David M. Forman
David M. Forman is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Environmental Law Program at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where he previously served as sole director from 2011 to 2022. He is the Law School’s first faculty member of Filipino-descent raised in Hawai‘i, and is a co-founder of the Tony Oposa Intergenerational Moot Court, which emphasizes pressing international issues and their implications for future generations.
Since 2014, he has been a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) and the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP). In 2024, the IUCN Council appointed him to the WCEL Steering Committee as the North America Focal Point and Election Officer for the 2025 World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Forman joined the Law School full-time in 2010, teaching courses in Administrative Law, Ocean & Coastal Law, Food Law & Policy, Environmental Law, and Native Hawaiian and Indigenous law. A 1993 graduate of the Law School, he has a deep background in environmental and public interest law, including roles as a clerk for the Hawai’i Supreme Court, staff attorney for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed Public Interest Law Center. He has also served on multiple civil rights boards and advisory committees, including as past president of the Hawai‘i Filipino Lawyers Association as well as the Japanese American Citizens League, Honolulu chapter (where he is currently approaching three decades of service as a board member).