Kenneth Lawson

Kenneth L. Lawson (born April 19, 1963) is the co-director of the Hawai'i Innocence Project, a faculty specialist at the William S. Richardson School of Law, and a former attorney.

Born in Cincinnati, Lawson spent the first three years of his life in an orphanage before being adopted. He played football in high school, and went on to attend Wittenberg College, graduating in 1986. While he was at Wittenberg, he married Marva Lawson after the birth of the couple's first child.

Lawson obtained a Juris Doctor in 1989 and became licensed to practice law in Ohio the same year. He was the first African American lawyer at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, but left to practice criminal defense law on his own in 1993. While working as a criminal defense lawyer in Cincinnati, Lawson became addicted to opioids and cocaine after being prescribed Percodan and Percocet when he tore his rotator cuff while weightlifting in the year 2000. He checked into a detox facility in 2007, and said in 2019 that he had not used drugs or alcohol since then. Lawson had his license to practice law suspended by the Supreme Court of Ohio in July 2008 for professional misconduct including failure to properly represent clients and theft of funds, was incarcerated in 2009 for conspiracy to obtain prescription drugs, and was disbarred permanently by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 2011 as a result of a second complaint about his actions while addicted.

Released from prison in 2010 and sent to a halfway house in Kalihi, Lawson began working as a research assistant for Randall Roth at the William S. Richardson School of Law. He eventually also became an employee of the Hawai'i Innocence Project, a program of the school. After co-teaching Roth's professional responsibility course, Lawson was invited to teach on his own as an adjunct professor. By 2012, he had become the co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, additionally teaching courses on subjects including criminal procedure, criminal law, and professional responsibility; a 2021 article in The Guardian described him as "a civil rights academic." Lawson frequently provides legal analysis to the local media in Hawaii. On May 1, 2017, Lawson was honored with the University of Hawaii Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence. The award is a tribute to faculty members who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject-level mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness, creativity, and personal values that benefit students.

Early life and education Lawson was born on April 19, 1963, in Cincinnati and raised in an orphanage until he was three years old, when he was adopted by Etta and Lawyer Lawson. Lawson is biracial, with a Black biological father and an Italian biological mother. He was not aware of his mixed ancestry until he searched for his biological mother years later. He returned to Cincinnati and was considering joining the Air Force when he learned that he had qualified for financial aid

In 1990, he began looking for his biological family, and discovered through Catholic Social Services that he had been born at Longview State Hospital, a mental institution. He was the first African American lawyer at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, He founded a criminal defense law practice called Lawson and Associates in 1993. but pled guilty to the charges.

Lawson frequently provides legal analysis to the local media in Hawaii. A 2021 article in The Guardian described him as "a civil rights academic". He teaches courses at the William S. Richardson School of Law on subjects including criminal procedure, criminal law, and professional responsibility.