UNLV Law THE MAGAZINE OF THE WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW | 2016
Plus:
Ann McGinley pioneers emerging multidisciplinary field THE FIRST GAMING LAW LL.M. CLASS GRADUATES
The Namesake A CONVERSATION WITH WILLIAM S. BOYD
UNLV Law
UNLV Law THE MAGAZINE OF THE WILLIAM
S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW | 2016
2016
Plus:
Ann McGinley pioneers emerging multidisciplinary field THE FIRST GAMING LAW LL.M. CLASS GRADUATES
The Namesake A CONVERSATION WITH WILLIAM S. BOYD
ON THE COVER
William S. Boyd, namesake of the law school at UNLV (R. Marsh Starks/UNLV Photo Services)
features
18
GENDER SPECIFICS
Professor Ann McGinley sees discrimination through the lens of masculinities theory
20
WATER CRISIS: CONFLICT ... OR RESOLUTION?
Two Saltman Center scholars confront the issues surrounding the water crisis
24
THE NAMESAKE William S. Boyd and community members share stories about his family, career and philanthropy
departments
1 FROM THE DEAN’S DESK 2 OPENING ARGUMENT 4 CENTERS & CLINICS 12 GIVING BACK 14 WHO KNEW? 28 FACULTY FOCUS 36 THE GALLERY 40 CLASS ACTIONS 44 DONORS
A MESSAGE FROM DEAN DANIEL W. HAMILTON
FROM THE DEAN’S DESK
I
Milestone Year
t has been a milestone year for our law school. This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked our legal writing program second in the nation – its highest placement ever – and our dispute resolution program ninth in the nation. On the heels of these accomplishments, we awarded the law school’s first post-graduate degree – the LL.M. in Gaming Law and Regulation – and celebrated an alumni group that is now more than 2,000 members strong. Our alumni continue to distinguish themselves in Nevada and across the country. More than 100 alumni were named to Nevada Business Magazine’s 2016 Legal Elite list, which represents the top 3.7 percent of attorneys in the state. In August, alumna Hillary Walsh ’12 was honored at the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting with the 2016 Pro Bono Publico Award, which recognizes individuals who are committed to volunteer legal services for the poor and disadvantaged. Among her many other public service contributions, Hillary has spent thousands of hours representing pro bono clients in the U.S. from her home at South Korea’s Osan Air Base. We continue to impact our community in other ways, too, right here from home. Since opening our doors, we have provided free legal education to more than 60,000 Nevadans through our partnerships with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and Nevada Legal Services. The new Public Interest Advisory Board, which held its first meeting last year, will help us ensure that our public service initiatives best serve the communities in which we work. Our clinics, of course, continue to train students to practice and provide opportunities for public service. The Immigration Clinic, working with our AmeriCorps Fellows, work with unaccompanied children who enter the United States and face deportation proceedings. And, the Kids’ Court School expanded to Northern Nevada this year in partnership with The National Judicial College. We also helped establish the Pro Se Boot Camp, a new program offering weekly legal-empowerment lectures on subjects such as self-representation in civil lawsuits and bankruptcy. Started by adjunct faculty member Joseph Regalia and supported by Boyd students and alumni, the program has helped more than 200 families at The Shade Tree women’s shelter since launching in February. Our faculty’s achievements are nationally recognized. President Obama nominated Professor Anne Traum to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada and appointed Senior Fellow Nancy Brune to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Governor Brian Sandoval appointed Professor Francine Lipman to the Nevada Tax Commission. New York University Press published Professor Ann McGinley’s book, Masculinity at Work: Employment Discrimination Through a Different Lens, and she received the Paul Steven Miller award at the 11th annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law. Professor McGinley’s new book is one of several that Boyd faculty recently published, in-
cluding Professor Linda Berger’s Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court, Professor Leslie Griffin’s Practicing Bioethics Law, and Professor Mary LaFrance’s Entertainment Law on a Global Stage. And, our faculty’s scholarship continues to appear in some of the nation’s leading law journals, including Professor Linda Edwards’ “Hearing Voices: Non-Party Stories in Abortion and Gay Rights Advocacy” in the Michigan State Law Review, Professor Michael Kagan’s “When Immigrants Speak: The Precarious Status of Non-Citizen Speech Under the First Amendment” in the Boston College Law Review, and Professor Marketa Trimble’s “Patent Working Requirements: Historical and Comparative Perspectives” in the UC Irvine Law Review. Our students make us proud day in and day out. This year, they placed in national and regional competitions, including the American Bar Association Regional Client Counseling Competition and the Duberstein Moot Court Competition. Our Society of Advocates team won second place at the Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition and argued before Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Students from the Society of Advocates and the UNLV Gaming Law Journal partnered to host the inaugural Frank A. Schreck Gaming Law Moot Court Competition. Just as our alumni, faculty and students are thriving, so is our programming. This year, we began offering a Health Law Concentration through our growing Health Law Program and executive education mediation trainings through the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution. The Health Law Speaker Series and other health law programs bring distinguished law and medical scholars and practitioners to the law school. The Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution, which provides a forum for the study of conflict and how to solve it, hosted, among many other programs, “Turbulent Waters: Brokering a Secure World,” a conference on water law and policy through a partnership with the Desert Research Institute and in collaboration with the Brookings Institute. As we look back on all that we’ve accomplished, we do so with profound gratitude to our founder and namesake, William S. Boyd, without whom none of this would have been possible. We were honored when Mr. Boyd stopped by earlier this year for a casual conversation with members of the law school community, and we are honored to feature him in this year’s magazine.
Daniel W. Hamilton Dean and Richard J. Morgan Professor of Law Learn more: Read Boyd Briefs, a weekly newsletter from Dean Dan spotlighting members of the Boyd community. Subscribe at law.unlv.edu/BoydBriefs.
UNLV LAW MAGAZINE EDITOR CATHERINE BACOS ASSOCIATE EDITOR VANEH DARAKJIAN GRAPHIC DESIGNER CHED WHITNEY CONTRIBUTING WRITERS KANDY DELACRUZ ALEZA FREEMAN MIKE KALIL MATTHEW KELEMEN TOVIN LAPAN LAUNCE RAKE CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS JOSHUA HAWKINS AARON MAYES CONNIE PALEN R. MARSH STARKS UNLV PRESIDENT LEN JESSUP EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & PROVOST DIANE CHASE DEAN, WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW DANIEL W. HAMILTON SUBSCRIBER UPDATES Update your address and submit Class Actions items at: law.unlv.edu/alumni/ StayConnected READER FEEDBACK UNLV Law magazine welcomes feedback from readers. Submit comments at: law.unlv.edu/magazine UNLV Law magazine, a CASE District VII Award of Excellence winner, is published by the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, Office of Communications 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 451003, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-1003 (702) 895-3671 law.unlv.edu UNLV is an AA/EEO INSTITUTION. 2016 | UNLV Law
1
A PROMINENT MEMBER OF NEVADA’S LEGAL COMMUNITY PRESENTS A COMPELLING CASE
OPENING ARGUMENT
GUEST COLUMN | TOM THOMAS MANAGING PARTNER, THOMAS & MACK CO.
Watering the Green Spots
I
WHY THE THOMAS AND MACK FAMILIES SUPPORT THE UNLV WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
n 1997 Jerry Mack and I took Richard Morgan, the founding dean of the recently announced Boyd School of Law, to lunch. Dean Morgan was making the rounds and getting to know the families and businesses with past histories of supporting UNLV. He was unaware that in the early ’80s Jerry and my father, Parry Thomas, worked with a number of prominent attorneys and judges to create a law school at UNLV. The timing and politics for that project weren’t right, so Jerry and my father focused on other needs at the University. Jerry was very pleased that the new law school was endowed by and named for his friend, Bill Boyd. He was also thrilled that another friend, Jim Rogers, was taking a leading role both financially and personally in moving the law library forward. During our lunch I asked Dean Morgan how he planned on connecting the law school with the community. He replied that the best method was through a clinical program in which the law students would work with and represent clients from the commu2
UNLV Law | 2016
nity who could not otherwise afford legal representation. Naturally, Dean Morgan suggested the clinical program would need a suitable endowment if it were to achieve the level of excellence we all expected for Nevada’s only law school. Dick Morgan’s skills in fundraising were exceeded only by his ability to hire talented professors and create a top law school in record time. Ever since that lunch meeting and the resulting endowment to create the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic as well as a later gift
to build the Thomas & Mack Moot Court building, I have been asked why our families focused the bulk of our UNLV philanthropy on the Boyd School of Law. The joke in the two families is that the attorneys outnumber the other professions so the support was rigged. The truth goes back to something I learned from former UNLV President Robert Maxson (president from 1984 to 1994). He frequently spoke of “watering the green spots,” or providing additional support and attention to centers of
“Every year I hear law students proclaim that the legal training and experience they received in the numerous legal clinics was the most important aspect of their legal education.” OPENING ARGUMENT
excellence to lift them to their full potential. Our families knew that the backing of Bill Boyd and Jim Rogers, along with many other outstanding members of the legal community, would produce an excellent law school. But in order to accelerate the growth and stature of the program, to attract the best students and professors, and to incorporate the law school into the fabric of the community, we felt that Dick Morgan’s vision for a nationally recognized legal clinic was the best place for our investment. When I attended the College of Law at the University of Utah I wasn’t even aware that clinical programs were offered. I was singularly focused on business, banking, and real estate law and the quickest path to graduation. Over the past 17 years I’ve had the opportunity to sit on the Legal Clinic’s Advisory Board and hear the quarterly reports from the students and clinic professors on their exemplary efforts to serve the citizens of Southern Nevada. Every year I hear law students proclaim that the legal training and experience they received in the numerous legal clinics was the most important aspect of their legal education. I am thrilled when Barbara Buckley, the executive director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, confirms the importance of the clinical programs to our community. Barbara’s organization is the keystone for all community legal aid, and her seal of approval on the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinics attests to both the program’s importance educationally as well as communally. There are many reasons for philanthropy. Often corporate philanthropy is as much about marketing as lifting those in need. For our families, philanthropy should create a lasting impact, serve the critical needs of an at-risk community, and motivate others to serve. The clinical programs at the Boyd School of Law achieve all of these aims in stellar fashion. I’ve had the opportunity to write numerous letters of recommendation for aspiring young Nevadans hoping to attend the Boyd School of Law. When I interview them I confirm that a legal education at the Boyd School of Law will match or exceed those available anywhere in the country. Then I challenge them to look beyond the standard path toward a degree and take every advantage of the legal clinics and the nationally recognized Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution. While these programs certainly hone the legal skills of the students, perhaps their greatest contribution is how they shape the student’s souls.
Richard Morgan, founding dean of the Boyd School of Law, is pictured from left with donors Tom Thomas, Joyce Mack, and E. Parry Thomas at a press conference on Oct. 6, 2005 at the law school to announce the building of the Thomas & Mack Moot Court.
E. PARRY THOMAS REMEMBERED FOR LASTING IMPACT The UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law recognizes the passing of E. Parry Thomas, a longtime supporter of UNLV and the law school. Thomas passed away on Aug. 26, 2016 at the age of 95. Thomas and his business partner, Jerry Mack, always had a keen interest in building academic opportunities throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Their dedication to grow UNLV into a prominent higher education institution never wavered. Both men were instrumental in acquiring land for what became UNLV in the 1950s. Years later, Thomas worked with Donald C. Moyer, UNLV’s first president, to form the Nevada Southern University Land Foundation. The foundation worked to finance the purchase of 300 acres surrounding Maryland Parkway, which was later sold to the university – nearly doubling the size of the main campus. In 1983, the opening of the Thomas & Mack Center further solidified the lasting impact made by both men. Their $1 million gift led to the $30 million construction of the multi-use facility. In 2001, the Thomas and Mack families made a joint contribution to the law school of $2 million to establish the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic. This gift was followed by a $3 million commitment in 2005 that established the Thomas & Mack Moot Court. Thomas leaves a legacy focused on enhancing and expanding the educational experiences of current and future students.
