My name is Sechyi Laiu.  There is a profile page on LinkedIn for those who enjoy reading about another’s career background.  I used to work for Zhang & Associates, which had a short profile about me but which is now gone. You can find me working for the city of Honolulu at this time.

I practice law in Hawaii.  My legal career started with commercial litigation, but developed into family law and immigration. I used to be a U.S. diplomat (Foreign Service Officer). A significant portion of my work did involve pro bono legal assistance, but these days I’m just a cog in the bureaucracy. 

This website is presently a placeholder.  I used to have thoughts posted that included what I think about my field of work, which has an abnormally high “interest” in equal access to justice. However, the way society is setup assures fundamental inequality in “access”. This has two part – lawyers are very cautious creatures, prone to worrying about the worse case scenario in giving low cost advice with immense liability. There is also a need to eat, so the work cannot be performed for free. Therefore, only high-pay cases receive services to minimize the immense liability, in exchange for food. 

The free market is a vital part of modern society, and these principals create conflict with the idea that the law is solely about justice. The most fundamental thing to remember is that the judicial system is designed to help people resolve their conflicts without resorting to shootouts.  It is not about having war by proxy, or creating a legal “world” using languages that is obtuse to normal people.  It is also not about making lots of money by creating a substantial volume of billable hours… in theory.

These days, I’m just a cog in the bureaucratic system. I might, one day, write more often again.

For personal comments, my personal e-mail is my last name @ pidginlaw.com

For legal related matters, I currently work as a government attorney. 

[Nader] reminded us of the habitual wariness and hesitancy that come from that kind of thinking, and asked if we were becoming cut off from our common sense and our basic institutions of justice… There were wrongs, [Nader] said – violations of law, legal problems throughout the society – which were never the subject of courtroom battles and case reports. “How many share-croppers,” he asked,  “do you think sue Minute Maid?”



(Scott Turow, One L, p.127-128)
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