Max J. Kimura, a civil litigation attorney with more than 10 years of legal experience, joined the firm as an Associate in 2021. He practices in the firm’s Construction Law, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, and Appeals practice groups, specializing in construction litigation. Max earned his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Prior to joining Damon Key, Max was an associate attorney at a Honolulu law firm for nine years, where his primary practice was insurance defense for lawsuits arising from personal injuries, construction defects, products liability, and breach of contract. Other practice areas included plaintiff litigation, real property, estate planning, and foreclosure. Max has built a reputation of being able to present complex issues in a simple and easy to understand manner and bringing about fair and favorable results for his clients.
Earlier in his legal career, Max was an associate at a large, plaintiff law firm in San Francisco, specializing in asbestos and tobacco litigation. There, he gained experience in working a heavy load of multi-million dollar cases, all while maintaining a cordial and professional relationship with clients, opposing counsel, and judges. Max was also a Judicial Extern for Superior Court Judge Donald S. Mitchell in San Francisco, where he performed legal research and drafted court orders and decisions.
Max’s work experience also includes seven years as a Manager/Instructor for a private, English school in Tokushima, Japan. That experience taught him to be patient, understanding, and to speak and write simply. One of the many highlights from that job was planning, organizing, and leading travel abroad programs for students and their families to New Zealand and his hometown, Hawaii.
Max attended and graduated from Saint Louis High School and went on to attend the University of Hawaii. The next year he moved to California, with the goal of earning a graduate history degree from Berkeley. Max moved first to Irvine and attended junior college there for two years before transferring to the undergraduate history program at the University of California, Irvine.
During his college years, Max’s focus was on work, school, and traveling. During summers, he worked two jobs to save enough money to travel to places he had only read about or seen in movies, such as New York, London and Paris. When Max was staying in Paris, for a study abroad program at the Sorbonne University, splashed across the news headlines was the announcement that the Berlin Wall has fallen. Immediately, Max traveled by train for 16 hours to witness the historic event and even get his piece of history – an actual piece of the wall.
In the months prior to his graduation from undergraduate school, Max decided to apply to law school as a backup, just in case his application to Berkeley was denied. Berkeley did accept Max into its graduate History program and so did law school. He decided to do both. Max holds an M.A. degree in History from the University of California, Berkeley and a Juris Doctor degree from Hastings. In the end, Max chose to be a lawyer.
“I enjoy meeting, talking, and connecting with people. Every client has a very interesting theme, story, and life, and I love to communicate that whether it be in court or mediation,” said Max.
Today, Max lives in Honolulu with his family. He and his wife have five children, three chickens, and two dogs.
Professional and Community Affiliation
- American Bar Association
- Forum on Construction Law
- Litigation Section
- California Bar Association
- Hawaii State Bar Association
Bar Admissions
- State of California
- State of Hawaii
- U.S. District Court (District of Hawaii)