2016 | UNLV Law
3
UPDATES ON BOYD’S SPECIALTY PROGRAMS
CENTERS & CLINICS
SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
A Different Approach SALTMAN CENTER OFFERS MEDIATION TRAININGS Watching the evening news can be a traumatizing experience these days. Mass shootings seem to happen every other night; terrorists attack airports overseas and discotheques in our cities; even our national political discourse has been reduced to insults and invective. In all of this chaos, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law offers a beacon of relative calm, and one of the center’s tools is mediation. Simply put, instead of going to war – or court – mediation offers an opportunity for people to engage others in meaningful dialogue, de-escalate conflict, and develop mutually beneficial, interest-based resolutions to litigated and non-litigated issues, problems or disputes. The Saltman Center offers continuing education credits in mediation skills not only for attorneys, but human resource professionals and business people. The focus is on negotiation instead of confrontation and conflict. Mediation classes are offered in a 40-hour basic level and 21-hour advanced training session. David Doto, an adjunct professor at the Boyd School of Law, recently conducted basic mediation training at the Saltman Center. Professor Doto, an attorney, says he found mediation when he was seeking an option outside of traditional litigation. “I started to pursue alternative dispute resolution because I had a growing sense during my litigation career in Philadelphia that there had to be a better path for people in disputes to follow,” he said. “Litigation is harsh. It is very hard on people. Most individuals, even many very sophisticated business people, have no idea how emotionally and physically draining the process can be, let alone the expenses involved. “There are typically no real winners,” he said. “Even the prevailing party has often suffered greatly and gains limited remedies that do not heal. Moreover, in many cases, the initial trial is only the first step in a long process of subsequent appeals.” So, mediation is an alternative that works for many, Professor Doto believes. 4
UNLV Law | 2016
“Mediation provides a way for people in conflict to come together in a safe environment and resolve disputes in a peaceful manner that is often relatively quick and inexpensive,” he said. “It often allows people to transcend the conflict – even serious matters involving human violence – forgive and set themselves on a path toward healing and even reconciliation.” Ken Cloke has provided advanced mediation training at the Saltman Center. He said the benefits of mediation aren’t only for those who avoid confrontation. It benefits the mediators, too. “What it brings me personally is a profound sense of empathy and interconnections with those who are suffering, a set of skills that I use in all my relationships, and a feeling of awe at the incredible transformational power and transcendent potential of conflict, when approached in the right way,” said Cloke, who is a former administrative law judge in California. The benefit he perceives personally is one that he works to convey in the training. “The trainings I conduct are oriented both to acquiring typical mediation skills and to understanding the sweep and flow of con-
flict, finding the places where it dives beneath the surface, and discovering or inventing the skills that are needed to turn it in the direction of collaborative, creative problem solving,” Cloke said. Professor Doto also sees powerful positives in the training for everyone involved – and for society generally. “Mediation empowers people to take control of their lives and connect with those that have hurt them in some way – physically, economically and psychologically,” Professor Doto said. “That empowerment allows them to stop being a victim, forgive themselves and others, heal, and transform as a result of the process. “Mediation can transform conflict into a positive force for growth and change. I think that’s something we all need. It can change the world one conflict at a time,” he said. But how, we ask, is the training applied in the world of business, confrontation and conflict, and struggle? “People apply it in the real world in ways that are unique and personal to each of them,” Cloke said. “It takes a moment, and a lifetime, because it isn’t fixed or solvable in the same way, even from one moment to the next.”
SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
CENTERS & CLINICS
Preparing for the Future
PHOTO: BOBBY JOSHI PHOTOGRAPHY
The Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution ranked ninth among the top dispute resolution programs in U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 edition of the best graduate schools and specialty programs.
WHAT IS THE RELEVANCE OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION TO LAW STUDENTS AND LAWYERS? “Lawyers and law students all need to know about a wide range of approaches to dispute resolution – from litigation to arbitration to mediation to negotiation – and lots of things in between. No matter their practice area, virtually all lawyers negotiate. And, virtually all lawyers who consider themselves litigators also spend substantial time in mediation and arbitration. Clients don’t always want to take their disputes to court. They may not want to spend the money, take the time, or expose their issues to public scrutiny. Also, many courts and administrative agencies and also many contracts are requiring disputants to use non-litigation approaches. So, our Saltman Center courses and trainings endeavor to teach law students and also practicing attorneys how to negotiate, mediate and arbitrate effectively on behalf of their clients, and how to set up dispute resolution systems that will serve the interest of justice.” JEAN STERNLIGHT, DIRECTOR, SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
“The very essence of a lawyer’s work, whether as an adviser, advocate or negotiator, is helping clients resolve disputes.” LYDIA NUSSBAUM, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
“Dispute resolution is essential as a way of thinking. It expands the students’ possibilities for successful problem-solving.” TERRILL POLLMAN, PROFESSOR OF LAW
“We as lawyers are in the business of helping others resolve productively their disputes. Whether litigating cases, settling disputes, making deals, or counseling, I have found that our dispute resolution skills, informed by theory, are essential for effectively serving and representing clients.” HAL ABRAMSON, SALTMAN SENIOR SCHOLAR
“How we resolve disputes is how we vindicate rights.” THOMAS MAIN, WILLIAM S. BOYD PROFESSOR OF LAW
2016 | UNLV Law
5
THOMAS & MACK LEGAL CLINIC
CENTERS & CLINICS
WORKSHOP
Business owners participate in a roundtable discussion during an Oct. 2, 2015 workshop co-sponsored by the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law and the Association of Corporate Counsel Nevada.
The Boyd School of Law partnered with the Association of Corporate Counsel Nevada and the State Bar of Nevada to host another small business workshop on April 29. Gina Bongiovi ‘07, managing partner at Bongiovi Law Firm; Eric Franklin, associate professor of law and director of Boyd’s Small Business & Nonprofit Legal Clinic; and Rob Kim, partner at Ballard Spahr, spoke at the event. Roundtable topics included: protecting intellectual property, business formation, hiring and firing, independent contractors versus W-2 employees, business licensing and permitting, and business contracts.
Helping Small Business Owners BOYD, ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL NEVADA HOST FREE WORKSHOP LEARNING FROM MISTAKES can be a great experience for entrepreneurs. But when those missteps involve the law, the lessons can be expensive or even disastrous for business owners. This is why first-time entrepreneur Carolina Chacon prefers learning from other people’s nightmares. She got an earful of them at an Oct. 2, 2015 workshop co-sponsored by the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Nevada. There, local business attorney and Boyd alumna Gina Bongiovi ‘07 cataloged for Chacon and other listeners a litany of common legal blunders – from minor oversights to gross miscalculations – that cost business 6
UNLV Law | 2016
owners dearly. “A lot of the stories that Gina shared with us were of existing business owners making really bad mistakes,” said Chacon, who recently launched a marketing business. “One of the most useful things is to know where others went wrong with a lease or multimember LLCs. Hearing the horror stories is actually the most informative part.” Chacon was among 60 people who attended the “Legal Issues for Nevada Businesses” workshop, a free, half-day event at The Innevation Center aimed at potential entrepreneurs and new business owners. In addition to Bongiovi’s keynote address on new business licensing and tax laws, roundtable discussions led by local attorneys focused on hiring and firing, trademark and copyright law, and classifying workers as independent contractors or employees. Among the most significant issues for potential entrepreneurs in the Silver State are
the recent revisions that boosted the cost of incorporating a business from $200 to $500, as well as the complexities of the new commerce tax. “Attendees get a good understanding of how the business licensing rules have changed,” said attorney Tara Young, vice president of ACC Nevada and the leader of a workshop roundtable on legal entity formation. “In addition, they get time in a small group with a lawyer to go over common legal issues that business owners face.” The workshop also served as a forum for business owners on a budget to get a referral for “low bono” services at a local law firm, or apply to be no-fee clients of the Boyd School of Law’s Small Business & Nonprofit Legal Clinic. This, in turn, helps Boyd in fulfilling its core mission of training lawyers. “We take on clients, and the students are their business attorneys in a highly supervised environment,” said clinic director Eric Franklin, a Boyd associate professor of law and an organizer of the workshop. “Students can represent small business owners in transactional matters and have an experiential component to their law school careers.”
“It’s been an incredible experience to see children gain confidence before they testify in court.” THOMAS & MACK LEGAL CLINIC
CENTERS & CLINICS
Boyd students Andrea Orwoll (left) and Samantha Rice
AWARD-WINNING KIDS’ COURT EXPANDS TO NORTHERN NEVADA The courtroom is stressful enough for an adult, imagine the anxiety it causes a child. Whether a witness, victim, or youth charged with a crime, any child participating in legal proceedings often becomes so nervous that it affects his or her credibility. The UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law recently partnered with The National Judicial College (NJC) to expand its Kids’ Court School, an award-winning program that educates children about the court process, to Northern Nevada. Kids’ Court School founder and Professor Rebecca Nathanson and Boyd School of Law student Samantha Rice, who coordinates the program, traveled to Reno in February for an event to officially launch the program. “I’ve worked with the Kids’ Court School for the past three years,” said Rice, who
graduated in May. “It’s been an incredible experience to see children gain confidence before they testify in court. I’m excited to bring this established program to Reno to help children and youth of Northern Nevada.” The Kids’ Court School was established in 2002 and has since served more than 1,000 Southern Nevada children from its home at UNLV. Now, children ages 4 to 17 in Northern Nevada can benefit from the program, too. The Kids’ Court School in Northern Nevada is located at The NJC, which is housed on the UNR campus. “The NJC is pleased to partner with the Boyd School of Law to host a program that will instill more confidence in children and hopefully improve the quality of justice in Northern Nevada,” said NJC President Chad Schmucker.
The free-of-charge program consists of two one-hour sessions. During the first session, children are taught about the pretrial and trial process including courtroom processes and the roles and functions of courtroom participants. The second session, which takes place shortly before the trial begins, covers ways of reducing nervousness while testifying, such as deep breathing and positive self-talk. It also includes a mock trial, which takes place in state-of-the-art model courtroom facilities at Boyd and at The NJC. The program has earned national attention as a model for children’s courtroom education, including Harvard University’s Bright Idea award in 2012 and a U.S. Senatorial Commendation in 2015.
2016 | UNLV Law
7
GAMING LAW
CENTERS & CLINICS
The First LL.M. Class In May, the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law graduated its first Master of Laws in Gaming Law and Regulation class. The Boyd School of Law already offers students more courses in gaming than any other law school in the country, but the advanced degree – which complements Boyd’s Juris Doctor program – is a response to the industry’s growing complexity and expansion globally. Graduates are already finding their place in the wave of legal and technological innovation that characterizes modern gaming. Jordan Hollander landed a position with the New Jersey firm Genova Burns, specializing in employment law and litigation along with casino and gaming law, and recently accepted a position as deputy attorney general with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Russ Marsden, another program alum, is now with Stadium Technology Group, based in Las Vegas. A third graduate, Reed Horsley, has joined the legal team at William Hill, one of the world’s leading 8
UNLV Law | 2016
bookmakers, based in the United Kingdom but with a global reach. Horsley, who graduated cum laude with a J.D. from Georgia State University in 2002, said, like a lot of students in the program, he was already in litigation – in his case, for more than a decade. He was, he said, “interested in a career change as I approached the big 40 in my life.” Horsley said the LL.M. program in Las Vegas, the geographic crucible of the gaming business and accompanying regulation, gave him access and insight he might not have found elsewhere. “Gaming had always interested me, particularly with the continued expansion of gaming around the country and the world,” Horsley said. “The master of laws program provided me with access to gaming industry leaders and allowed me to make contacts in the gaming world that would have been difficult for me to make otherwise. I also acquired a lot of knowledge about how the reg-
ulatory process works, not just in Nevada but in other states and countries as well.” It didn’t take him long to put the academic experience to work. “Right after completing my LL.M. studies, I obtained a corporate counsel job with William Hill, a very successful race and sports book company based out of the U.K, with the corporate office for its U.S. operations here in Nevada,” he said. The degree “has been invaluable already in understanding the complex rules and regulations I deal with in my job on a day-to-day basis.” Horsley said faculty members Mark Lerner, Jennifer Roberts, and Tony Cabot “were all crucial in developing a complete understanding of the gaming industry, which is vast.” Instruction focuses on the practical realities of manufacturing and operation as well as the existing state of gaming regulations across the globe. Brian Wall, Boyd’s director of graduate programs, said the inaugural class is already putting its stamp on the industry in Southern Nevada and globally. “Reed, Russ, and Jordan were wonderful students during their time at Boyd, and we are extremely proud of their accomplishments and the work they will go on to perform,” Wall said. “Gaming law and regulation is a highly specialized area of the law that is increasingly becoming more complex due to technological innovation, internationalization, and an evolving business marketplace.” The success of the graduates demonstrates that the training provides value to various clients in an industry that grows ever more diverse, he said, and includes “casinos and gaming groups, regulatory agencies, and gaming technology manufacturers.” Horsley said attorneys with an interest in gaming should consider the program. “I highly recommend the LL.M. to any attorney interested in pursuing a career in gaming because not only will it substantively prepare you for a gaming career, it will prepare you socially as well by affording you the opportunity to develop relationships in the gaming arena and perhaps even meet some of your future colleagues,” he said.
The UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law thanks the State Bar of Nevada Gaming Law Section for providing scholarship support to students in the LL.M. in Gaming Law and Regulation program.
