Posted on: Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Dobelle's, regents' attorneys to meet
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Attorneys for Evan Dobelle and the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents expect to meet as early as this afternoon to discuss a resolution in the wake of Dobelle's firing on June 15.
"It's not going to happen overnight," said attorney Rick Fried, who represents Dobelle, and whose firm Cronin, Fried, Sekiya, Kekina & Fairbanks is the largest personal injury litigator in Hawai'i.
"They've got a lot to figure out."
Fried said he'll be meeting with board attorney Barry Marr either this afternoon or tomorrow, and would hold off on asking for subpoenas of documents until he has had those discussions.
Marr said he would be talking to Fried about the documents, including the final draft of the Deloitte & Touche audit of Dobelle's protocol fund managed by the UH Foundation, as well as minutes of executive sessions, particularly the June 15 closed-door meeting at which regents fired Dobelle.
Marr, of Marr Hipp Jones & Pepper, opened the door wide for a negotiated settlement after leaving a morning meeting with regents yesterday.
"It's usually almost inevitably in the parties' best interests to reach a settlement out of court," Marr told reporters waiting outside the locked conference room door behind which regents had been meeting since 9:30 a.m.
Marr would not comment yesterday on whether he and the board had discussed any kind of settlement for Dobelle. Nor would he say if the board was talking about a reason for the firing.
An out-of-court settlement could preclude release of "cause" for the firing, and also could mean that the amount of any monetary settlement may never be made public. Out-of-court agreements often include confidentiality clauses for both parties.
Most board members left at 3 p.m. when the meeting was recessed, but chairwoman Patricia Lee and vice chairwoman Kitty Lagareta stayed on until 5 p.m. for more discussions with Ken Hipp, Marr's partner.
With the meeting in recess, the board can come back together at any time to continue, but several regents indicated there would be no continuation today.
In an off-the-cuff comment before the public portion of the meeting, regent Walter Nunokawa, whose term ends today, said: "I would love to go to court," after which several murmurs of "Oh, Walter" could be heard.
"Think of it," Nunokawa said. "Everyone's going to be under oath. Who would risk perjury?"
On Monday, Fried added four attorneys to his "dream team," including John Edmunds, who has won several successful tenure cases against the university; Jeff Portnoy, who is often retained by The Honolulu Advertiser for cases involving First Amendment issues; David Simons, an expert in labor law; and Mark Davis, one of Hawai'i's top trial lawyers and an expert in civil-rights law.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013. Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the law firm Cronin, Fried, Sekiya, Kekina & Fairbanks.
