Biography

Nat Noda joined the William S. Richardson School of Law staff in 2025 as Special Assistant to the Dean. A proud Richardson alumnus, as a student he was casenote editor of the University of Hawaiʻi Law Review, teaching assistant for the Legal Writing Program, research assistant for the Environmental Law Program, externed with Justice Michael D. Wilson (ret.) and the late Senior Judge Samuel P. King, and received CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for Legal Practice and Intellectual Property. Following graduation, he completed a two-year post-JD research and scholarship fellowship with Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, during which, in addition to publishing independent scholarship, he had the honor of contributing to the publication of Ka Lama Kū O Ka Noʻeau: The Standing Torch of Wisdom: Selected Opinions of William S. Richardson, Chief Justice, Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, 1966-1982 (2009) (commemorating the 90th birthday celebration of the law school’s namesake), D. Kapuaʻala Sproat’s Ola I Ka Wai: A Legal Primer for Water Use and Management in Hawaiʻi (2009), as well as several chapters comprising The Value of Hawai‘i (eds. Osorio & Howes 2010) and the first edition of Native Hawaiian Law: A Primer (eds. MacKenzie, Serrano, & Sproat 2015). Experience gleaned from these publications and the law school’s Small Business Clinic led Nat to establish Natty Words, LLC, through which he has consulted an international clientele on editing, creative, publishing, and copyright matters. He has also taught Legal Composition and Legal Practice as a lecturer in law.

Before returning to the law school, Nat served with the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary for more than a decade: as Court Administrator of the Estate and Probate Branch of the First Circuit Court, determining thousands of informal proceedings as Registrar of the Probate Court, representing the circuit’s chief clerk in hundreds of small estate and conservatorship cases, and successively supporting Chief Judges Derrick H.M. Chan (ret.), R. Mark Browning (ret.), and Jeannette H. Castagnetti with the First Circuit’s probate, conservatorship, and trust calendars and their roles as Chairs of the Committee on the Uniform Probate Code and Probate Court Practices; as the staff attorney for Lori Ann M. Okita, Chief Court Administrator of the First Circuit; and as a law clerk for Deputy Chief Judge Barbara P. Richardson (ret.) of the District Court of the First Circuit. He was also privileged to contribute to the advent of electronic filing in Hawaiʻi state courts through the successful implementation of the District Court Criminal, Circuit Court Criminal, and Circuit Court Civil modules of the Judiciary Information Management System (JIMS), the last from start to finish as a designated subject matter expert through the joint application design, user acceptance testing, training and outreach, go-live, and enhancement cycles. Through selection as a grant award recipient by the Office of the Administrative Director of the Courts and subsequent sponsorship by the Office of the Chief Court Administrator of the First Circuit, he earned the Certified Court Manager (CCM) credential from the Institute for Court Management, National Center for State Courts.

Alongside a lifelong affinity for learning, writing–both legal and creative–and teaching, as well as facility with trusts and estates garnered from nearly a decade of Probate Court practice and over eight thousand informal determinations, Nat’s scholarship on the intersection of copyright, intangible cultural property, and fan-based works has received a national award and been published in the Creighton Law Review, Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., Seton Hall Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law, and University of Denver Sports & Entertainment Law Journal.

Publications

• Perpetuating Cultures: What Fan-Based Activities Can Teach Us About Intangible Cultural Property, 44 CREIGHTON L. REV. 429 (2011).
• Copyrights Retold: How Interpretive Rights Foster Creativity and Justify Fan-Based Activities, 20 SETON HALL J. SPORTS & ENT. L. 131 (2010), reprinted at 57 J. COPYRIGHT SOC’Y U.S.A. 987 (2011).
• When Holding On Means Letting Go: Why Fair Use Should Extend to Fan-Based Activities, 5 U. DENVER SPORTS & ENT. L.J. 64 (2008).