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The firm, without yet recognizing the opportunity, was poised to take full advantage of the new political and economic changes that would come with statehood status.

In 1857, missionary son David H. Hitchcock had made his way from his Moloka'i birthplace to Hilo to start his career in law. Painfully slow at first, his practice increased in the friendly small town atmosphere. In 1888 he was joined by his remarkable daughter, Almeda Eliza Hitchcock, a graduate of the "Ann Arbor Law School" (University of Michigan), and the first woman lawyer in Hawaii. She also became the first woman partner in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Ten years later, she was dead and he was dying, though their law practice remained strong. Hitchcock searched for a new partner and settled on Carl W. Carlsmith, who had only recently arrived in the Islands.

Carl and his wife Nelle arrived in Hilo simultaneously with another dramatic change in political status, the annexation of Hawaii by the United States. The partnership of Hitchcock and Smith - the name was changed to Carlsmith in 1911 - lasted less than two years. When David Hitchcock died, the practice was Carlsmith's to continue.

Where Hitchcock had been a respected "village" lawyer in the old-fashioned relaxed neighborly sense, Carlsmith was a newcomer both to Hilo and to Hawaii. As a new arrival, from Vermont and San Jose, he had to work to earn his acceptance. Not accepted by the larger businesses, he took on the cause of the underdog, creating the firm's early 20th century philosophy of representing emerging clients, clients who were becoming influential as opposed to those already established and secure in the business community. His successful early cases on behalf of non-establishment clients earned him grudging respect from sugar plantation employers who found themselves on the other side and brought him to the attention of their attorneys in larger Honolulu law firms.

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