“There are emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe ... that will all need guidance in operating and functioning ... . Regulators and operators in those regions will be able to turn to UNLV’s new center for guidance.” GAMING LAW
CENTERS & CLINICS
GAMING LAW ADVISORY BOARD
Groundbreaking Center WILSENACH AND ROBERTS BRING PURPOSE AND EXPERTISE TO ICGR As the first state in the country to embrace gaming as a legitimate industry, Nevada is the ideal place to house the International Center for Gaming Regulation (ICGR). The partnership between UNLV’s International Gaming Institute and the William S. Boyd School of Law was launched in 2015. With the addition of Executive Director André Wilsenach and Associate Director Jennifer Roberts, the real work is now under way. A Vegas newcomer, Wilsenach is not a lawyer. He is an economist with a long history in gaming policy and regulation. A South Africa native, he was appointed by the Mandela Government to a board that advised government on the legalization of land-based gaming in support of postapartheid era nation-building. He also helped pioneer Internet gambling regulations for the Alderney Gambling Control Commission in the United Kingdom. “This is the first time in my life that I’ve lived in a jurisdiction that is so visibly pro-gaming,” admitted Wilsenach. “Normally it’s just the opposite.” Professor Roberts, meanwhile, has a strong background in gaming law. She is an adjunct professor at the Boyd School of Law, teaching
Fundamentals of Casino Operations & Management, Resort Hotel Casino Law, and other gaming law courses. She moved to Las Vegas from Utah after law school and worked for the guru of gaming law, Bob Faiss of Lionel Sawyer & Collins. As a gaming lawyer, she made regular appearances before the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Nevada Gaming Commission. “It’s just such an interesting industry,” Professor Roberts said of gaming. “I consider it a brand of entertainment. It had a really dark side to it in the beginning; but seeing it morph into a legitimate regulated industry, I find that really interesting.” Professor Roberts supports Wilsenach in developing the purpose of the ICGR, everything from helping regulators understand current issues to establishing best regulatory practices. “The games that you play have structured regulations behind them,” she explained. “A slot machine has to have a certain payout [percentage] set. There are rules on how to handle cash and jackpot winnings. All of that is regulation, and a lot of that comes from gaming law that sets policy for having gaming. [One] primary policy is to help protect the public.” With the worldwide spread of gaming, ICGR is a much needed resource creating tools and educational opportunities for policymakers, regulators, gaming lawyers, law enforcement, and gaming industry
leaders. It will also serve as the primary global source for regulatory research and information, including the first database of scientific findings on regulatory issues and a repository of various regulations, test results, and related data. “There are emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere that will all need guidance in operating and functioning according to the highest regulatory standards,” said Wilsenach. “Regulators and operators in those regions will be able to turn to UNLV’s new center for that guidance.” Professor Roberts said that it’s groundbreaking to do this type of work in Las Vegas because so much of the history and evolution of the industry took place here. “Think about how much gaming is in other cities and other [places] across the world. Well, Nevada was the first in the United States,” she said. Wilsenach agreed. “Right from the top, gaming is a big focus here – it’s just another industry,” he said, adding, “It’s so refreshing.” And perhaps it’s because they know too much that neither of them spend much time gambling. “When I cross state lines I play the lottery,” said Professor Roberts, admitting she knows her chances of winning are low. “I have a better chance of being eaten by a shark.”
Mike Alonso, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie; Patricia Becker, Patricia Becker & Associates; Bo Bernhard, UNLV International Gaming Institute; Peter Bernhard, Kaempfer Crowell; Michael Brunet, Palms Casino Resort; A.G. Burnett, Nevada Gaming Control Board; Anthony Cabot, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie; Jacob Coin, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians; Bill Curran, Ballard Spahr; Lou Dorn, SLS Hotels; Mark Dunn, Aristocrat; Katie Fellows, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas; Geoff Freeman, American Gaming Association; Phyllis Gilland, American Casino & Entertainment Properties; Gregory Giordano, McDonald Carano Wilson; A.J. “Bud” Hicks, McDonald Carano Wilson; Tom Jingoli, Konami Gaming; Terry Johnson, Nevada Gaming Control Board; Jan Jones Blackhurst, Caesars Entertainment; Jacqui Krum, Wynn Resorts; Yvette Landau, W.A. Richardson Builders; Brian Larson, Boyd Gaming; Katie Lever; Mark Lipparelli, University of Nevada Foundation and Gioco Ventures; John McManus, MGM Resorts International; Kevin Mullally, Gaming Laboratories International; Maren Parry, Ballard Spahr; Anthony Pearl, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas; Michael Prescott, IGT; Jennifer Roberts, International Center for Gaming Regulation; Jeffrey Rodefer, Golden Entertainment; Scott Scherer, Holland & Hart; Frank Schreck, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; Jeffrey Silver, Dickinson Wright; Kim Sinatra, Wynn Resorts; Mike Sloan, Fertitta Entertainment; Keith Smith, Boyd Gaming; Randolph Townsend,
Nevada Gaming Commission;
Ellen Whittemore,
Whittemore Gaming Group;
Andre Wilsenach,
International Center for Gaming Regulation
2016 | UNLV Law
9
CENTERS & CLINICS
HEALTH LAW PROGRAM
HEALTH LAW ADVISORY BOARD Connie Akridge, JD, MBA, Holland & Hart, Las Vegas Office;
Barbara Atkinson, MD,
UNLV School of Medicine; Lawrence Barnard, MBA, Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican, San Martin Campus; Annette Bradley, JD, Southern Nevada Health District; Michelle Chino, PhD, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, UNLV School of Community Health Sciences; Peter Christiansen, JD, Christiansen Law Offices; Renee Coffman, PhD, RPh, Roseman University of Health Sciences;
Ellen Cosgrove, MD, FACP,
UNLV School of Medicine;
Georgia Dounis, DDS, MS,
Interdisciplinary Center on Aging Research & Education, UNLV School of Dental Medicine;
Janet Dufek, MS, PhD,
UNLV Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences; Carole Fisher, Nathan Adelson Hospice;
Samantha Fredrickson, JD,
Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada; Paul Janda, DO, JD, Valley Hospital Medical Center Neurology Residency Program; Sam Kaufman, MS, Desert Springs Hospital; Deborah Kuhls, MD, FACS, FCCM, Las Vegas Campus, University of Nevada School of Medicine; John O’Reilly, JD, MBA, O’Reilly Law Group and chair, University Medical Center Governing Board; Cheryl Perna, MSN, RN, UNLV School of Nursing; Melissa Piasecki, MD, University of Nevada School of Medicine; Susan Pitz, JD, MBA, University Medical Center; Michael Saltman, JD, The Vista Group; Lynn Stange, RN, BSN, MA, CHC, Nathan Adelson Hospice; Vincent Thomas, MD, MHA, FHRS, Children’s Hospital and Medical Center - Omaha, Neb.;
PHOTO: JAMES R. SYKES
Health Law Program Continues to Grow Q&A with Stacey Tovino, Lehman Professor of Law and Director of the UNLV Health Law Program
John Valery White, JD,
Nevada System of Higher Education; Richard Whitley, MS, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services; Dylan Wint, MD, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
What curricular opportunities are available to students through the UNLV Health Law Program? 10
UNLV Law | 2016
Students at the Boyd School of Law can take a wide variety of private and public health law classes with nationally and internationally recognized health law scholars. This academic year, for example, students have the opportunity to take courses in Bioethics and the Law, Disability Law, Health Care Quality and Liability, Health Care Organization and Finance, HIPAA Privacy, Law and Ethics for Health Care Managers, Mental Health Law, Public Health Law, and Public Health Policy: Integrating Theory and Practice. In addition, a Health Law Concentration is available for law students who wish to concentrate and document their elective studies in health law.
Do the knowledge and skills taught in your health law classes have practical application for alumni? Yes. We are proud that our alumni have taken the knowledge and skills taught in our classes and have hit the ground running in their own health law practices. Kammi Rencher ‘12 has presented seminars to the University of Nevada School of Medicine on the obligations of health care providers under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Kammi learned about these obligations in the HIPAA Privacy Law class she took during her third year of law school. Ashveen Dhillon ‘16 took six health law classes during law school, wrote a health law capstone paper, and completed a health law externship at University Medical Center. This fall, she will be bringing her significant health law expertise to the law firm of Johnson & Gubler, where she’ll focus on personal injury work. Jason Sadow ‘16 has joined Nutile Law, where he will focus on transactional and regulatory health law issues. Jason excelled
“Based on our work and the work of our community partners, ... the Nevada Division of Insurance has issued bulletins clarifying that insurance carriers may not deny, exclude, or limit medically necessary health care services to covered persons based on their gender identity or expression.” CENTERS & CLINICS
HEALTH LAW PROGRAM in the Health Care Organization and Finance course he took during law school. You mentioned a health law externship. Can you talk more about the externship opportunities available to Boyd students through the Health Law Program? We are very excited about the experiential learning opportunities we have created for our students. We have a longstanding externship relationship with the Southern Nevada Health District. The Southern Nevada Health District is one of the largest local public health departments in the United States. Students who extern at the Health District learn how to identify and address public health concerns facing residents of and visitors to Southern Nevada. In the past year, we have created several new health law externships, including an externship with University Medical Center (UMC). UMC has Nevada’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, only Pediatric Level II Trauma Center, and Nevada’s only burn center, all of which provide a wealth of experiential learning opportunities for our students. For students who wish to work in the private law firm setting, have you created any experiential opportunities? Yes. In addition to our for-credit externships with non-profit and governmental entities, we also have created several health law internships with private health care organizations. Maria Nutile, the founding partner of Nutile Law, currently supervises Bridget Kelly, on a variety of regulatory and transactional health law projects. Bridget, who worked as a licensed speech-language pathologist prior to entering law school, will bring her significant clinical background and her new health law experience to the practice of private health law upon her graduation in December 2016. The UNLV Health Law Program has a nationally and internationally recognized faculty. Can you talk more about your health law faculty?
Professor Ann McGinley brings significant disability law expertise to our Program. The sixth edition of her widely adopted casebook (Disability Law: Cases, Materials, Problems, with Laura Rothstein) is forthcoming by LexisNexis. Among other topics, she speaks on the disability law obligations of medical schools, hospitals, physicians’ offices, and other health care institutions. Professor McGinley also has authored dozens of law review articles, essays, and book chapters addressing disability and other health- and employmentrelated issues. Professor Max Gakh, who holds degrees in both law and public health, is our public health law expert. Professor Gakh teaches, writes, serves, and conducts sponsored research on issues that lie at the intersection of law, policy, and public health. Professor Sara Gordon is our resident mental health law expert. She has advised governments, including the State of Alaska, on means for improving their civil and criminal mental health statutes. I am a health law generalist as well as a bioethicist and medical humanist. I teach and write in all areas of health care access, quality, liability, organization, and finance, as well as bioethics and medical humanities. Can you talk about the research conducted by the health law faculty? Our faculty members pursue distinct and complementary research, publishing in a wide variety of areas relating to health and law. In the past two years, our Program has placed its health-related scholarship in a number of top-ranked law journals including, but not limited to, Minnesota Law Review, Illinois Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Washington Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, Tulane Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, Utah Law Review, Indiana Law Review and The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, just to name a few. In a day and age when law professors have been criticized for focusing on theory to the exclusion of practical application and real-world impact, can you share whether your
Health Law Program has positively impacted the health of communities? At the local level, I have worked with the Nevada Division of Insurance for two years to clarify the requirements of the Affordable Care Act and to ensure that Nevadans have a wide range of essential physical and mental health insurance benefits available to them. Based on our work and the work of our community partners, for example, the Nevada Division of Insurance has issued bulletins clarifying that insurance carriers may not deny, exclude, or limit medically necessary health care services to covered persons based on their gender identity or expression. The Division of Insurance also has relied on our expertise to mandate Nevada health insurance carriers to cover essential mental health and substance use disorder benefits, including treatments and services for individuals with alcohol use disorder, drug use disorders, and gambling disorder. Outside Nevada, Professor Gordon recently co-authored a 128-page report that is under consideration by the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission. The report, which contains dozens of recommendations designed to improve Alaska’s mental health statutes, could impact the protections and rights of Alaska residents with mental illness for decades to come. At the international level, and at the invitation of the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand, Hapai Te Hauora Tapui (Maori Public Health), and the Auckland University of Technology Gambling and Addictions Research Centre, I recently gave a keynote address at the Sixth Biennial International Gambling Conference (“Preventing Harm in the Shifting Gambling Environment: Challenges, Policies and Strategies”) in Auckland, New Zealand. During that keynote, I shared strategies with health policy analysts, mental health care providers, and addiction researchers for developing legal protections for individuals with gambling disorder and other mental health and substance use disorders.
ALUMNA SPOTLIGHT: SUSAN PITZ ‘02 UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law alumna Susan Pitz ‘02 is general counsel at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (UMC). A wife and mother of three, Pitz is at the forefront of a growing field. Health care continues to evolve through reform created under the Affordable Care Act. UMC has grown with these changes, and it is expected to continue to prosper and play a central role in health care in Southern Nevada for years to come. Take for example, the future opening of the UNLV School of Medicine. UMC serves as a teaching hospital for the University of Nevada School of Medicine. The hospital also has plans to partner with UNLV. “The health care community will only strengthen as its hospital strengthens,” said Pitz. A UNLV Health Law Program advisory board member, Pitz said Boyd’s new health law concentration is a wonderful, well-timed addition. “There are not a lot of attorneys in Nevada that focus their practice in health care,” said Pitz. “With the ever-increasing regulation, it is very much needed and will be for years to come.” 2016 | UNLV Law
11
A GLIMPSE INTO BOYD’S GOOD WORKS IN THE COMMUNITY
GIVING BACK
COMMITTED TO THE COMMUNITY In partnership with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and Nevada Legal Services, the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law has provided free legal education to more than 60,000 Nevadans since opening its doors. Working with these two community partners, Boyd School of Law students prepare and conduct workshops for unrepresented people on topics such as guardianship, divorce, bankruptcy, custody, and small claims. Annually, to kick off the new school year, Boyd students, alumni, faculty, staff and community partners offer a free legal education day to citizens of Nevada. This year’s Community Law Day was dedicated to helping eligible individuals seal their criminal records. Several agencies came together to expedite a traditionally lengthy, difficult process for more than 350 individuals, setting them on a path to securing employment and beginning a new life. In addition to partnering with the law school on public interest work, the Legal Aid Center and Nevada Legal Services offer employment and externship opportunities to Boyd alumni and students.
