Puananionaona (Onaona) P. Thoene

Onaona Thoene is a Partner in the firm's Honolulu office and a member of its Real Property, Environmental, and Business & Corporate practice groups. Her practice also focuses on land use and administrative law. Onaona received a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law with certificates in environmental law and native Hawaiian law, and a B.B.A., cum laude, from the University of San Diego. She is fluent in Hawaiian.

Corporate Matters

• Assisted clients in the payoff and refinancing of a 73 million dollar loan for a renewable energy facility.
• Assisted clients with due diligence for the purchase and sale of commercial properties and development of utility scale solar projects throughout the State.
  

Environmental, Administrative and Land Use

• Assisted client with research regarding non-covered source, covered source, and PSD permits.
• Assisted client with research regarding enforcement of HRS Chapters 342D, 342H and 342J claims.
• Board of Land and Natural Resources: Assisted clients with various matters related to renewal of a lease for state land, promulgation of agency rules, conservation district use permit, and contested case hearing.
• State of Hawaii Land Use Commission: Represented clients in connection with amendments to district boundary applications for the development of utility scale solar energy facilities, and defense of an environmental impact statement.
• Honolulu Planning Commission: Represented client in connection with a special use permit application for development of a utility scale solar energy facility.
• Department of Planning and Permitting: Assisted client with conditional use permit application for an agricultural energy facility.
• County of Hawaii Planning Commission: Assisted client with renewal and amendment of special permit to operate a quarry and recycling facility.
• Kauai Planning Commission: Assisted client with special management area permit application proceedings.
• State of Hawaii Department of Health: Assisted clients with response to notices of violation, and requests for contested case hearings.
  

Distinctions

• Selected by attorney peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch 2025 for Administrative/Regulatory Law, Business Organizations (including LLC's and Partnerships), Energy Law, Environmental Law, Land Use and Zoning Law, and Litigation - Environmental Law; listed since 2021
  
• Selected for inclusion in 2024 Hawaii Super Lawyers Rising Stars for Land Use/Zoning; listed since 2020
  
• Chair, Environmental Council, State of Hawaii
• Co-Editor-in-Chief, University of Hawaii Law Review, Volume 35
• Staff Writer, University of Hawaii Law Review, Volume 34
• CALI Excellence for the Future Award, State & Local Government, Fall 2012
• Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing Award for the Best Environmental Law Topic for the Second Year Seminar Paper entitled House Resolution 910 "Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011": One Step Toward Economic Efficiency, Two Steps Back for Global Warming, Fall 2012
• Starn O'Toole Marcus & Fisher Scholarship for Excellence in Contracts and Contributions to the UH Law School Community, Fall 2011
• McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon Scholarship, Fall 2011
  

Affiliations

• Hawaii State Bar Association
• Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club
• Hawaiian Islands Land Trust, Oahu Island Advisory Council
  

Publications

• State v. Fields: Should a Declarant's Professed Memory Loss at Trial Satisfy the "Unavailability" Requirement Under Hawaii's Confrontation Clause, with Andrea Ushijima, 34 U. Haw. L. Rev. (2012)
• Maybe She's Born With It? Maybe It's Gene Therapy?, with Kiyomi Labuguen, American Journal of Bioethics, Fall 2003