Robert Thomas, J.D.
Managing attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation’s Hawaii Center
Robert H. Thomas is a director with the law firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert in Honolulu. He specializes in property and land-use issues, including eminent domain, inverse condemnation, regulatory takings, property rights, water rights and voting rights. He has tried cases and appeals in Hawaii, California and the federal courts, and appeared as counsel on behalf of landowners in Hawaii and nationwide for amici curiae (“friends of the court”) filings before state appellate courts, state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thomas is the inaugural Joseph T. Waldo Visiting Chair in Property Rights Law at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he teaches upper-division courses in eminent domain, property rights and property law. He recently completed a year as chair of the American Bar Association’s Section on State and Local Government Law, and was the long-time chair of the Section’s Eminent Domain Law Committee. He continues as editor in-chief of the Section’s scholarly legal journal on municipal law issues, The Urban Lawyer.
Thomas is a frequent speaker on land use and eminent domain issues in Hawaii and nationwide, and regularly publishes scholarly and practical articles in his area of practice. He also is managing attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Hawaii Center, a public interest legal foundation dedicated to defending private property rights and individual freedom.