The Honolulu Liquor Commission is scheduled to discuss Administrator Gregory I. Nishioka’s employment status later this month.
Nishioka has been on paid administrative leave since Feb. 28 after public disclosure of ethical violations as a private attorney, and the commission will review the situation in executive session July 18.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s spokesman, Jesse Broder Van Dyke, said Nishioka did not tell the commission or the administration about signing an agreement to leave the practice of law after a petition was filed against him by the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
"They were completely unaware. … That was a concern — that he didn’t tell people," Broder Van Dyke said Tuesday.
In an order signed by state Supreme Court justices Tuesday, Nishioka was warned that files and client trust accounts from his former law practice may be placed under trusteeship.
THE Supreme Court, which renders ethics decisions on cases brought by the Disciplinary Counsel involving attorney conduct,said Nishioka had failed to return his law license and to file the required affidavits of compliance with the courts after agreeing to no longer practice law.
The court has given Nishioka 10 days to respond to its planned action.
Nishioka, who receives $9,143 a month as an administrator, was unavailable Tuesday for comment.
In March he resigned from practicing law in lieu of being disciplined after admitting to nearly 47 ethics violations in his legal practice, according to a Feb. 11 order filed by the state Supreme Court.
The court said any reinstatement requires full restitution of all misappropriated funds to clients.
Nishioka confessed to violating rules of conduct, including the commingling and misappropriation of client funds, the order said.
He served as Liquor Commission administrator for a year before he was placed on administrative leave in March.
