From the Desk of the Attorney General

David M. Louie had been a civil trial lawyer in private practice for thirty-two years when he was named Hawai'i's attorney general by Governor Neil Abercrombie in 2010. What followed was an eye-opening education in the nature of government-how it works and how the sausage of government policy is made. His historic koa wood desk in Hawai'i's state capitol gave Louie a frontrow seat for viewing-and shaping-the inner workings of government. In this incisive, behind-the-scenes memoir, the country's first Chinese American state attorney general recalls the landmark cases of his time in office-environmental issues, Native Hawaiian rights, Internet safety, same sex marriage, human trafficking and even the unlikely concert hoax known as the "Wonder Blunder."