The state Senate will hold a special session next week to review four judicial appointments — Rebecca A. Copeland, Brian A. Costa, Dyan M. Medeiros and Steven R. Nichols — to the Circuit Court of the 1st Circuit in Oahu.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by
state Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Nuuanu-Downtown-Iwilei), will first hold a public hearing on the appointees on Monday, starting at
10:30 a.m.
At 11 a.m. Wednesday the Senate will convene in a floor session, followed by a separate decision-making meeting of the Judiciary Committee at 11:45 a.m.
Final Senate votes on the appointments are anticipated during the floor session Thursday, which is expected to begin at 11 a.m.
According to the state Senate:
>> Copeland has been serving as a District Family Court judge for the Family Court of the 1st Circuit since 2020. Previously, she was a per diem District Court judge for four years.
She has operated the Law Office of Rebecca A. Copeland LLC, and worked for Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert. She has been an adjunct professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio and Texas A&M University-San Antonio. She also served as deputy solicitor general in the Appellate Division for Hawaii’s Department of the Attorney General.
She received her law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law.
>> Costa has been a District Family Court judge in the 1st Circuit since 2017 and is lead judge of the Juvenile Division and presiding judge of the Juvenile Drug Court, after serving as a per diem District Court judge from 2015 to 2017.
Costa’s background includes being an attorney, member and manager of the law firm Costa &DeLacy LLC; serving as a Honolulu deputy prosecuting attorney; and working as an associate for Goodsill Anderson Quinn &Stifel. He also clerked for Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Simeon R. Acoba Jr.
>> Medeiros has served as a District Family Court judge in the 1st Circuit since 2015 and is lead judge of the Domestic Division and presiding judge of Girls Court.
Before her judicial appointment, Medeiros was a partner at Kleintop, Luria &Medeiros; an associate attorney at Stirling &Kleintop; and an associate attorney at Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert.
>> Nichols serves as a per diem judge for the Family Court of the 1st Circuit and runs the Law Office of Steven R. Nichols. He previously served as a deputy public defender for 20 years and was a law clerk for 1st Circuit Judge Dexter Del
Rosario.
Costa, Medeiros and Nichols all earned their law degrees from the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law.
