiser, May 1, 2006 reprinted for Positive Coaching Alliance: here

2. Town, Ten Suggestions To Keep Your Child Off Drugs And Out Of Court, See Lee Cataluna article at: (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/20/ln/ln54plee.html)
3. Town, Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma in Court: A Judge's Perspective, Fatality Review Bulletin: reprinted in Florida Bar News (June 1, 2004). available at: (http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNNews01.nsf/cb53c80c8fabd49d85256b5...)
4. Jaffe, Town, et. al. Vicarious Trauma in Judges: The Personal Challenge of Dispensing Justice, 54 Juvenile and Family Court Journal No. 4 pp 1-9 (Fall 2003, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges). Available at (http://www.ncjfcj.org/images/stories/dept/fvd/pdf/journal_1_fall_03_vica...) Also available at: (http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/blogcategory/256/302/) (Please scroll down to article)
5. Town, The Unified Family Court: Preventive, Therapeutic and Restorative Justice for America's Families and Children. (Spring, 2001) National Center for Preventive Law (California Western School of Law): reprinted in ABA Child Law Practice 99 (September 2002) and Juvenile and Family Justice Today (NCJFCJ Winter 2002). Available at (http://www.preventivelawyer.org/main/default.asp?pid=essays/town.htm)
6. Town, Island Voices: Restorative Justice Helps the Victim Become Whole Again, (published in Honolulu Advertiser, Wednesday, May 3, 2000) available at (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2000/May/03/opinion13.html)
7. Town, Are Domestic Violence Death Reviews Consistent with Concepts of Preventive, Therapeutic and Restorative Justice?, Fatality Review Bulletin (National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative, Summer 2002, available at (www.ndvfri.org) please click on newsletter link and scroll to article.
8. Town, Domestic Violence Fatality Reviews and the Unified Family Court, 1 Unified Family Court Chronicle 1, (Spring, 1999). (available by request)
9. Websdale, Town and Johnson, Domestic Violence Fatality Reviews: From A Culture Of Blame To A Culture of Safety, 50 juvenile and family court Journal 61 (spring, 1999) Available at (www.ndvfri.org) (please click on publications and scroll down)
10. Town, Court As Convener and Provider of Therapeutic Justice, 67 Univ. Puerto Rico Law Review 671(1998)(available in English and Spanish on request)
11. Town and Yuen, Public Access to Beaches in Hawai`i; A Social Necessity, 10 Haw. Bar Journal 1 (1973) (available by request)

Committees and working groups with published results:
1. Chair, Full Faith and Credit: A Judge’s Bench Card (NCJFCJ, DOJ, NCSC, 1999) (revised 2003)
2. Chair, Model Code on Domestic and Family Violence (NCJFCJ 1994) pdf format available at: (http://www.ncjfcj.org/dept/fvd/publications/) Committee Member: Reports available by request Children and Families First: A Mandate for America’s Courts (NCJFCJ 1993) Family Violence: Improving Court Practice (NCJFCJ 1990) Restorative Justice Committee, Hawai`i State Judiciary (1998-2000) report available (http://www.courts.state.hi.us/page_server/Drafts/News/SpecialProjects/Re...) Jury Innovation Committee, Hawai`i State Judiciary (report available on request regarding juror questions, juror note-taking, jury instructions and other innovations).