Alan Van Etten

Mr. Van Etten is a partner at Deeley King Pang & Van Etten, where he represents individual and commercial policyholders in insurance and insurance bad faith litigation.

While serving on the CGL Reporter Editorial Board in 2004–2007, Mr. Van Etten contributed first-party property, construction, and completed operations summaries to this publication. He frequently speaks, writes, and teaches on Hawaii Insurance Law. He has cowritten the materials for and been a panel presenter on more than 30 insurance coverage and bad faith seminars just since 1997. Mr. Van Etten cofounded the Insurance Coverage Litigation Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association in 2006, is a vice chair of the Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association (ABA), was program chair for the TIPS section of the ABA's Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee's Annual Meeting in 2009, and recently completed a 3-year term on the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. He has been named one of the "Best Lawyers in America" and as a National Superlawyer and is the only insurance coverage litigation attorney named to the top 25 Hawaii Superlawyers for 2012.

After graduating from law school, Mr. Van Etten served as a law clerk to the Honorable William S. Richardson, chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court. He then practiced with the Law Offices of Douglas S. Page and with Fong & Miho. In 1983, he became legal counsel to the Chair of the Honolulu City Council. In 1984, he returned to private law practice, emphasizing plaintiff contingency civil litigation, in what later became the firm of Edmunds, Verga, Van Etten & O'Brien, and in 1990, he joined his current firm.

Mr. Van Etten's practice concentrates on civil litigation, with an emphasis on insurance law and litigation (representing both policyholders and insurers in coverage and bad faith cases), representing plaintiffs in personal injury work (he is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum), and representing plaintiffs and defense in employment law and commercial torts. He has written and spoken extensively on insurance law and litigation. In 1993 and 1994, at the law school's request, he was Adjunct Professor (Advanced Torts/Insurance Law) at the University of Hawaii's School of Law.

Mr. Van Etten received his bachelor of arts degree in history from Yale University and his juris doctor degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Van Etten can be reached at [email protected].