A Clean Slate ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCK.COM
BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW, NEVADA LEGAL SERVICES OFFER RECORD SEALING CLASSES Last year when Paul Nwuli lost his job as a district manager in Las Vegas for a fast food chain, he moved quickly to keep providing for his wife and two children. With ride sharing services recently approved in Nevada, Nwuli put in his application to become a driver. After a short wait he got a reply that his application was denied because of his criminal record. Nwuli was shocked. “I didn’t know I had a record,” said Nwuli, who emigrated from Nigeria in the late 90s. “I’ve never gotten in any trouble, not even a speeding ticket.” Several years ago, when Nwuli first moved to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, he left his dogs and a few chickens in the care of a friend while he traveled with his family. According to Nwuli, while he was away Animal Control visited his home and cited him for not properly caring for the animals. Nwuli did not return home soon enough to respond to the complaint in the allotted time and was convicted of a misdemeanor. After the discovery, Nwuli called around to law offices seek-
ing advice, and one clerk referred him to the free record sealing classes offered by Nevada Legal Services in conjunction with the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law’s free legal education program. The class kicked off in 2014 when Deputy Public Defenders John Piro, a 2010 Boyd School of Law graduate, and Bita Yeager noticed people needed help navigating the convoluted, multi-step process that involves gathering numerous records and petitioning the court. In 2015 Yeager was appointed as a justice court judge and the program was transferred to Nevada Legal Services. Classes are held twice every week and are taught by Boyd students under the supervision of Krissta Kirschenheiter, a 2009 Boyd graduate and attorney at Nevada Legal Services who recently took over this role for Kendra Jepsen, a 2015 alumna. Last year, several students who taught the class – including Heather Armantrout, Emily Dyer, D. Ryan Efros, and Jessica Georgescu – also worked on drafting legislation for the 2017 state legislative session to propose a more
IN MEMORIAM: MELANIE KUSHNIR We remember our friend and colleague, Melanie Kushnir, formerly the Pro Bono Project director at the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. Melanie passionately believed in justice. Her efforts to provide an attorney to abused seniors, victims of domestic violence, and to every 12
UNLV Law | 2016
streamlined process for record sealing in Nevada. “It’s important to be able to seal your records because it seems more and more employers are doing background checks. Many people need to seal records to be able to support themselves and their families,” said Jepsen, who sealed criminal records for Nevada Legal Services clients at no cost. The Boyd School of Law, in partnership with Nevada Legal Services and the Clark County Public Defenders Office, has assisted 1,600 Nevadans through its record sealing classes. Depending on the crime, there are different limitations on when a record can be sealed; and some criminal records, such as sex offenses and crimes against children, can never be sealed. The earliest a record of a simple misdemeanor can be sealed is two years, and the waiting period goes up to 15 years for the most serious felonies. The decision on whether or not to grant the seal is entirely up to the judge’s discretion. After taking the class in fall 2015, and seeking some help from Jepsen, Nwuli got word that his record was sealed in the spring. He promptly reapplied to work for the ride share services and was accepted. Now he has work to pay the bills while he looks for a position in his previous field of business and restaurant management. He has also been inspired by the class to study law. “I can’t thank them enough,” Nwuli said. “It’s such an amazing thing to set up a program like this that is helpful to the community. I think it’s a great service.”
child in foster care resulted in hundreds of new pro bono attorneys providing free legal assistance and taking on a record number of cases. To join the many Boyd alumni who have taken a pro bono case in Melanie’s honor or to make a donation to the Melanie Kushnir Access to Justice Fellowship, visit lacsn.org.
“For these women already in a stressful situation, having a legal dispute looming over them is a constant source of stress. So giving them the tools and knowledge to know what is going on and have a path forward has to remove a lot of that anxiety and improve quality of life.” GIVING BACK
From left: Boyd Adjunct Professor Joe Regalia and students Shani Coleman and Yu Meng
Pro Se Boot Camp BOYD COMMUNITY PROVIDES LEGAL EDUCATION TO WOMEN’S SHELTER CLIENTS Joe Regalia has a fairly revolutionary way of looking at problems involving the average person’s access to and understanding of the labyrinth-like legal system: consider it a quality-of-life issue. Think of people whose lives are affected by knowledge of the law and can’t afford a lawyer or understand the court system, as uninsured medical patients without access to a doctor. The cure, as the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law adjunct professor sees it, is to provide that knowledge. Toward that goal he’s started a legal program, Pro Se Boot Camp, in one of the places in Las Vegas that needs it most. “When you are in a legal dispute, it feels like an avalanche coming down on you,” said Professor Regalia, who provides weekly classes to The Shade Tree women’s shelter residents who are often fighting for their jobs, homes, kids, and financial support. “For these women already in a stressful situation, having a legal dispute looming over
them is a constant source of stress. So giving them the tools and knowledge to know what is going on and have a path forward has to remove a lot of that anxiety and improve quality of life.” As a youth, Professor Regalia became aware of how daunting the legal system was to workers at fairs where his parents sold food. He graduated from University of Michigan’s law school, and for two years represented low-income people weathering civic issues such as landlord/tenant disputes. “It struck me that probably the worst part of this was they just didn’t know what was going on,” said Professor Regalia. “You could see it made a huge difference, just having someone there to explain, ‘This is what’s happening, and this is what’s going to happen next.’” The Shade Tree provided a way to start a new program once he became an adjunct professor at UNLV. Since February Professor Regalia and a handful of Boyd School of Law students and alumni have been giving Friday-morning legal-empowerment lectures on subjects such as selfrepresentation in civil lawsuits and bankruptcy. “A lot of these women have not
been exposed to law in a positive way before,” said Boyd student and Redevelopment Manager for the City of Las Vegas Shani Coleman. “I feel that sometimes a lot of these women, because they didn’t understand the law, may have been put in situations where the law was not always necessarily their friend. This program gave them an opportunity to use the law as a benefit for themselves.” The response from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive. “It was so informative and I felt for the first time that I was able to see how the courts worked and why I had lost my cases in the past. Thank you so much to the instructors,” one attendee wrote in a class evaluation. Attendance was encouraging enough for Professor Regalia to offer an additional Tuesday-morning class on legal writing in June. He has also developed online courses, wants to expand Pro Se Boot Camp to more locations, and add an additional element to the lectures and writing instruction. “We’re going to actually have these folks practice speaking,” said Professor Regalia. “I think that that’s a big one. People are so scared to talk to the judge.”
PUBLIC INTEREST ADVISORY BOARD Cynthia Alexander (Chair), Dickinson Wright; The Honorable Nancy Allf, Eighth Judicial District Court; The Honorable David Barker, Eighth Judicial District Court; Barbara Buckley, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada; James Conway, Washoe Legal Services; Bill Curran, Ballard Spahr; The Honorable Michael Douglas, Supreme Court of Nevada; Nikki Harris, William S. Boyd School of Law; AnnaMarie Johnson, Nevada Legal Services; Krissta Kirschenheiter, Nevada Legal Services; The Honorable Joanna Kishner, Eighth Judicial District Court; Patricia Lee, Hutchison & Steffen; Noah Magleri, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada; Lydia Nussbaum, William S. Boyd School of Law; Shannon Phenix, Office of the Clark County Public Defender; Shaina Plaksin, Clerk to Judge Gloria Navarro; Carmela Reed, Eighth Judicial District Court; Deacon Thomas Roberts, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada; Christine Smith, William S. Boyd School of Law; The Honorable Gloria Sturman, Eighth Judicial District Court; Stacey Tovino, William S. Boyd School of Law; Elana Turner Graham, Southern Nevada Senior Law Program; Alex Velto, William S. Boyd School of Law, Public Interest Law Association; Angela Washington, State Bar of Nevada; Brittnie Watkins, Pisanelli Bice
2016 | UNLV Law
13
INTERESTING INSIGHTS INTO MEMBERS OF THE BOYD COMMUNITY
WHO KNEW?
The Benefactor
Professional poker players know Perry Friedman. He’s the guy who won the $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament at the 2002 World Series of Poker and has cashed in dozens of other tournaments. Gaming and computer programming wonks know Perry Friedman. He’s the coder and venture capitalist who has put his stamp on the industry. And UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law faculty and students know Perry Friedman – he’s the guy who established a scholarship for fellow students in his last year of law school. Boyd students Michael Viets and Marckia Hayes received the Perry Friedman Civil Liberties Scholarship in the 2015-16 academic year. The scholarship benefits one student every fall and spring semester. Friedman’s academic career is as varied as his paid gigs. He received his bachelor’s and 14
UNLV Law | 2016
master’s degrees from Stanford University in mathematics and computer science. Although his early degrees were more about numbers than words, he signaled early in his academic career that he had an interest in the law and public policy. While at Stanford, he was elected to the Student Conduct Legislative Council and unsuccessfully fought against a campus speech code. “I fought hard against the code because I feel very strongly about protecting the First Amendment,” Friedman said. “This is especially important on college campuses where the free flow of ideas is essential for academic freedom.” Eventually, the courts struck down the code. Fast forward two decades. Friedman has had his success in poker, computer programming, and startup companies. His wife encouraged him to go back to school – this time,
to pursue his passion for the law. He graduated this spring, and Friedman has already set his sights on doing pro bono civil liberties work. “I hope to fight for justice and help protect the liberties and freedoms that make this such a great country,” he said. “I also want to encourage others to help protect those rights. … As lawyers, we have an opportunity to do a lot of good for others. “Because of my unique situation, I was thrilled to be able to give back to the UNLV community, while also encouraging and rewarding others who want to give back to society by fighting for civil liberties,” he said. “I hope that Boyd continues to produce outstanding lawyers who are ethical and responsible members of society. I hope, and I know, we can do many great things in the future!“
“I want to create a world where all students can walk to their neighborhood schools and get the same kind of critical thinking instruction that they would at an elite law school.” WHO KNEW?
The Critical Thinker
Colin Seale learned the importance of critical thinking during a hardscrabble childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. With his father behind bars for 10 years, his single mother was constantly analyzing problems and evaluating solutions just to put food on the table. “Growing up in poverty, you have to learn to think critically to survive,” he said. “My mother had to make a dollar out of 15 cents.” Seeing this skill as a pathway to success led Seale ‘12 to launch thinkLaw, a school curriculum that uses real legal cases to teach students critical thinking skills. Founded in 2015, the company’s lessons were used at 14 Las Vegas schools teaching 1,000 students last year. Next year, thinkLaw will spread to some 30 schools in Oakland, Denver, Phoenix, and New York City, impacting 5,000 pupils. But entrepreneur is just the latest hat worn by the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law graduate. A star student with vast ambitions, a young
Seale commuted 90 minutes each way to attend the highly selective Bronx High School of Science. After graduating Syracuse University with a computer science degree, he joined Teach For America and taught math to struggling schoolchildren in Washington, D.C. After returning to Syracuse for a master’s in public administration, he moved to Las Vegas. Seale was working as an analyst in Clark County’s child welfare agency when the glacial pace of bureaucratic reform led him to law school. “They were really slow to change, to make improvements, unless we were getting sued,” he said with a laugh. “Whenever we’d get a letter threatening to sue, the impossible would happen yesterday. That’s when I realized the law was the way to get things done.” Seale enrolled in the Boyd School of Law, taking law classes at night while teaching during the day at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy. Following graduation, he joined Greenberg
Traurig as a law clerk and practiced there for three years. Seale was in his posh law office overlooking the Wynn hotel-casino one day when he became shaken by an article about the teacher shortage in Clark County. It reported that 500 long-term substitutes without teaching credentials were instructing tens-of-thousands of students. “It was like a tale of two cities,” he said. “Out my window was enormous wealth, and somehow we don’t have the personnel to educate our kids. ” So he launched thinkLaw to make a scalable impact on classrooms, believing critical thinking skills could make college and career success more prevalent among impoverished students. “I want to create a world where all students can walk to their neighborhood schools and get the same kind of critical thinking instruction that they would at an elite law school,” he said. 2016 | UNLV Law
15
“I take pleasure in the challenge that accompanies the pursuit of knowledge. It’s the pursuit itself that I enjoy.” WHO KNEW?
