Honolulu trial lawyer Kenneth S. Robbins '63 specializes
in representing doctors and lawyers in malpractice suits but says the vast
majority of his cases have nothing to do with what a physician or lawyer did.
He cites the case of two women in adjoining rooms--a childless Japanese woman
who wanted to improve her chances to have a baby and a woman with several
children who wanted the opposite. The records were switched before the
operations. When the first woman sued the gynecologist, Robbins says he told
his client that adoption of a Japanese child by the childless couple would mean
more to them than money.Months later, as the two sides were about to sit down and discuss resolving
the case, the doctor arrived with his nurse carrying a baby. "You might prefer
a sum of money . . . or you could adopt this baby," Robbins said to the couple.
"They did," he said, "which is one of the nicer outcomes." Robbins recently
was chosen for inclusion in the 1997-98 issue of Best Lawyers in America
and is one of about eight lawyers selected in Hawaii in the area of civil
litigation. "Lawyers," he believes, "should work to conciliate and bring
clients together rather than drive them apart."It's a philosophy that isn't always easy to apply. When people who suffer
broken necks in the surf sue the state of Hawaii, its four counties or
shoreline hotels, says Robbins, his firm, Robbins and Rhodes, represents the
defendants. A 25- or 30-year-old man with another 50 years of life expectancy
and in need of $25,000 a month for a respirator, he says, is a very sympathetic
case. But the plaintiff has to prove that it was somebody else's fault, which
is particularly difficult "for a man who knows it's his own neglect that
eventually causes these injuries." 
Robbins says he probably has tried more of these cases than any other lawyer
in the state and has won all but one. "I like to use the word `educate' rather
than `persuade' or `convince,'" he said. He's also handled all the legal work
in the construction and operation of North Hawaii Community Hospital, the first
hospital in the country that has put Western practices side by side with people
practicing acupuncture and herbal medicine. "I'm very interested in holistic
medicine," Robbins said. With the recent resurgence in things Hawaiian, he
said, "We're finding great efficacy in what they did with their medicines.
We're going to see more and more of this in this country."The Navy sent Robbins to Hawaii in 1967, and it's been home ever since,
although he and his wife, Shaunagh, maintain a place in Maine on Penobscot Bay.
He says he's loved Maine since his student days, when the College saved him
from the distractions of a city and taught him to focus on his philosophy
major. "Colby was an ideal setting for a guy born in Brooklyn. I didn't know what
philosophy was until Philosophy 101, and then I could barely put the books
down," he said. "They were inspirational people. I felt very privileged to have
gone to Colby." Robbins plans to be back for his 35th reunion next June. --Robert Gillespie