Biography

Nicholas M. McLean previously served as a Deputy Solicitor General in the State of Hawaiʻi Department of the Attorney General, where his work focused primarily on appellate litigation in state and federal court.  Prior to joining the Attorney General’s office, Nick worked as an attorney in private practice in Honolulu and New York.  He graduated magna cum laude from Yale College and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was essays editor of the Yale Law Journal.  After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Richard Clifton on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  In 2020, Nick was appointed to serve a three-year term as a Lawyer Delegate to the Hawaiʻi District Court Judicial Conference.  

Publications

• Financial Hardship and the Excessive Fines Clause: Assessing the Severity of Property Forfeitures After Timbs, 129 Yale L.J. Forum 430 (2020) (with Beth A. Colgan)
• Livelihood, Ability to Pay, and the Original Meaning of the Excessive Fines Clause, 40 Hastings Const. L.Q. 833 (2013)
• Comment, Intersystemic Statutory Interpretation in Transnational Litigation, 122 Yale L.J. 303 (2012)
• Note, Cross-National Patterns in FCPA Enforcement, 121 Yale L.J. 1970 (2012)