Brush with the Law
An Exercise in Juggling Most people would be content with one post-graduate degree. For Brittnie Watkins, four is the goal. She already has earned her master’s in criminal justice, a law degree, and a doctoral degree in educational psychology – all from UNLV. Now, she once again is enrolled – on a part-time basis – at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, this time in pursuit of a master of laws degree in gaming law and regulation. In addition, she works full time as an associate at Pisanelli Bice. When not in school or at work, Watkins enjoys being a wife and a mother to two children, ages 1 and 9. She even coaches her 9-year-old’s soccer team. It’s fair to say Watkins is one accomplished – and busy – lady. Watkins’ academic drive and passion for serving her community was nurtured by her experience as a Public Interest Fellow while studying for her law degree. The fellowship program offers financial resources, mentorship, and experiential learning opportunities to students with strong academic credentials, a demonstrated record of community service, and a commitment to public interest work. “Boyd’s Public Interest Fellowship propelled me into a network of individuals with similar public service ambitions and provided the fi16
UNLV Law | 2016
nancial support I needed to pursue meaningful yet unpaid work, such as educating child witnesses about the court process,” Watkins said. Her experience working with child witnesses would further fuel her academic success and most recent honor. Watkins earned the UNLV College of Education’s Dissertation of the Year Award for her dissertation, “Reducing CourtRelated Stress Through Court Education: Examining Child Witnesses, Attorneys, and Parents” – an achievement that she says is a “tribute to Boyd’s superior writing program.” “Winning this award hopefully means more people will read my dissertation,” Watkins said. “In turn, I hope that means that more recognition will be brought to issues surrounding child witnesses, their testimonies, and the Kids’ Court School program that serves them.” As she inches closer to earning her master of laws degree, one might think Watkins would welcome the opportunity to stop and take a breath. But she has no plans to take it easy. “I take pleasure in the challenge that accompanies the pursuit of knowledge. It’s the pursuit itself that I enjoy,” she explained. “I cannot say that there is one particular end goal that brings order to my alphabet soup. I want to do many things in the future, which includes changing the world.”
Some underprivileged populations or regions recovering from disasters have a surplus of donated clothes and staple foods. Other needs fall through the cracks, everyday things in privileged societies that can be overlooked by nongovernment organizations and philanthropic entities. UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law student Hunter Davidson and a few friends identified one of those needs, something so simple yet so essential that to be deprived of one can lead to disease and death – the toothbrush. As vice president of nonprofit Operation Brush, Davidson works to make environmentally friendly toothbrushes available in places where tools for good oral hygiene are scarce. “My best friend deserves all the credit for starting it off about two years ago,” said Davidson. “I got involved a little over a year ago now, just as a means of giving back. I grew up pretty fortunate.” The Bonanza High School graduate and current J.D./MBA dual degree program enrollee was inspired after taking an undergraduate course in economics of developing nations. Dane Jonas, then a business management student at UNLV, had founded Operation Brush after finding out nearly half of the people on Earth didn’t have toothbrushes, and provided a nonprofit opportunity for Davidson to participate in. “It is a big deal,” said Davidson. “Poor oral hygiene can lead to tooth decay and gum disease, but there’s a lot of chronic diseases that are linked to poor oral hygiene as well.” Those diseases include cancer, diabetes, memory loss from Alzheimer’s and dementia, and premature births. Operation Brush provides the tools for disease prevention by distributing products from Florida-based WooBamboo to Costa Rica, Haiti, Kenya, and Thailand via partners established in those locales. By
WHO KNEW?
An Interest Rekindled supplying bamboo toothbrushes instead of plastic, Davidson and company ensure they’re not creating a problem for the environment while addressing another. Davidson – a junior staff member of the Nevada Law Journal who is considering sports and entertainment law, transactional law, or investment banking as career paths – would like to distribute brushes personally. “That was the plan for the end of this summer, which I still hope to do,” he said, adding that Operation Brush may soon be able to send biodegradable floss in biodegradable containers along with the brushes. “It’s almost so startling for a kid because in many cases they don’t even know what to do with it. We have to give full instruction on how to use a toothbrush that you and I probably had when we were toddlers, except in some cases here they’re much older — 9, 10, 11 years old. They’ve never had access to a toothbrush.”
Students who come to the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law bring with them a unique set of skills, experiences and talents. Bridget Kelly, a student in the Boyd School of Law’s part-time evening program, is shifting careers while allowing her previous studies and work to inform her burgeoning legal career. When Kelly, the daughter of an orthopedic surgeon father and medical office manager mother, graduated from Harvard, she had already interned in law offices. The problem was she had no vision for a legal career, and when it came time to apply for law school she “just wasn’t feeling it.” Kelly had studied languages and linguistics as an undergrad, and decided to turn to that side of her interests. She got a degree in speech pathology and worked in the United States and abroad. After more than a decade working as a speech therapist, and working with various health care systems, her interest in law was rekindled. “Working as a speech pathologist you run into a lot of issues involving medical legal ethics,” Kelly said. “In speech pathology you deal with people with swallowing disorders and end-of-life issues. You get into things involving nutrition, hydration, and feeding
tubes. Exploring those kinds of things, and the ethical and legal decision-making, rekindled my interest in law.” Through the Boyd evening program, Kelly was able to retain her job as a speech pathologist and care for her two sons, while also attending law school. She has since gotten a position at Nutile Law, a firm that specializes in health care and business law. “The evening program really appeals to a lot of people in the community,” Kelly said. “There is a good mix of students. Some young students need to work and go to school, or there are seasoned professionals who want another degree but aren’t ready to quit their day jobs cold turkey.” Kelly, who is on track to graduate in fall 2016, is glad she waited for law school. “My life experiences really added to my law school experience, and will hopefully add to my law practice. I think I wasn’t ready when I graduated from Harvard, and a law degree then would’ve been a waste. I wouldn’t have gotten as much out if it. Boyd has been great for me,” she said.
2016 | UNLV Law
17
Gender Specifics ANN MCGINLEY SEES DISCRIMINATION THROUGH THE LENS OF MASCULINITIES THEORY BY MATT KELEMEN
A
nn McGinley is tying up loose strings in her office on the fourth floor of the Beverly Rogers Literature and Law Building on the Tuesday following Independence Day weekend. The William S. Boyd Professor of Law and pioneering multidisciplinary masculinities theory scholar is heading to Florida’s Amelia Island for a brief writing sojourn after completing a few short articles and sending chapters from the 2017 edition of a casebook on disability law to her co-author. She’ll be back in Las Vegas for the start of the semester before traveling to Seattle near the end 18
UNLV Law | 2016
of September to accept the 2016 Paul Steven Miller award at the 11th Annual Colloquium for Scholarship in Labor and Employment Law, where she’ll present her latest book, Masculinity at Work: Employment Discrimination through a Different Lens. “There are a lot of people (attending) who are doing different, interesting work,” says Professor McGinley. “What I’m going to be talking about is my book, and how the theory and thesis can be used in practical and theoretical ways. They’ll use my book as a research tool, but I’m hoping lawyers and judges will also use this book in order to take advice on how to decide cases based on looking at masculinity research.” As a starting point for examining discrimination “because of sex” from a masculinities theory perspective, Masculinity at Work zooms in on the case of Miami Dolphins
player Jonathan Martin, who was harassed in emasculating and sexually intimidating fashion by teammates. An emerging multidisciplinary field that draws on humanities and both social and natural sciences, masculinities studies focuses on the range of behaviors, definitions and identities that inform contemporary concepts of manhood. In the not-too-distant past the idea that a straight man could sexually harass another man was unthinkable. Men who engaged in “roughhousing” or “hazing” in a physical or sexual way were just being men. Sexual harassment only happened “because of sex,” “and in our minds that meant that sexual harassment occurs only because the harasser has a sexual interest in the victim,” Professor McGinley notes. The courts had this definition in mind when they stated that harassment is illegal only if it occurs “because the person being harmed was a man
“I show through the research of masculinity that men engage in these behaviors not only because of the sex of the victim but also because of their own sense of masculinity. In other words, the victim isn’t living up to what the perpetrators think is masculine enough in order for (the abusers) to feel masculine. It’s because of their own gender fears that they’re not masculine enough that they engage in, a lot of times, group behaviors.”
or a woman,” she argues. Courts said you can’t discriminate because of sex. “But then all these other questions came up,” Professor McGinley says. “Is it illegal to discriminate because of sexual orientation? And all the courts said, ‘No, that’s different from “because of sex.” That hasn’t been put in the statute as a separate thing. It has to be in the statute.’” Professor McGinley illustrates how gender affects behavior between men as well as between men and women with a maleon-male harassment case on an oil platform and a case involving a female plaintiff who was told by male supervisors at an accounting firm to be more feminine in order to get a promotion. “The woman in this case who brought the lawsuit happened to be a very masculine woman and they refused to promote her to partner because they didn’t think she was feminine enough,” says Professor McGinley. “The Supreme Court agreed that it was discrimination, but it’s not discrimination to discriminate – at least the lower courts say this – based on someone’s sexual orientation. So we’re at this really weird murky point: How do you know the difference between whether someone’s discriminating because of your sexual orientation or because you’re just not masculine or feminine enough?” One goal of masculinities theory is to clear up some of those opaque areas that enable miscreant “men being men” behavior. Professor McGinley is on the front lines, prodigiously producing articles and collaborating with other respected figures in the field such as Suffolk University Professor of Law Frank Rudy Cooper, whose work in masculinity and race created synergy with her expertise in gender. She racks up flyer miles via presentations – at least a dozen in 2015 – at schools across the continental U.S. and Hawaii as well as far-flung locales such as Santiago, Chile; Madrid, Spain; and Como, Italy. “I show through the research of masculinity that men engage in these behaviors not only because of the sex of the victim but also because of their own sense of masculinity,” says Professor McGinley. “In other words, the victim isn’t living up to what the perpetrators think is masculine enough in order for (the abusers) to feel masculine. It’s because of their own gender fears that they’re not masculine enough that they engage in, a lot of times, group behaviors. And also because the individual is not living up to the standard presentation or performance of gender, of being a masculine macho guy/ person.” Articulating masculinities theory is one thing. Changing attitudes within the legal system is another. While Professor McGinley predicts judges will be resistant to masculinities theory at first, testimony from social scientists can bring the new ideas into the courtroom. “Most men don’t know that
gender even matters to them,” says Dr. Michael Kimmel, distinguished professor of sociology at the Stony Brook University in New York. “But that’s where we start. That’s where the conversation starts, and that’s why I think her work’s valuable.” Professor Kimmel knew of Professor McGinley before they met. “She was writing in law journals, I was writing in sociology, but I think we were actually at a conference together maybe 12 years ago or so at Emory Law School. … That’s where I first became aware of her. Then I started reading her work.” He eventually wrote the forward to Masculinities and the Law: A Multidimensional Approach, a 2012 collection edited by Professors Cooper and McGinley, in which he includes Professor McGinley as part of “a pioneering group of scholars” who transcended the idea of women being measured by male standards and decentered masculinity as the norm for behavior standards. “There weren’t that many,” says Professor Kimmel. “There were some women, some writers doing work in this area, but frankly I just thought her work was superb from the first time I read it.” At the Boyd School of Law, where she first arrived in 1999, Professor McGinley’s influence inspired the theme of the 2013 edition of the Nevada Law Journal, titled Men, Masculinities, and Law: A Symposium on Multidimensional Masculinities Theory. “She quickly assembled a tremendous group of authors, who share her passion and devotion to the study,” says Boyd graduate Jason DeForest ‘13, the issue’s editor-in-chief. “With Professor McGinley’s guidance, those authors provided invaluable insight into the realm of masculinities and its role in our society.” DeForest credits Professor McGinley as having a “tremendous” influence on his education, but her influence at UNLV extends beyond law students. “I sat in on her Masculinities class at the law school in the spring,” says Lynn Comella, Ph.D., an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies. “I wish more law classes dealt with these issues. They are so relevant to understanding the larger forces and biases that structure the legal frameworks and judicial decisions.” Professor McGinley herself has become relevant to that understanding. Her efforts have inarguably furthered the study of masculinities theory, but she has miles to go and many more words to write before she’s done. When she needs a brief working vacation there’s always Amelia Island, but she can’t escape being at the forefront of law, gender and discrimination. “Now I’m going out there to walk on the beach, and do some research and write my other article, which should be really interesting,” she says. “It’s going to be about egg freezing as an employment benefit, and whether that’s helpful or harmful to women.” 2016 | UNLV Law
19
NEVADA’S WATER CRISIS:
Conflict ... or Resolution? 20
UNLV Law | 2016
SALTMAN CENTER SCHOLARS CONFRONT THE ISSUES BY LAUNCE RAKE here are few issues in the world bigger than the crisis of water resources. Drought and flooding have plagued humanity since the dawn of history, but climate change is driving extremes that are affecting billions all over the world. And the crisis is not confined to far-off places. Drought and flooding are ripping through the American West – including Nevada and California – threatening the social, legal and political status quo throughout. At the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, two scholars, women with very different resumes but a world of experience, are perhaps uniquely positioned to confront the issues of water.
2016 | UNLV Law
21
Jean Sternlight (left) and Patricia Mulroy
NEVADA’S WATER CRISIS:
Conflict ... or Resolution?
