The former Kauai prosecuting attorney is joining the Hawaii Innocence Project to help free wrongly convicted criminals and supervise law school students, according to a news release.

Justin F. Kollar, who served as Kauai County prosecuting attorney from 2012 to 2021, will work as a volunteer attorney and help HIP co-Director Kenneth Lawson and HIP Associate Director Jennifer Brown supervise law students from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“To my knowledge, the William S. Richardson School of Law is one of the few, if not the only, Law School in the country with a former progressive prosecutor with Justin’s trial experience as an attorney working in post-conviction clinics,” said Lawson, in a statement.

Kollar, who lives in Oakland, was elected in 2012 and retired in 2021. Prior to his election he served as a deputy prosecuting attorney and a deputy county attorney for Kauai and worked as a clerk for Daniel R. Foley, associate judge of Hawaii’s Intermediate Court of Appeals.

Prior to moving to Hawaii, Kollar served as an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Boston and clerked at the Massachusetts Superior Court, according to the news release.

“My career has been devoted to finding justice and righting the wrongs caused by our criminal legal system,” said Kollar, in a statement. “I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to continue seeking justice while also providing guidance and mentorship to Hawaii’s future lawyers.”