The Hawai'i State Senate voted today to confirm Sonja M.P. McCullen to fill a judicial position on the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA). Her term of office will be for ten years.
She was appointed by Governor David Ige on August 6, 2021 and will fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Associate Judge Derrick H.M. Chan last October.
Judge McCullen has served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney with the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for a combined 11 years in the Appellate Division. Previously, she worked as an investigator for the Crime Victim Commission, was a staff attorney for United Public Workers, a judicial education specialist for the State of Hawaiʻi Judiciary, and law clerk for Justice Paula A. Nakayama of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court. In addition, McCullen was a social studies, Hawaiian studies, and Hawaiian Language teacher at Waiʻanae High School for five years.
Senator Karl Rhoads (District 13 - Dowsett Highlands, Pu‘unui, Nu‘uanu, Pacific Heights, Pauoa, Punchbowl, Pālama, Liliha, ʻIwilei, Chinatown, and Downtown), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee stated, “Judge McCullen’s proven legal experience will serve her well as a member of the ICA.”
Judge McCullen earned a B.A. in Liberal and Hawaiian studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and went on to earn her law degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law.