Asiata Alaelua Dr Vaalepa Saleimoa Vaai passed away on 2 September 2010. He had had more than thirty years experience in the legal profession and had worked in Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand.

Asiata was a member of the Samoa Law Society and was its President from 1985 to 1987. He was also a member of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association from 1998 to 2001.

As a Member of Parliament, he represented the electoral constituency of Satupa’itea for 2 terms; the first being from 2001 to 2006 and the second from 2006 until his death in September 2010. Before he died, he was also ordained a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church.

Our history begins with the late Asiata Alaelua Dr Vaalepa Saleimoa Vaai whom worked as a law clerk, then solicitor at MacAlister Mazengarb Parkin & Rose in Wellington, New Zealand.

When Asiata first set up Vaai & Vaai as it was then known, he was the first local non-expatriate lawyer to commence his own private practice. He was joined shortly after by his first cousin Lesatele Rapi Vaai (now a Justice of Samoa’s Supreme Court).

Asiata worked as Assistant Research Officer then Legal Officer for the Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji.

The late Vaepule Vaemoa Vaai, Asiata’s younger brother, joined Vaai & Vaai in the early 1980s, after Lesatele moved to another law firm. Vaepule left in 1997 to join the public service and was appointed to the bench, becoming also a Justice of the Supreme Court of Samoa.

Asiata was the first person to hold the position of Director of the Institute of Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa.

Asiata was joined by his daughter Fotu Hoglund.

Asiata and Fotu are joined by Fotu’s husband Henry Hoglund.

The office expanded when Fotu and Henry set up a branch of Vaai Lawyers (practising only in Samoan law) in Auckland, New Zealand.

Vaai, Hoglund & Toma set up in Apia, Samoa in September 2020

Vaai, Hoglund & Toma set up in Auckland, New Zealand in May 2021