Makana Risser Chai has more than 20 years experience as an attorney and consultant, specializing in practical solutions to HR problems. Author of the Prentice Hall book, Stay Out of Court! The Manager’s Guide to Preventing Employee Lawsuits, she received her JD from the University of California, Berkeley, and is licensed to practice law in California and Hawai'i.

Prior to moving to Hawai'i 10 years ago, she was CEO of Fair Measures Corporation, a Silicon Valley training and consulting company. She consulted with Human Resources staff of Fortune 500, medium companies, small businesses, government and non-profits in a wide variety of industries. Investigated and mediated harassment claims. Coached key employees on appropriate behavior. Conducted in-house research on patterns of discrimination. Presented more than a thousand legal compliance training programs for managers and employees. Typical clients required all managers to attend her one-day training program on managing within the law. Her long-term clients included Sun Microsystems, Oracle Corporation and Cisco, as well as Blue Cross, DuPont, and FICO.

Before starting Fair Measures she had a law firm representing employers and employees in wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, unemployment and overtime mediations and hearings. Drafted complaints, motions and responses, conducted discovery and depositions. Consulted with executives on strategic and situational HR issues. Advised HR managers on compliance with employment and labor laws and collective bargaining agreements. Investigated and mediated harassment claims. Wrote policies, procedures and employee handbooks. Managed law firm with 7 attorneys and staff.

 In addition to her book which was used as a textbook at universities, she has published a series of articles on HR law in the Honolulu Advertiser, as well as an article in American Society of Training & Development'sTraining & Development magazine and authored more than 500 articles on employment law website, www.FairMeasures.com, commended as “particularly useful” by SHRM’s HR Magazine

She has taught HR and the Law classes at the University of Santa Clara and University of California, Santa Cruz, Continuing Legal Education seminars for lawyers on preventing bias and substance abuse in the profession, and continuing HR Education programs for the Hawai‘i Society for Human Resource Management annual conference in 2008 and 2009.