When Keola Whittaker, an attorney on Maui, read a job posting for a case manager in Wailuku, he was disappointed.
“I prefer to hire mainlanders who have relocated to Maui,” the job posting from a Maui personal injury law firm read.
The ad went up on Craigslist in mid-November, and on Wednesday attracted a sharp response on social media after Whittaker posted it on Twitter.
“Yuck.” “Gross.” “Is this even legal?” Hawaii Twitter users chorused in response.
Whittaker, who is originally from Oahu, said he doesn’t understand the preference in part because local applicants might have more knowledge of Hawaii’s court system than outsiders.
“What makes somebody who is a transplant from the mainland better?” he said. “People who grew up here who are local to Hawaii sometimes have trouble finding jobs, and they experience these very types of issues whether it’s in a job posting or not.”
Johnny Brown, a trial lawyer from Texas who posted the ad, said that he loves living in Hawaii but it’s been challenging to find qualified people on Maui because there’s a small pool of applicants and it’s an expensive place to live.
“I’d love to hire some people who are from the island, but it seems like I just never seem to find those people on Maui,” he said.
He said he recently hired a paralegal from California and that while he has hired some local people, most of his current staff are originally from the mainland, even if they’ve lived in Hawaii for a decade.
“It’s not like I’m against the...
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