Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Justice Sabrina McKenna to receive American Bar Association diversity award

Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna has been selected to receive the American Bar Association’s 2027 Spirit of Excellence Award for her work promoting diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion in the legal profession, according to a news release.

The ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession presents the national award to lawyers whose accomplishments and leadership have advanced racial and ethnic diversity. McKenna will be honored Jan. 30, 2027, at the Titans for Change Gala during the ABA’s Midyear Meeting in Chicago.

McKenna said she has worked throughout her career to encourage diversity in the legal profession. She cited the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court’s March 5, 2025, statement, “Affirming Principles of Equal Justice for All,” which described equality as recognizing people’s common humanity and removing barriers to full participation in society.

“In my opinion, diversity of representation in the legal profession is required for access to and actual achievement of justice,” McKenna said.

McKenna was born in Tokyo and grew up in a biracial, bilingual and bicultural family. She graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi’s William S. Richardson School of Law in 1982. After working in private practice, corporate law and legal education, she was appointed to the Hawaiʻi District Court in 1993. She later served as a Circuit Court judge and as senior judge of the Family Court of the 1st Circuit before joining the state Supreme Court in 2011. She served as acting chief justice from October 2025 to May 2026.

McKenna has led efforts to reduce barriers to the state’s courts, the news release said. She chaired the Supreme Court’s Committee on Court Interpreters and Language Access and its Committee on Equality and Access to the Courts, which worked on policies to improve court services for people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, including those with limited English proficiency. She currently serves on the Access to Justice Commission.

According to the release, McKenna oversaw implementation of Hawaiʻi’s court interpreter certification program and advocated for judiciary policies that provide free language assistance to all court participants. She also worked to strengthen protections against bias and discrimination within the Judiciary, including efforts to ensure that Judiciary policies and judicial conduct rules explicitly protect gender identity and gender expression.

McKenna also mentors law students and young attorneys, particularly those from historically underrepresented communities, the release said. She speaks in Hawaiʻi, across the U.S. and internationally on civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ issues and diversity in the legal profession.

“I mentor future generations of attorneys from diverse backgrounds because having their representation and perspectives will help create a more equitable and just society,” McKenna said.

She previously received the ABA Stonewall Award in 2021 and the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award in 2023. McKenna will become the first person to receive all three ABA honors, according to the news release. In 2015, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association gave her its Daniel K. Inouye Trailblazer Award.

Three other people from Hawaiʻi have received the Spirit of Excellence Award: former Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Chief Justice William S. Richardson and former US Reps. Patsy Mink and Colleen Hanabusa, according to the release.