Chuck Greenfield, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, is resigning from the position effective Jan.14. The agency's current deputy director, Nalani Fujimori, will become interim executive director as of Jan. 15 and will serve in that position until the board of directors selects a new executive director, according to a Legal Aid new release on Greenfield's impending departure.

The news release described Greenfield as a "consummate organizer," one who united community leaders and lawyers with pure humanitarian motives for the public good.

"His leadership and wisdom were a gift to our community's public interest legal service programs," said Nanci Kreidman, chief executive officer of The Domestic Violence Action Center.

"Chuck has great command of community needs, strategies for working together to meet them, and a genuine willingness to collaborate in ways that are illustrative for all of us," Kreidman said in the news release.

In addition to his many leadership duties overseeing the 10 Legal Aid offices located throughout the state, Greenfield was instrumental in helping convince the Hawai'i Supreme Court and state banks to agree to interest rate comparability for Interest on Lawyer Trust Fund Accounts (IOLTA).

He was also responsible for helping develop Hawai'i's 10-step community-wide action plan to increase access to justice for Hawai'i's growing number of families, individuals, and seniors living in poverty. Greenfield extended access to justice even further by persuading the federal Legal Services Corporation to change its regulation and allow for legal representation of Micronesians residing in the U.S., according to the news release.

It said that Greenfield also helped to initiate and lead innovative fund-raising efforts for Legal Aid. The Legal Aid Justice Campaign resulted in over $600,000 in pledges during the first year of a three-year campaign. Nineteen of Hawai'i's 25 largest law firms joined the fund-raising campaign in the first year.

Greenfield is leaving Legal Aid to join his wife and son who recently moved to Northern Virginia so that his wife could return to her position as a senior attorney at the World Bank. Greenfield has accepted a senior attorney position with the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in Washington, D.C., the primary federal funder nationally of legal aid programs. At LSC, Greenfield will continue to work to enhance the delivery of civil legal aid to low-income families and individuals.

"It is with a great deal of sadness that I leave my position," Greenfield said in the news release. "I have been fortunate to work with a talented, dedicated and resourceful staff and Board of Directors. It has been my pleasure to help develop community partnerships in a combined effort to help bring justice to low-income families and individuals. My experience in Hawai'i has truly been wonderful."