Appointed by Governor David Y. Ige, Karen Tooko Nakasone was sworn in as an Associate Judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals on November 2, 2020.

She was first appointed by Governor Neil Abercrombie as a Circuit Court Judge of the First Circuit (Oahu) on November 1, 2011, and served as a trial judge for nine years, in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions.

A graduate of the Boston University School of Law, Judge Nakasone served as law clerk to the Honorable Simeon R. Acoba Jr. for the Intermediate Court of Appeals. She then served as a criminal trial and appellate lawyer for the State Office of the Public Defender for fifteen years.

Judge Nakasone is a 2008 Pacific Century Fellow, and was named 2009 Best Lawyers Under 40 by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Judge Nakasone is a graduate of Hawaii Baptist Academy, and received her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College. She also attended the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and studied abroad at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, on an Okinawan Prefectural Government scholarship from the Hawaii United Okinawa Association.