P
rofessor Jean Sternlight is the Michael and Sonja Saltman Professor of Law at the Boyd School of Law, where she has been, since 2003, the first and only director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution. She received her law degree from Harvard University, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and she clerked for federal judge Marilyn Hall Patel in California and subsequently practiced plaintiff-side employment law in Philadelphia. A bit self-effacing when it comes to water issues, Professor Sternlight noted that science and technology are important components. But she is also acutely aware of the importance of mediation and dialogue to resolving natural resource conflicts; for the Saltman Center, conflict resolution is the mission. “This is a very hot topic that many different groups are focusing on,” Professor Sternlight said. One of those who consider water a “hot topic” is Patricia Mulroy, a more recent addition to the Saltman Center roster. A leader in the international water community for more than 25 years, Mulroy is the former top administrator of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the region’s water wholesaler, and the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which brings water to taps throughout the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, including the Strip. At Boyd, Mulroy serves as a senior fellow for climate adaptation and environmental policy and as a practitioner in residence for the Saltman Center. Additionally, she holds a faculty position at the Desert Research Institute. The Colorado River resource, how to use it, share it, and protect it, Professor Sternlight and Mulroy agree, is a critically important environmental and natural resource issue for the West, the United States, Mexico, and by extension, a stressed-out planet. The Center uses the tools of communication, mediation, and public participation to negotiate solutions to all sorts of problems, especially those thorny public policy issues that too often seem overwhelming or intractable. 22
UNLV Law | 2016
“No one denies that there has been a noticed change in weather patterns, with greater extremes occurring each year. The argument is around what is causing it – is it a natural cyclical event or the consequence of burning fossil fuels?” Water has always been a resource provoking conflict, particularly in the American West. Ranchers and farmers versus miners, cities versus rural inhabitants, newcomers versus indigenous people. Now the earth itself, which once welcomed millions to the West Coast with regular rainfall and an astonishingly comfortable climate, has seemingly turned against us. Of course, the conflict over water is nothing new. Its scope is now global. “Global concern about water has grown steadily in the last years, with the World Economic Forum now listing it as one of the
planet’s top challenges,” Mulroy said. “As fears and concerns grow, it becomes more important than ever to set the right tone so that we can find those strategies of coexistence that balance all the diverse needs, including preserving the ecosystem around us. It reinforces the need to educate the new generation of lawyers to be one that finds opportunities and common ground and not one that hardens positions and seeks to create winners and losers.” We must choose between sinking in conflict or swimming with negotiation, Professor Sternlight suggested.
A SHORTAGE CRISIS
“One way or another, these issues ultimately will be resolved,” she said, ideally without violence or punishing judicial decrees. The Turbulent Waters: Brokering a Secure World conference in January is not the first time the law school and the Saltman Center hosted an event focusing on water issues in the West. In September 2013, it hosted Water Law in the West: A Panel Discussion with Patricia Mulroy; and in October 2007, Collaboration and the Colorado River. But Professor Sternlight warned that even with the ministrations of the Center, not every problem has a solution. Simply put, “Collaboration doesn’t work when the issues are such that people cannot reach an agreement,” she said. Impediments to solutions can include personalities that refuse to accommodate other perspectives and needs. Perhaps counterintuitively, Professor Sternlight said severe imbalances of power could make resolving differences harder to achieve. And there are power imbalances on the Colorado River, she noted. California gets 4.4 million acre-feet of water from the river system annually, delivered through the massive reservoir outside of Las Vegas called Lake Mead. Nevada, however, is allocated less than one-seventh that amount. And Arizona, by federal law, is the first state that will face cuts in the increasingly likely event that water shortages are formally declared. Mulroy, in her time with the Saltman Center, has had the opportunity to speak to several classes of would-be lawyers at Boyd. Her message, she said, is consistent. “In the area of water resources, look to the law for the opportunities it can create and not as the sword by which to stop something,” she said. “Legal confrontations by definition have winners and losers, something which in this space has never played out well over time. The greatest example of that is the infamous case of Arizona v. California. In this 20-year-plus lawsuit, the state of Arizona won the right to use its tributary, the Hila River, and not have it count towards its Colorado River allocation. The decision came over the objections of California, which saw the tributary as part of the larger system. “Having lost that lawsuit, California took advantage of the opportunity to right the wrong they felt they had suffered in court when Arizona went to Congress to get funding for the Central Arizona Project. The much larger delegation from California prevailed in attaching an amendment to
UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Senior Fellow Patricia Mulroy has edited a forthcoming book titled The Water Problem: Climate Change and Water Policy in the United States. States For the book, Mulroy gathered practitioners and scholars to demonstrate how the United States faces a water crisis caused by climate change and what can be done to address it. The Brookings Institution website reads, “While the focus has been on California recently, with its water restrictions and drought, many other parts of the United States are also suffering from current and potential water shortages that will only be exacerbated by climate change. The Water Problem takes us to Miami and the problem of rising oceans fouling freshwater reservoirs; Kansas and Nebraska, where intensive farming is draining age-old aquifers; and to the Southwest United States, where growing populations are creating enormous stresses on the already strained Colorado River.” The Water Problem will be available in March.
that legislation that subordinated the entire supply being delivered by the project to all of California’s uses. In other words, in the event of a shortage the state of California would not have to reduce its use by a gallon until there was no water going through the Arizona canal. Arizona essentially won the battle and lost the war. Litigation didn’t help solve the problem. It, in fact, made it worse.” The conclusion from this protracted war of law and politics? “The future of water law lies in mediation, not in litigation,” said Mulroy. Bringing reasonable people together to discuss science and public policy is great, and certainly provides a forum for various stakeholders – and we are all stakeholders – to find solutions that serve the common interest. But is it always possible to find those solutions? Not only are some of those with the most to gain (or lose) sometimes firmly resistant to solutions, but there are plenty of people, some of them in policymaking or policy-implementing positions, who don’t believe the problems exist at all. The data collected by scientists throughout the West are not always so easy to reconcile with the political answers. “Science and the discipline of scientific discovery are never static and never absolute,” Mulroy said. “Scientists report observed changes and events and seek causal relationships. They are quick to adapt as new data emerges that may lead to changed conclusions. “No one denies that there has been a noticed change in weather patterns, with greater extremes occurring each year. The argument is around what is causing it – is it a natural cyclical event or the consequence
of burning fossil fuels?” The cause, however, ultimately is not the prime concern of water managers, Mulroy said. “Whatever the reason for our new weather reality, we have to adapt to those changed conditions,” she said. “In that regard it is much easier to deal with the consequences of climate change and find adaptation strategies … The challenge is how to do it, in a way that won’t cause massive economic fallout and in some instances destroy the economic underpinnings of entire nations. “Today’s scientific discovery will invariably be challenged tomorrow by new data. Climate science over the last years has evolved. Early assumptions have been refined. For water planners, that means a disciplined and continual partnership with the science community is essential.” Certainly, there are challenges. Mulroy, though, remains resolutely upbeat, even sanguine, about the possibilities for communication and collaboration. The most obvious example is the comparison between what has happened on the Colorado River and the unresolved events, including litigation, around the California Bay Delta amid crushing drought. “Although the Colorado River has suffered through 15 long years of debilitating drought, the agreements that have been forged over the years have averted catastrophic consequences,” Mulroy said. “Incrementally, this region has adapted to conditions as they unfolded.” But next door, things are not so good. “Conversely, the story of California’s drought has been the story of missed opportunities,” she said. “The regions have been bitterly divided, refusing to forge a common strategy and choosing instead to face off in court. So when the worst of the drought hit, there were no tools to soften the blow and mitigate the damage. The years leading up to the system crash in which there was additional water that could have been stored were lost; all that was left were draconian drought measures and much suffering by all sectors.” Professor Sternlight said that although another water-focused conference hasn’t been scheduled, the issues are too big to go away and the need for conflict resolution will remain. Despite the challenges, Professor Sternlight said she is generally an optimist when it comes to finding solutions to contentious policy debates, but she tempers that optimism with a bit of realism. “Hope for the best,” she said. “Prepare for the worst.” 2016 | UNLV Law
23
24
UNLV Law | 2016
THE NAMESAKE A CONVERSATION WITH WILLIAM S. BOYD BY TOVIN LAPAN
O
ne of Bill Boyd’s favorite quotes is, much like himself, straightforward and to the point. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” The short maxim is attributed to Winston Churchill, but Boyd, co-founder and executive chairman of Boyd Gaming and lead benefactor of the UNLV law school, learned the lesson from his mom and dad. William S. Boyd was born Nov. 4, 1931 in Los Angeles to Sam and Mary Boyd. Neither had attended college; and in the early years of Bill’s life, the family moved around from Southern California to Hawaii and back again as Sam chased work opportunities, mostly in gaming. Opportunity is what he found in a fledgling Las Vegas. When the Boyds arrived in 1941, there were only 15,000 residents. Sam took a job as a dealer at the Jackpot Casino, while Bill attended the Fifth Street School and later Las Vegas High School. With virtually no money to his name, Sam methodically worked his way up the casino food chain, from dealer to pit boss to floor manager to shift boss.
2016 | UNLV Law
25
A CONVERSATION WITH WILLIAM S. BOYD
“Bill always made you feel like you’re the only person in the meeting. He’s just about his family, his employees, and anything to make Las Vegas better. That’s Bill Boyd.”
“My mom and dad told me I didn’t want to grow up to be a dealer,” Boyd said. “They never had a chance to get an education, and they wanted to make sure I did.” A decade after the move to Vegas, Sam’s break arrived. In 1952 he invested all of the family’s savings and got a bank loan to become an owner-partner at the new Sahara Hotel and Casino. That investment paid off and eventually led to Sam buying property downtown and opening the Mint in 1957 with partners from the Sahara. Once Sam found some success, he gave back to the community that had given his family so much, including founding the Boys & Girls Clubs in Las Vegas and Henderson. “At an early age, my mom and dad said: ‘If you’re successful in your chosen profession, you should give back to those who aren’t so successful and are struggling in their lives.’ That’s what we’ve tried to do at Boyd Gaming, the Boyd Foundation, and myself personally,” Boyd said. Right around the time Sam was getting into casino ownership, Bill was attending the University of Nevada, Reno (UNLV had yet to be founded). During his junior year he decided to become a lawyer, but it bothered him that without a law school in Nevada he had to go to Utah for his degree. “It’s expensive to go out of state, and I knew if we had one in Nevada it would certainly be much less expensive,” Boyd said. “I just thought a law school would be such a big thing for the community.” As his father was opening the Mint, Bill came back to Las Vegas to start a law practice. 26
UNLV Law | 2016
“When I practiced, everyone was pretty much in general practice. You got to do a bit of everything, and I thought that was really fun,” Boyd said. “I never knew from day to day what challenge I’d have, whether I’d get a criminal or civil case, an adoption, a lease or business agreement. I was always looking forward to doing something different. It was exciting.” In 1961 Bill got his first entry into the gaming business. Paul Perry was interested in owning a casino in Henderson, and he needed a lawyer and investors. Bill agreed to be his lawyer, took his fee in stock, and also brought his father in as an investor. They opened the Eldorado in 1962, and in 1966 the Boyd family bought out the other partners at a nice profit. After practicing law for 15 years, Bill and Sam joined forces to found Boyd Gaming on Jan. 1, 1975, when they opened the California Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Bill learned the business from his father; and if there was ever a disagreement, he deferred to the elder Boyd’s judgment. “My dad loved his work, and he thought there was no substitute for hard work,” Boyd said. “The other thing I learned from him is that everything in life doesn’t always work exactly the way you wanted it to work. The key is to move on and be innovative in finding something that does work.” The California struggled after opening, and the Boyds worried about making payroll each month. From his time on the islands, Sam knew that Hawaiians enjoyed gaming, so he sent the casino chefs to Hawaii to learn new dishes and heavily marketed the prop-
erty on the islands. The move paid off, and the Hawaiian market continues to be strong in Las Vegas to this day. Bill, meanwhile, gained a reputation in gaming as a straight shooter. “Bill is the perfect example of a handshake person, his handshake is bond,” said Donald Snyder, UNLV’s presidential advisor for strategic initiatives and former president of Boyd Gaming. “Bill is one of those people who, when you meet him, what you see is what you get.” Larry Ruvo, founder of Southern Wine and Spirits and a longtime friend, said Bill is a man who you know will do what he says. Ruvo, therefore, had no problem forgoing actual contracts for a “handshake over the phone” to seal a deal between the two a few years ago. “Bill always made you feel like you’re the only person in the meeting,” Ruvo said. “He’s just about his family, his employees, and anything to make Las Vegas better. That’s Bill Boyd.” After the California proved successful, Boyd Gaming opened Sam’s Town in 1979 and continued to build its reputation as gaming operators with integrity. In 1983, when the Nevada Gaming Commission exposed a skimming operation at the Stardust, they asked Boyd Gaming to step in as operator. “They told me if we don’t get someone in there in the next 72 hours, we’ll have to close the Stardust,” Boyd said. “I knew there were over 2,000 jobs at stake, so I went back and talked to my dad and the board quickly. I thought Southern Nevada had been so good to us, we couldn’t possibly let them close the Stardust.” The Boyds turned the property around and eventually purchased it. The rebound of the Stardust bolstered Boyd Gaming’s reputation and also proved they could move from the downtown casino market onto the Strip. Shortly after Sam died in 1993, Boyd Gaming started to expand nationally as gaming became legal in other parts of the country.
