Name: Alan Van Etten
Age: 51
Position: President, Hawaii State Bar Association
First job: Star-Bulletin paperboy
Favorite pastime: Running, travel

"We want to improve the civil justice and focus on the attorneys' role as problem solvers," Van Etten said.

He has 24 years of experience as an attorney and is a partner with Damon Key Bocken Leong & Kupchak. He works mostly in litigation on insurance issues.

Van Etten also has been a law clerk for former Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice William Richardson, legal counsel to former City Council Chair Patsy Mink, an attorney with Fong & Miho, and a board member of the Legal Aid Society.

He spent two years in North Africa with the Peace Corps after earning a bachelor's degree in European history at Yale University. Van Etten earned his law degree at the University of California at Berkeley.