Randall Roth is a former law professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law at

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

and a

trusts and estates English trust law concerns the protection of assets, usually when they are held by one party for another's benefit. Trusts were a creation of the English law of property and obligations, and share a subsequent history with countries across the ...

expert. The ''

Honolulu Star-Bulletin The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' was a daily newspaper based in Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the second largest daily newspaper in the state of Hawaii (after the ''Honol ...

'' identified him as one of the "100 Who Made A Difference" in the state since statehood, and '' Honolulu Magazine'' recognized his work, specifically on Broken Trust, as one of the "50 turning points" in the state's history.

Background

Born in Ellinwood, Kansas, Roth graduated with a B.S. in economics and accounting from

Regis University Regis University ( ) is a Private university, private List of Jesuit educational institutions, Jesuit university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1877 by the Jesuits, Society of Jesus, the university offers more than 120 degrees th ...

in Denver, Colorado in 1970. He later earned his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from University of Denver College of Law in 1974 and his

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

from

University of Miami School of Law The University of Miami School of Law (Miami Law or UM Law) is the law school of the University of Miami, a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. Founded in 1926, it is the oldest law school in South Florida, graduating its first ...

in 1975. In 1982, he moved to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, where he has lived since. Roth is married to his wife, Susan, and they have four children.

Scholarship

Roth has both written and consulted on legal issues concerning

. In 2011, he was the legal advisor for

The Descendants ''The Descendants'' is a 2011 American tragicomedy film directed by Alexander Payne. The screenplay by Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash is based on the 2007 novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film stars George Clooney in the main role, Shail ...

, consulting on such issues. Starring

George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Ac ...

as Matt King, a

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

-based lawyer and the sole trustee of a family trust that controls 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of

Kaua'i Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 mi ...

, the film forces King to confront the realities of balancing the family's long-held interest in protecting the land with selling it to a developer.

''The Price of Paradise''

In 1992 and 1993, Roth co-authored a series of best-selling books called ''The Price of Paradise''. In them, he coined the term " Paradise Tax," a term now widely used to denote the differential in the cost of living in the United States Mainland versus

. He attributed the "Paradise Tax" to multiple factors including differences in regulation, land use, land availability, and shipping costs.

Broken Trust

: ''Further Information:'' '' Kamehameha Schools Controversies'' In 2006, ''Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement and Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust,'' co-authored by Roth and Samuel Pailthorpe King, a Judge for

United States District Court for the District of Hawaii The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (in case citations, D. Haw.) is the principal trial court of the United States Federal Court System in the state of Hawaii. The court's territorial jurisdiction encompasses the st ...

, chronicled the controversies that had enveloped Hawaii's Bishop Estate, one of the nation's largest trusts, estimated to be valued by the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

at nearly $10 billion. Established by the Hawaiian Princess,

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop KGCOK RoK (December 19, 1831 – October 16, 1884) was an '' alii'' (noble) of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii and a well known philanthropist. Ancestry, birth and early life Pauahi was born in Hon ...

, in a trust before her death in 1884, the Estate was entrusted with running

Kamehameha Schools Kamehameha Schools, formerly called Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate (KSBE), is a private school system in Hawaii established by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, under the terms of the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who was a formal membe ...

, a private college preparatory school dedicated to educating

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, Indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was set ...

youth. In the best-seller, he exposed how the Estate had been corrupted by the state's political apparatus and its trustees for their personal use at the expense of Kamehameha; a group of trustees who included, among others,

Hawaii Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Hawaii is the highest court of the State of Hawaii in the United States. Its decisions are binding on all other courts of the Hawaii State Judiciary. The principal purpose of the Supreme Court is to review the decisions o ...

justices and prominent politicians; trustees were earning salaries of nearly $950,000 for their work as such.

References

External links

Randall RothBroken Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Randall 1948 births Living people Writers from Kansas Lawyers from Hawaii Hawaii law University of Denver alumni Regis College (Massachusetts) alumni American legal scholars American legal writers William S. Richardson School of Law faculty