Today, the company operates 22 properties in seven states. Bill has built a reputation as a community-oriented, hands-on manager. Friends and colleagues who take property tours with him marvel at how many employees and customers he knows by name. “When Bill asks how was your weekend, he’s not asking about the business, he’s asking about you as an individual. That’s pretty rare,” said Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith. “Bill cares about the company and its team members, and he cares about the community. It’s been a real privilege to have worked with him all these years because he is unique in today’s corporate world.” In the mid-’90s Bill joined the movement to build a law school in Nevada. He worked his community connections and went to Carson City to lobby the legislature along with gubernatorial candidate Kenny Guinn. In 1997 the legislature approved the move, and in 1998 the William S. Boyd School of Law welcomed its first class. Bill was instrumental the whole way through, donating $5 million to get the initiative started and then pledging another $25 million to establish the school on solid footing. “Having an in-state law school improves the practice of law throughout the state,” said Boyd School of Law Dean Daniel Hamilton. “You create virtuous circles of ongoing connections. It keeps great students in state, and then they get top jobs in state. In turn they support the law school and help improve the practice of law. You can’t accomplish that if you’re importing all your lawyers from out of state.” Bill wanted the school to be affordable, especially to local students, and to also give back by working with partners like the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. “From day one the UNLV law school has had a commitment to community, and it’s very fitting to have Bill Boyd as the founder of the law school,” said Barbara Buckley, executive director of the Legal Aid Center and a former Nevada legislator who herself had to leave the state for law school. “Bill is an incredible leader, and his influence at the Boyd School of Law and at Legal Aid has been remarkable. The community is better because of him and all he’s done.” Bill has shared 32 years with his wife, Judy, has three children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. And, while he’s never actually attended UNLV, he has dutifully become a rabid Rebels fan. “He’s mostly low-key, except for moments of intense fandom,” Dean Hamilton said. “He loves Rebels basketball, and the one time I’ve seen him as something other than his customary calm self is when he’s watching a Rebels game.”
A LOOK BACK Bill Boyd’s life is full of milestones. One thing is clear: Nevada and Las Vegas have had a remarkable impact on his life and work. Today, at the age of 84, he is still working and giving back to the community that has meant so much to him. Nov. 4, 1931 — William S. Boyd is born in Los Angeles to Sam and Mary Boyd. 1941 — The Boyd family moves to Las Vegas when Sam takes a job at the Jackpot Casino. 1949 — Bill graduates Las Vegas High School and attends the University of Nevada, Reno. 1952 — Bill enrolls in law school at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. 1953-1955 — Bill is conscripted into the U.S. Army, but narrowly avoids seeing combat as the Korean War ends while he is in basic training.
for more than 15 years, Bill joins his father to found Boyd Gaming and open the California Hotel and Casino. 1979 — Boyd Gaming opens its second property, and the first casino in the eastern valley, when it launches Sam’s Town. 1983 — The Nevada Gaming Commission asks Boyd Gaming to take over the gaming operations at the Stardust, which was under investigation for skimming. 1984 — Boyd Gaming donates $1.5 million to UNLV to replace the astroturf at the football stadium, which is subsequently renamed Sam Boyd Stadium. Feb. 28, 1985 — Boyd Gaming purchases the Stardust and the Fremont Casino. 1993 — Boyd Gaming offers its initial public offering and joins the New York Stock Exchange.
1961 — Bill acquires his first interest in a casino when he trades legal services for stock in the Eldorado in Henderson.
1994 — Boyd Gaming expands outside of Nevada and opens Sam’s Town in Tunica, Miss. Also, construction begins on the $70 million Fremont Street Experience canopy, a project that Bill was instrumental in bringing to fruition along with Steve Wynn and other casino owners.
Jan. 1, 1975 — After practicing law
1997 — Bill, along with others, goes
1957 — Bill graduates from the University of Utah and returns to Las Vegas to pass the bar exam and start his law practice.
From left: William S. Boyd, Founding Dean Richard Morgan, and former UNLV President Carol Harter at a Feb. 25, 2005 event to announce Mr. Boyd’s $25 million gift to the law school to Carson City to help lobby the legislature for a state law school. Then Nevada Governor Robert Miller signs the law authorizing the creation of the school that year. 1998 — After a $5 million donation from Bill, the William S. Boyd School of Law opens its doors and welcomes its first class. July 3, 2003 — After first partnering with Steve Wynn, who eventually sold his interest, Boyd Gaming opens the Borgata in Atlantic City with MGM. 2005 — Bill pledges an additional $25 million to the law school at UNLV. 2015 — Boyd Gaming pledges $2.5 million to help fund a new building for the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at UNLV. May 21, 2016 — Bill is honored at the annual Keep Memory Alive Power of Love Gala, a fundraiser for the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic for Brain Health, with the Community Leadership Award.
2016 | UNLV Law
27
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP, PRESENTATIONS, AND OTHER NEWS
FACULTY FOCUS
Called for Public Service
ANNE TRAUM
NANCY BRUNE
FRANCINE LIPMAN
Boyd School of Law Professor NOMINATED TO U.S. DISTRICT COURT, DISTRICT OF NEVADA
Boyd Senior Fellow APPOINTED TO PRESIDENT’S ADVISORY COMMISSION ON EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE FOR HISPANICS
William S. Boyd Professor of Law APPOINTED TO NEVADA TAX COMMISSION
In April, the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law saw a presidential nomination, presidential appointment, and gubernatorial appointment. President Barack Obama nominated Boyd School of Law Professor Anne Traum to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. Professor Traum was one of eight nominations announced by the President. Upon Senate confirmation, she will fill a judicial vacancy created when District Judge Robert C. Jones took senior status. “She brings experience from both the civil
side and the criminal side of the legal system, and she brings experience from both the public defender’s side and the U.S. attorney’s side. So she really is a wonderful combination of lots of experiences that will help her on the federal bench,” said Boyd Dean Daniel Hamilton in an interview with KNPR’s State of Nevada. Also, President Obama appointed Boyd Senior Fellow Nancy Brune to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, which advises the President and the U.S. Secretary
of Education on matters pertaining to the educational attainment of the Hispanic community. Governor Brian Sandoval appointed William S. Boyd Professor of Law Francine Lipman to the Nevada Tax Commission, which is made up of eight citizens, appointed by the Governor, who are tasked with supervising the overall administration and operations of the Department of Taxation.
LAW FACULTY ASSUME LEADERSHIP ROLES Three members of the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law faculty have recently stepped into leadership roles for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) and the University. Ngai Pindell, International Gaming Institute Professor of Law at the Boyd School of Law, has served as UNLV’s vice provost for faculty affairs since March 2016. In this role, he has oversight and leadership responsibility in the broad areas of 28
UNLV Law | 2016
Pindell
Rapoport
institutional policies, faculty development and success, and faculty recognition related to UNLV’s Top Tier goals.
White Nancy Rapoport, the Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law at the Boyd School of Law, serves as special counsel to the
president of UNLV, a role she assumed in May 2016. In this position, she works to implement UNLV’s strategic plan (Top Tier). She also serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet and provides advice to the UNLV president. John Valery White, professor of law at Boyd, became the acting chancellor for the NSHE in June 2016. As NSHE’s chief executive officer, he works closely with the Board of Regents to develop NSHE strategies and implement Board policies.
“Discovery in the computer age is where it’s at. It is new. It is relevant. It is simply cutting edge. Whereas in the traditional law courses students study cases from the early 1900s or even English common law, the law of [electronically stored information] is barely 10 years old and is developing as we speak.”
ADJUNCT FACULTY ENHANCE BOYD EDUCATION
The Traveling Professor STANFORD OWEN TEACHES GROUNDBREAKING LAW CLASS ON WHIRLWIND VISITS TO LAS VEGAS
Every Thursday, Stanford Owen flies to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City to teach classes at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. The adjunct professor drives 20 minutes to the Salt Lake City International Airport, takes the hour flight, and hops on a shuttle bus at McCarran International Airport that delivers him to UNLV. It’s about the same amount of time it takes to drive to the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he also teaches. He has done this round-trip commute every Thursday for the past 10 years without issue, although he does get temporarily held up each week. “I get stopped in the airport because people think I’m Charlie Rose,” he said, laughing. His response to the clueless fans: “I hope you enjoyed my show last week.” Professor Owen was honored to receive UNLV’s Outstanding Teaching by Part-Time Faculty award earlier this year. He loves to teach
the diverse student base at the Boyd School of Law and wishes his whirlwind eight-hour visits allowed for more interaction. A sports enthusiast and high school assistant basketball coach, Professor Owen is married with seven children and 28 grandchildren. He runs a summer youth basketball camp for 150 kids and has seats for Utah Utes basketball games in the front row behind the team. His family contains three generations of Stanfords, but he personally thinks the name sounds a bit stuffy. In his day-to-day life he goes by Stan, but that didn’t stop him from earning his J.D. from Stanford Law School. “I was named after the school,” he explains, joking, “I told them that it was my university, that it was named after me.” A former litigator and senior shareholder with the Salt Lake City firm Fabian & Clendenin, Professor Owen was called away from his law practice from 2004-2006 to serve as President of the Nigeria Uyo Mission in West Africa for the Church of Je-
FACULTY FOCUS
sus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Upon his return to Utah, he decided to focus on his passion, teaching. Over the school year at UNLV he teaches three courses: Pre-trial Litigation and Antitrust Law (in the fall), and a class he developed, Civil Discovery (in the spring). His groundbreaking Civil Discovery class deals with the relatively new and fast-emerging law of electronically stored information (ESI). It covers current issues such as whether the government can “discover” from Google the information on a terrorist’s cell phone. “Discovery in the computer age is where it’s at,” he said. “It is new. It is relevant. It is simply cutting edge. Whereas in the traditional law courses students study cases from the early 1900s or even English common law, the law of ESI is barely 10 years old and is developing as we speak.” So after more than 40 years of teaching, the veteran professor is still learning every day.
Thanks to adjunct faculty, the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law can offer students a wider variety of courses, including in highly specialized areas of practice. Adjunct faculty bring unique experiences and perspectives into the classroom, helping the Boyd School of Law graduate successful, well-rounded professionals. Boyd is fortunate to have judges, lawyers and leaders serve as role models for students. In the fall of 2016, alone, four federal judges serve as adjunct faculty members at Boyd. They are The Honorable Richard Boulware (United States District Court, District of Nevada), The Honorable Jay Bybee (United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit), The Honorable Jennifer Dorsey (United States District Court, District of Nevada), and The Honorable Mike Nakagawa (United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Nevada).
2016 | UNLV Law
29
“Usually you go to a judges’ conference, and you’re embarrassed because they’re disparaging the academics, and it’s vice versa at academic conferences. But we structured it in a way to facilitate a productive and candid discussion of the topics.” FACULTY FOCUS
JUDGES, ACADEMICS COME TOGETHER FOR UNIQUE CONFERENCE
BOYD PROFESSOR SHARES INSURANCE EXPERTISE AT SYMPOSIUM IN CHINA UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Professor Jeffrey Stempel recently had the rewarding opportunity to speak at the Insurance Institute of China’s symposium at the Dalian Maritime University in Dalian, China. Professor Stempel spoke about whether excess insurers could avoid their coverage responsibilities when underlying insurers become insolvent or when underlying insurers and policyholders settle coverage disputes. “While this is a matter of debate in the U.S., it has not become an issue in China – yet,” he explained, adding that the Chinese insurance market is considerably less developed than that of the U.S., Western Europe, or Japan. With more than 30 speakers, the seminar included several informative presentations. Fortunately, said Professor Stempel, the organizers provided simultaneous translations, which permitted foreigners like him to obtain a good overview of many current issues in Chinese insurance law, regulation, and economics. Professor Stempel said he particularly enjoyed the segments focusing on recent changes to English insurance law (taking effect Aug. 12, 2016) and the impact of English law on Chinese law. Chinese law is heavily derived from English law, but at times can diverge quite a bit from the U.S. approach. “Learning more about different societies’ adoption and absorbing of legal thought provides a good window for assessing our own system,” said Professor Stempel, adding “Despite efforts to be open-minded, my experience is that lawyers tend to see their own legal systems as superior to others.” After the Dalian symposium, Professor Stempel made a similar presentation to students and faculty at Beihang University in Beijing. In addition to his professional engagements, Professor Stempel visited the Great Wall of China. “Seeing pictures of the Great Wall cannot prepare you for the magnitude of seeing it – and climbing it – in person,” he said. “It was sobering to think of the efforts workers had to make to build something of this scale under the conditions of the ancient world.” 30
UNLV Law | 2016
Judges and legal scholars gathered at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law last year for a first-of-its-kind conference examining the often overlooked role of magistrate judges in the federal court system. “Magistrate Judges and the Transformation of the Federal Judiciary” – a two-day event co-hosted by the Boyd School of Law, Duke University School of Law, and the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution – featured law school academics and sitting judges from across the country sharing frank exchanges during panel discussions and presentations. “That’s rare, and it was a highlight to see that fruitful and freeflowing conversation from both parties,” said Boyd School of Law Professor Thomas Main, who spearheaded coordination of the conference with support from Boyd Dean Daniel Hamilton. “Usually you go to a judges’ conference, and you’re embarrassed because they’re disparaging the academics, and it’s vice versa at academic conferences. But we structured it in a way to facilitate a productive and candid discussion of the topics.” The September 2015 forum was the first academic conference examining the unique role of magistrate judges in the federal judiciary, a topic of growing interest. While U.S. district judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate for lifetime tenure, magistrate judges are appointed by federal district judges of a particular district and typically serve renewable eight-year terms. Magistrate judges’ responsibilities and power vary widely nationwide. In some districts, they might carry virtually the same broad responsibilities as district judges and exert great influence over case outcomes. In others, they may fill a more focused niche, holding bail hearings, resolving civil discovery disputes, and otherwise addressing the particular needs of that district. “It’s difficult to study something that is so multidimensional, dynamic and varied,” Professor Main said. “Also, a lot of what they do is not visible because it involves a lot of conferences with counsel in judges’ chambers, and there’s oftentimes not a record of it. It’s outside the spotlight and not transparent at all.” But conference attendees believe last year’s conference was a crucial step in making their role less opaque. “It’s the start of a research arc that is almost certain to continue,” said Professor Main, who emphasized that Boyd will remain at the center of this research. “It’s too important to ignore.”
