“I ended up in the South where virtually everything they did was illegal,” he said. “Every time I opened the door a client would walk in with a voting rights case or a prison condition case or a state statute case.”

During a period of his career, Geminiani oversaw the work of all the Legal Aid Society branches in the southern United States. Then, in 1994, he took over the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi.

In 2007, he co-founded the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice.

Geminiani retired on August 31, turning over the executive director position to Gavin Thornton.

Thornton calls Geminiani a “passionate champion of justice and fairness.”

“He is always talking about the importance of speaking truth to power, and fighting for the rights of low-income and marginalized people,” he said.