During his 47 years as a professor, Randall Roth received teaching awards at one accounting and three law schools plus the University of Hawai‘i’s highest awards for classroom teaching and community service; served as Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago and University of Wisconsin, Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Trust Law, Co-Director of the Hawai‘i Innocence Project and President of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association; and gave invited lectures at 35 law schools.
Roth is perhaps best known in Hawai‘i for spotlighting controversial issues, such as Judicial Accountability, Judicial Selection, Judicial Evaluations, Police and Prosecutor Accountability, Lawyer Accountability, Special Interest Legislation, Education reform, Heavy Rail, Local Politics, Big Old Trusts in Hawaii, Public Corruption, Office of Hawaiian Affairs and What is OHA?
Roth produced a two-volume anthology, The Price of Paradise; wrote about Queen Liliuokalani’s and other Big Old Trusts in Hawaii; hosted a policy-oriented Radio Show; led efforts to restructure Hawaii’s Public Education system; helped reform the charitable trust now known as Kamehameha Schools; and together with Federal District Court Judge Samuel P. King wrote Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust, which was named Book of the Year by the Hawaii Book Publishers Association and included on an American Bar Association list of Books To Live By, Honolulu Magazine’s 50 Turning Points in Hawaiʻi’s History, and 100 Ways the University of Hawai‘i Made a Difference During Its First 100 Years.
Prior to co-authoring Broken Trust, Roth had been included on the the City of Honolulu’s list of 100 Who Made Lasting Contributions During the City of Honolulu’s First 100 Years and Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s list of 100 Who Made a Difference in Hawaiʻi During the 20th Century; received Morehouse College’s award for pursuit of social justice by nonviolent means; addressed legal and other professional groups in 43 states; was named Communicator of the Year by the Hawai‘i Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, Newsmaker of the Year by the Hawaiʻi Press Club, and Civic Leader of the Year by Small Business Hawai‘i; and delivered the Shiro Amioka Endowed Lecture at the University of Hawai‘i School of Education, commencement addresses at the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa and Hawai‘i Pacific University, keynote address at the Diocese of Honolulu’s annual Red Mass and Christian Legal Society Prayer Breakfast. During a television news broadcast, TV anchor Kirk Matthews jokingly referred to Roth’s Price of Paradise activities as “The Gripes of Roth,” and local cartoonists occasionally included Roth in their drawing, group depiction, or message.
A fun fact about Roth is that he served as a script consultant for a movie called The Descendants, which won the Academy Award in 2012 for best screenplay. The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Other Publications described his involvement and commented favorably on the script’s skillful treatment of complicated legal issues. National and Local professional journals have published Roth’s accounts of the stories that inspired the book and movie.
Also just for fun, Roth liked to schedule mainland talks on a day immediately before or after a major road race, such as Boston (2 hour 46 minute marathon), New York (2 hour 44 minute marathon), and Chicago (6 hour 26 minute 50 Miler). His competitive runs in Hawaii included the Maui Marathon (2 hours, 43 minutes), Schofield Barracks 50-Miler (6 hours 15 minutes) and Kolekole Pass half marathon.
Professor Randall Roth can be reached at rroth@hawaii.edu.
Misc Selection of Articles:
Inspiring Trust and Confidence in our System of Justice
The Queen’s Estate
Public Corruption in the Land of Aloha
Politics in Hawaii: Is Something Broken?