Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory announced the appointment of James N. Ishida as the Circuit Executive for the Fourth Circuit.
Mr. Ishida is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he also received his law degree and served as Law Review Casenotes Editor. Throughout his career, Mr. Ishida has served in a variety of roles and leadership positions, and he has experience in both private and public sectors. He served as a law clerk and staff attorney for the Hawaii Supreme Court. He has served as a Deputy Public Defender, and he clerked for the Honorable Bert S. Tokairin, U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii. In the private sector, he served as an associate with Kiefer, Oshima, Chun & Webb.
Mr. Ishida also served from 2001 through 2013 as an attorney advisor with the Administrative Office for the U.S. Courts. It was during that time that he helped staff the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and its five advisory rules committees. Since 2013, he has served as the Clerk of Court for the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings; and most recently, he has been serving as the Appellate Court Administrator with the Utah Administrative Office of the Courts.
Mr. Ishida will begin work as Circuit Executive on October 10, 2017.