Law school dean to receive top national award

UH Law Dean Avi Soifer

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Law School Dean Avi Soifer will be given a national award  for his outstanding support for pro bono work and public service. 

Soifer will be presented with the 2020 Deborah L. Rhode Award from the national Association of American Law Schools (AALS) at its annual convention in Washington, D.C. on January 4, 2020. Founded in 1900, the AALS is the non-profit organization of 179 U.S. law schools that graduate the vast majority of the nation’s lawyers.

The national honor recognizes Soifer’s work on behalf of people in Hawai’i who have benefited from many thousands of hours of free assistance, provided by the students and faculty at the William S. Richardson School of Law. It also responds to over a dozen initiatives during his deanship that serve those in need, including those among the most vulnerable in the community.

Soifer said that he was very grateful for the honor, yet he pointed out that the recognition really ought to be to the entire Richardson Law School - students, faculty, and alumni – for their ongoing support for free legal assistance to those most in need. He added that, for example, the Law School was unique in its pro bono requirement for graduation of at least 60 hours (a graduation requirement first advocated by students), and most Richardson students far exceed that number.

“My work has been our work at our Law School,” Soifer said. “Working together we have accomplished a great deal with our legal community allies to increase access to justice in Hawai‘i. At heart this is what the William S. Richardson School of Law is all about – reaching out together to help others.”

In nominating Dean Soifer, Martha Minow, former Dean of Harvard Law School and Vice-Chair of the Legal Services Corporation, cited a wide range of initiatives launched by the Dean to build capacity in Hawai‘i’s social justice safety net, calling him “a leader in legal education and exemplary participant in state and national social justice efforts.”

“When I became a law dean, I looked to Avi’s leadership in infusing public service and pro bono work throughout a law school community,” wrote Minow. “Dean Soifer has made crucial contributions to public service and pro bono work as institutional, educational, and practical commitments.”

Under Soifer’s tenure at Richardson, projects from existing law clinics to the new Hawai‘i Innocence Project, Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, Medical-Legal Partnership, the Law and Justice Institute, and many others have all flourished.  Under his guidance, a new Clinical Building to house the growing number of programs that directly serve the public became a reality; the Law School received reaccreditation for another 10 years; and faculty teaching and scholarship thrived.

He often works behind the scenes to launch a collaborative idea before handing it over to capable partners within the Law School and beyond who carry it forward with his strong backing. Yet Soifer credits the vision and commitment of the Law School faculty and its students - as well as generous contributions of time, effort, and funding from community partners - for meriting the award.

Robert LeClair, executive director of the Hawaii Justice Fund, coordinated the extensive nomination letters involved. Hawai‘i Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald added enthusiastic support, and wrote that since his own appointment in 2010, he has worked extensively with the Dean on a wide variety of projects.

“Dean Soifer’s contributions to the delivery of justice in Hawai‘i are unique and unparalleled,” wrote Recktenwald. “Dean Soifer has served at the forefront of making Hawai‘i a more fair and just place for all by facilitating partnerships and initiatives surrounding access to justice, expanding access to legal education, promoting greater opportunities for service learning, and serving as an independent voice in our community.”

Recktenwald continued: “Dean Soifer has expanded Richardson’s offering of clinical programs, and achieved the monumental task of obtaining funding from the Legislature and the community for a brand-new building dedicated to clinical and community-facing work. He gets things done because he believes in his students, his faculty, and his community, and it shows.”

The important projects Recktenwald pointed out since Soifer became Dean 16 ½ years ago include: the annual Access to Justice Conference,  which Soifer co-chairs, as well as the Supreme Court’s civic education project, whose work is shouldered in large part by law students.  They assist in explaining court room trial issues and upcoming cases to high school students, for example, through the “Courts in the Community” program.

In 2014 Hawai’i was ranked third in the nation by the National Center for Access to Justice for its many impressive initiatives, including ranking first for its support of people representing themselves in civil court cases.

Letters of support for Dean Soifer’s nomination were also written by Simeon Acoba, Associate Supreme Court Justice (retired); Rep. Della Au Belatti ’03, House Majority Leader; and other members of the Access to Justice Commission. Justice Acoba praised Dean Soifer’s commitment to social justice and said he is universally loved, respected, and appreciated for his many contributions.

“He has fostered and created many programs at the School of Law that have produced graduates who have an active social conscience,” wrote Acoba. “Dean Soifer has made truly remarkable advancements in uniting pro bono commitment with enlarging the Law School’s contributions in public service and heightening the development of law student awareness and commitment to equal justice for all.”

Rep. Au Belatti praised the way Dean Soifer “has nurtured a generation of Law School graduates who understand the importance of selflessness, and give Hawai‘i’s legal community a deep well of professionals from which it will undoubtedly draw as it seeks to become a more just society.” And she pointed to his efforts over several years to create the Evening Part-Time Program that has enabled individuals with day jobs, or family obligations to follow their dreams of law school.

“In a little more than a decade since the part-time program’s inception in 2008,” said Au Belatti, “more than 100 students, many of whom might not have otherwise had the opportunity to do so, have earned their law degree.

“These students have returned to their careers with new skills, sharpened talents, and a deeper appreciation for the challenges associated with living in an increasingly complex society,” she continued. “Although Dean Soifer will retire from being the Dean of the William S. Richardson School of Law, he will continue teaching and he has paved the way for future students, lawyers, and professors to contribute deeds towards – or dedicate themselves to -pro bono causes in the community, the state, and the country.”