Posted on: Saturday, September 29, 2001

Lawyer first in line for judge slot

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Robert J. Faris has been preliminarily selected to replace Lloyd King as U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.

King has announced he will retire in February. His replacement will be appointed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Faris' selection is contingent upon the results of background checks being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, court officials said.

Faris said yesterday he did not wish to discuss the selection while those checks are pending.

"I don't want to be presumptuous and comment until it is all final," he said.

King also said he thought it was too early to comment on the selection.

Officials at the 9th U.S. Circuit in San Francisco said the checks of Faris' background will take nearly 15 weeks.

Faris, a graduate of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, was admitted to the Hawai'i and American Bar Associations in 1983. His law practice has focused on civil litigation, bankruptcy law and business reorganization law.

Among other clients, Faris has represented the Schiller Group Ltd, a Honolulu advertising firm that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in August; the national office of Thrifty Car Rental, during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of a local franchise in 1998; and The CIT Group/Commercial Services Inc., a financial firm that had worked with Liberty House before the 1998 bankruptcy reorganization.