A Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board member serves as a director at the law firm that will be paid to defend the city in a challenge to the validity of key votes on the rail project.

The City Council voted last week to approve a resolution authorizing Starn, O’Toole, Marcus & Fisher to be paid up to $100,000 to represent the city in a lawsuit brought by Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa.

The case challenges the validity of key votes made by the Council, arguing that up to five of its members illegally accepted, or failed to report, gifts or meals they received from lobbyists whose interests would benefit from their votes.

Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board member Ivan Lui-Kwan serves as a director at the law firm. City Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, in a statement, said there is no conflict of interest.

Resolution 15-300 appoints the law firm as a special deputy corporation counsel in the Kawananakoa case because the lawsuit “involves complex issues of law and requires specialized litigation knowledge and experience.”

Starn partner Mark J. Bennett and other partners are to be paid $375-$500 an hour for the work, while associates and paralegals would be paid lesser amounts, according to the resolution.

“The City is retaining Mark Bennett of the Starn O’Toole law firm,” Leong said Thursday in a statement. “The City does not believe there is a conflict of interest in the retention of the law firm and Mr. Bennett in particular.”

Kawananakoa attorney Bridget Morgan suggested that the use of the Starn law firm, given Lui-Kwan’s dual interests, is dubious.

“The Starn firm and Mr. Bennett are certainly qualified to handle this type of work,” Morgan said. “But we’d be interested to know what other firms that have no ties to HART were also in the running.”

Morgan added, “You would expect Ivan Lui-Kwan to be screened from the case because as a HART director, he has a personal interest in the survival of HART and rail.”

Lui-Kwan “may not be in a position to give objective advice on the validity of some of the laws that are the subject of this suit,” she said.

Bennett, in response, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Starn will set up a legal screen, or ethical wall, that would block Lui-Kwan from having any involvement with the case.

In addition to Lui-Kwan not participating in the case, the firm will set up mechanisms to ensure he has no access to any physical or electronic copies of documents or other materials tied to it, Bennett said.

He emphasized that he, like the city, does not believe there is a conflict of interest caused by the hiring of the firm. The steps to screen Lui-Kwan are being set up “to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

Bennett is a former state attorney general. Lui-Kwan is a former city budget and finance director who has served on the HART board since 2011, including a time as its chairman.