Nathan Thomas Kahaulu Aipa was born in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi in 1953 and grew up in Kailua, Oʻahu where he and his wife Hilary Ann Kaʻanohiwaianuenue (Stephenson) Aipa have raised their three sons Moses, Isaiah and Daniel. He graduated, cum laude, from ʻIolani School in 1972 and with honors, from the University of Redlands in Redlands, California, in 1976 majoring in English and Political Science. After a management role at Matson Terminals in Honolulu, Aipa attended the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii, where he served on the University of Hawaiʻi Law Review and graduated in 1980.
Aipa served as one of three law clerks to former Chief Justice Williams S. Richardson, of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaiʻi in 1980. He then served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu in 1982 where after a year he had worked all trial and appellate levels in the state criminal justice system. Aipa also served as Grand Jury Counsel in the First Circuit Court of the State of Hawaiʻi. In 1983, Aipa spent a year as an associate with the then Law Offices of Wayne Marshall Pitluck before embarking on a 16-year term as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate (KSBE).
He has served as a member and director on several committees and boards of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association, the Hawaiʻi State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and Foundation, Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Lawyers Care, and Maximum Legal Services. He has served as a Bar Examiner for several years. He currently serves as a hearings committee member for the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Aipa has served and been involved with numerous community and nonprofit organizations, which currently include the Windward Choral Society, the American Cancer Society, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and Kainalu Elementary School.
Nathan Aipa's areas of practice include business and real property law, trusts and estates, exempt organizations, Native Hawaiian rights, and strategic planning consulting for exempt organizations.