Maile M. Hirota

MAILE M. HIROTA is the Manager of Hirota & Associates, LLLC, concentrating in business and family-based immigration law, including family visas, business and investor visas, deportation & removal defense, permanent residence and U.S. citizenship matters. Ms. Hirota has been selected by her peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” in the field of immigration law each year since 2008. She has been named the Best Lawyers’ Honolulu Immigration Law “Lawyer of the Year” for 2018 and 2015. Only a single lawyer in each practice area, in each community is honored as a “Lawyer of the Year.”

Ms. Hirota established the boutique immigration law firm of Hirota & Associates in 2009 after years as a Director of Lynch Ichida Thompson Kim & Hirota. Prior to returning to practice law in Hawaii, Ms. Hirota was an Associate with Taft, Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms. Hirota’s experience also includes one year working in a Japanese publishing company’s office in Tokyo and part-time work as a translator and law clerk for the Tokyo Aoyama Law Office, the associated office of Baker & McKenzie in Tokyo, Japan.

Her community immigration involvement includes: volunteering to serve on local and national committees for the American Immigration Lawyers Association; membership in IMMLAW; local citizenship clinics; testifying as an expert witness on the Violence Against Women Act for the prosecution for the State of Hawaii; free legal seminars to Hawaii Pacific University students on work visas; and as a public speaker and advocate for positive immigration reform and survivors of domestic violence. From 2002 through 2009 Ms. Hirota hosted a weekly immigration call-in radio show on KPMW 105.5FM, giving up-to-date immigration information and news to Hawaii’s immigrant community, especially the Filipino community on Maui.

Ms. Hirota represented Ms. An Na Peng, a citizen of China, in the first immigration-related Presidential pardon in over a decade.

Ms. Hirota enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband, their daughters, cats Fred & Ted, dog Rosie and rabbits Coco and Lola. She is a sports fan, especially of University of Hawaii basketball and the University of Michigan Wolverines.