The Honorable E. John McConnell recently retired as a Circuit Court Judge for the State of Hawaii to establish a full time ADR practice. Judge McConnell served thirteen years on the Circuit Court bench. During this period he presided as a general jurisdiction trial, motions and settlement judge over thousands of civil, criminal, probate and other matters.

During the last four years of his tenure, Judge McConnell served as the Administrative and Senior Family Court Judge as well as Arbitration Judge for the Second Circuit Court. Judge McConnell has conducted hundreds of settlement conferences as well as presided over some of the longest most complex civil cases which have been tried to verdict in Hawaii.

In recent years Judge McConnell served as Chair of the Judicial Education committee, and the Judiciary Standing Committee on Civil Pattern Jury Instructions. He has been a member of the Court Annexed Arbitration Commission, the Standing Committee on Civil Rules, the Probate Rules Committee and is a past president of the Hawaii State Trial Judges Association. Judge McConnell has served as an instructor at numerous judicial education institutes including several emphasizing settlement conference techniques.

Before being appointed to the bench in 1984 Judge McConnell was Chairman of the Hawaii Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board, Deputy Director of the Hawaii State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, a Deputy Attorney General and a private practitioner.