Champion of legal aid to Hawaiʻi’s poor announces retirement

Victor Geminiani announced Wednesday that he plans to retire, ending a half-century of legal aid and advocacy work on behalf of low-income Hawaiʻi residents, most recently through his role as the founder and co-executive director of Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice.

Geminiani will be succeeded by Gavin Thornton as Hawaiʻi Appleseed’s executive director upon his retirement effective August 31.

During his years with Hawaiʻi Appleseed, Geminiani led the nonprofit, public interest law firm and policy organization through a series of victories, successfully petitioning a federal court to prohibit the state from canceling essential medical services to Micronesians residing in Hawaiʻi, winning multimillion dollar settlements on behalf of tenants whose rents had been unfairly inflated and bringing lawsuits to compel the state to correct deplorable living conditions in some of Hawaiʻi’s oldest and largest public housing projects.