Soifer is professor and former dean at Boston College Law School.

Soifer graduated from Yale Law School and also received a master's degree in urban studies and a bachelor's degree in American Studies, cum laude, from Yale College.

He succeeds Lawrence C. Foster, who led the law school for 15 years before resigning as dean last year to return to teaching. Foster specializes in law reform issues in Asia and the Pacific.

"I am extremely excited because Avi is going to be an exceptional dean at the law school," said Larry Foster, current dean of the law school. "He visited us for a year about three or four years ago, so our law community got to know him well."

The search for a dean has taken more than a year and was conducted by a broad-based community and campus group that included attorneys, professors, and community leaders.

The board also authorized the UH administration to enter into a 65-year lease for the site of the former U.S. Army Cannon Club at Diamond Head. It would be used for the site of Kapiolani Community College's Culinary Institute of the Pacific.

It would be a 65-year lease at $1-a-year, plus a one-time cost of $440,000 to reimburse the state Department of Land & Natural Resources special land development fund, said Sam Callejo, director of capitol improvements for the university system.