§28-8.3 Employment of attorneys. (a) No department of the State other than the attorney general may employ or retain any attorney, by contract or otherwise, for the purpose of representing the State or the department in any litigation, rendering legal counsel to the department, or drafting legal documents for the department; provided that the foregoing provision shall not apply to the employment or retention of attorneys:
(b) For purposes of this section the term "department" includes any department, board, commission, agency, bureau, or officer of the State.
(c) Every attorney employed by any department on a full-time basis, except an attorney employed by the public utilities commission, the labor and industrial relations appeals board, the Hawaii labor relations board, the office of Hawaiian affairs, the Hawaii health systems corporation or its regional system boards, the department of commerce and consumer affairs in prosecution of consumer complaints, insurance division, the division of consumer advocacy, the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii tourism authority as provided in section 201B-2.5, the Mauna Kea stewardship and oversight authority, the office of information practices, or as grand jury counsel, shall be a deputy attorney general.
(d) All attorneys retained by contract, whether by the attorney general or a department, shall be retained in accordance with chapter 103D. [L 1995, c 178, §1; am L 1996, c 52, §1, c 262, §4, and c 270, §4; am L 1997, c 251, §3; am L 1998, c 115, §5; am L 2000, c 105, §1 and c 272, §1; am L 2004, c 57, §5 and c 58, §§2, 14(2); am L 2005, c 22, §50; am L 2006, c 306, §1; am L 2007, c 290, §5; am L 2008, c 16, §3 and c 45, §1; am L Sp 2009, c 5, §12; am L 2010, c 84, §4; am L 2011, c 124, §39; am L 2015, c 92, §3; am L 2017, c 149, §1; am L 2021, c 217, §5; am L 2022, c 255, §3]