FACULTY FOCUS
Leading the Way LESLIE GRIFFIN AT THE FOREFRONT OF LAW AND RELIGION Leslie Griffin took a circuitous route to a life in law, but she arrived just in time to capitalize on an uncommon skill set. Professor Griffin, born in Connecticut, grew up in a Catholic household and studied theology at Notre Dame before getting a doctorate in religious studies from Yale. She taught theology at Notre Dame for a time, but she gradually came to realize that some of the most pressing questions concerning religion and society were being decided in the courts. So she left Notre Dame and enrolled at Stanford Law School, where a prescient professor told her to stay the path. “At the time religion and law wasn’t a big field, and many law schools didn’t offer law and religion courses,” Professor Griffin said. “There was a great professor at Stanford, Thomas Grey, and he saw the way things were going. He said my background in religion would be a growth stock that would pay off.” Antonin Scalia joined the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 and Clarence Thomas was appointed in 1991, adding two justices protective of religious rights. Then in 1993, a year after Professor Griffin gradu-
ated from Stanford, new president Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gave the federal government additional responsibilities in protecting religious freedom. Out of law school, Professor Griffin clerked on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before spending a fellowship year at Harvard focusing on ethics. She went on to teach at Santa Clara University, where she started the first seminar on law and religion, and worked for the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Professor Griffin says she is an academic at heart, though, and she soon returned to teaching. She focused on constitutional law and ethics while developing a specialty in church-and-state issues. After a stint at the University of Houston she joined the law faculty at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law in 2012. “I see my career as trying to combine abstract ideas with practical legal training,” Professor Griffin said. That work has naturally led to an interest in bioethics and the law, and Professor Griffin, along with co-author Joan Krause, published a new textbook, Practicing Bioethics Law, in November 2015. “There are three aspects to bioethics law, which are philosophy, health care law, and constitutional law,” Professor Griffin said. “We
tried to bring those three worlds together with readings that represent all three aspects.” Bioethics is full of the hard-to-pindown issues Professor Griffin loves to explore such as when assisted suicide should be allowed, and how do you know when a patient has truly given informed consent? It is also an exciting time to work on constitutional law and religious freedom. During the spring 2016 U.S. Supreme Court session, the justices heard a case involving a religious institution’s refusal to cover contraception in employee health plans. In fact, there are so many legal issues and cases involving religion these days, Professor Griffin felt like there was more going on than could be covered in academic papers and law reviews. Two years ago, she launched a legal blog with Marci Hamilton, another religion and law expert, so they could stay on top of all of the developing cases. The blog has grown to include outside voices, and Professor Griffin is eager to promote more female voices. “The sad but unsurprising reality is that women’s voices are still underrepresented when it comes to legal issues of contraception, religion, sex abuse ... ,” Professor Griffin said. “At first Marci and I were doing it all, but we’ve gotten some more young women involved, including some former students.” As for her teaching style, Professor Griffin admits she has softened over her 22 years behind the lectern. “In the beginning I may have been too hard. There’s a balance you have to strike, and in the old days we had different visions of authority,” she said. “I think we’ve given up on the model of teachers knowing everything … I like to run a tight class. I call on students a lot, but I try to do that in a way so students know I respect them and want to get the most out of them. UNLV students really have a great attitude, they really want to learn and they value their education.”
PROFESSORS PARTNER ON NEWLY PUBLISHED FEMINIST JUDGMENTS BOOK “What would United States Supreme Court opinions look like – and what would their influence be – if key decisions on gender issues were written with a feminist perspective?” This question is posed by the U.S. Feminist Judgments Project, an initiative that pulled together leading feminist legal scholars to rewrite, using feminist reasoning, the most significant gender justice cases decided by the Supreme Court from the passage of the final Civil Rights Amendment in 1870 to the summer of 2015. The rewritten opinions – 25 total – were published in August by Cambridge University Press in a volume titled Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court. Linda Berger, Family Foundation Professor of Law at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, served as co-editor of the book. Leslie Griffin and Ann McGinley, both William S. Boyd Professors of Law, rewrote decisions for the book.
2016 | UNLV Law
31
FACULTY FOCUS
LAWYERING PROCESS
Going Beyond the Expected 32
UNLV Law | 2016
FACULTY FOCUS
T
he UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law’s three-semester lawyering process curriculum challenges students to exceed their own expectations. From the start, students are immersed in theory and practice as they learn lawyering skills as well as critical problem solving and rhetorical theory and application. This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Boyd School of Law’s legal writing program second in the nation – the highest it has ever placed. Members of the Boyd community share their perspectives on the success of Boyd’s Lawyering Process Program and what it means to them.
Faculty
Alumni
Employer
“CREATING A GOOD PROGRAM is like cooking – it’s the best ingredients that make it extraordinary – and we’ve had the best ingredients. Our students are amazing. Our faculty and administration believe in the importance of the writing program because they are writers themselves. We have had truly wonderful support. And finally, I work with some of the most respected writing faculty in the nation. They love what they do and they do it extremely well. We are so fortunate.”
“AS FIRST A NEVADA SUPREME COURT CLERK and now an associate, I am extremely grateful for Boyd’s exceptional legal writing program, and especially my first legal writing instructor, Professor Linda Berger. As a class, we were in awe when she took the most complicated and perhaps most critical part of law school and made it look easy; we were even more amazed when we discovered because of her effective teaching that we could do the same.”
TERRY POLLMAN, PROFESSOR OF LAW
NICOLE SCOTT ’14
“WHEN I BEGAN MY PRACTICE in Nevada, I found that young lawyers graduating from Boyd were better prepared for practice than graduates our firm recruited from other highly ranked schools. I sought to discover how Boyd generated such practice-ready graduates, and learned more about the Lawyering Process Program. The Program impressed me so much that I joined the faculty at Boyd in 2010. Since then, I’ve discovered that through a combination of an enthusiastic faculty, a curriculum geared to emphasize lawyering in context, and support from across the administration, the Lawyering Process Program is truly incomparable. Here at Boyd, nationally renowned scholars and teachers of legal writing provide students with no less than nine credit hours of intensive preparation in legal writing, research, and skills. The results speak for themselves, because our students enter the legal profession ready to practice from the very first day. I am proud to be a part of this incredible program.”
“THE LEGAL WRITING PROGRAM at the William S. Boyd School of Law is among the best in the world because of its strong emphasis on legal analysis, attention to detail, and precision in presentation. Furthermore, Boyd equips students with the ability to articulate their thoughts with the passion and eloquence that is required of global leaders in the 21st century.”
“WE SEE THE RESULTS of Boyd’s excellent legal writing program in every Boyd graduate we hire. In my experience as a former federal clerk, and current appellate litigator, I can honestly say that Boyd grads are frequently stronger legal writers than their peers from very highly ranked institutions. We regularly hire Boyd grads in our Las Vegas office and have been consistently impressed with their writing and legal research skills. While every new attorney has much to learn, it is such a plus to have associates who enter the workforce with strong research and writing skills. The solid research and writing foundation allows these prepared graduates to produce quality work, even as they are learning the many other aspects of being a lawyer.” KELLY DOVE ’07, SNELL & WILMER
SCOTT MORRIS ’16
“We regularly hire Boyd grads in our Las Vegas office and have been consistently impressed with their writing and legal research skills.”
LORI JOHNSON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LAW PHOTO: BOBBY JOSHI PHOTOGRAPHY
2016 | UNLV Law
33
SCHOLARSHIP & COMMENTARY
FACULTY FOCUS
PROFESSOR RACHEL ANDERSON
On Diversity Mainstreaming in Civic Engagement
S
chool, college, and university campuses are increasingly diverse, yet many continue to approach civic engagement with a diversity-blind approach. Diversity-blind approaches by their nature exclude or undervalue categories of information from their analysis. This is akin to doing a cost benefit analysis for a project but ignoring categories of costs and benefits when doing the calculations. The outcome will be inaccurate and the project is unlikely to be successful or effectively achieve its intended goals. Diversity mainstreaming is one way to address diversity blindness. Diversity mainstreaming is an adaptation of gender mainstreaming, which has a long history in international law and policy. The idea of diversity mainstreaming in civic engagement and education is that a concern for diversity is built into all aspects of civic engagement and education as part of the “mainstream” rather than being excluded or treated as an optional add-on component. Civic engagement is an important part of education because it gives students the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills that will help them be successful now and in the future. It “refers to the ways in which citizens participate in the life of a community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community’s future.” (Adler & Goggin, 2005) Civic education offers students learning experiences in which they can acquire competencies that will help them effectively achieve goals in all aspects of their lives. It allows them to learn how to problem
34
UNLV Law | 2016
solve, work in a group, and engage with others who are different from them, among other things. Civic engagement is an important part of American democracy and culture. Over the decades, people in the United States have engaged individually and collectively in many different forms of community and political civic engagement to identify and address issues of public concern. Individuals volunteer in domestic violence shelters and write letters to their elected officials. Community groups collect school supplies for donation and organize voter registration drives. In the Universal Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement, people across the country participated collectively in numerous activities to promote equal rights and equal justice for all. Research suggests that there are important connections between civic education and civic engagement, including being able to integrate new information, increasing faith in the political process, promoting political participation and understanding how individual and group interests converge. This understanding of how people’s interests may converge can be a key motivator for civic engagement because it allows individuals and groups to see what factors must be present for their efforts to be effective. Civic education is part of the American educational landscape. At colleges and universities, civic education has received increased attention in recent decades. Civic engagement is also an important part of legal education. Law students learn about the unmet needs of the communities around them while participat-
ing in hands-on activities like legal clinics, externships, community workshops, and Street Law. Civic education is also a part of the traditional role of primary and secondary school in the United States. Despite its importance and long tradition, study after study documents low levels of civic engagement and civic knowledge among Americans. This is also revealed by low voter turnout and students’ weak performance on civics and other standardized tests. There are many theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon. One thing that we do know is that when students understand how what they are learning can affect them, the convergence of their outside interests with their coursework can increase their engagement with the material. But to see the ways that different in-
“Often input from members of target groups, affected communities, and intended audiences is sought too late in the process to significantly influence the direction of civic education or engagement.� FACULTY FOCUS
SCHOLARSHIP & COMMENTARY
terests converge or are not in alignment, those different interests need to be acknowledged, identified and included throughout civic education and civic engagement. The omission from civic education of differentiated interests that speak to varied life experiences can occur when the programs and materials take a diversity-blind approach. That could mean that the materials do not differentiate applicable interests based on one or more categories, including age, culture, ethnicity, faith or beliefs, gender, race, physical ability, primary language, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, geographic influences or others. Often when people omit other perspectives and interests, they may not even be aware that they are doing so. This type of diversity blindness can be exacerbated by factors like housing segrega-
tion and cultural isolation. Housing segregation, in which people are grouped into living spaces with others who are predominantly from the same socio-economic class or the same ethnic background, continues to be a feature of American neighborhoods. The plethora of information sources on television and the Internet offer the opportunity to transcend segregated living spaces and cultural isolation. However, we often use these options to communicate predominantly with others with whom we have one or more categories in common. This can narrow one’s awareness of differing perspectives and interests. The questions that follow could be used to promote diversity mainstreaming in civic engagement and education. It is important to work through them with specificity and write
responses; otherwise it is easy to skip over assumptions or analytical weaknesses. How and why are diverse interests relevant to the focus of a specific civic engagement or education issue, goal or activity? If everyone involved agrees there are not any diverse interests, someone should be assigned to learn and represent one or more diverse interests to ensure a rigorous analysis. What assumptions about the groups, categories, or interests involved may be implicit in the way the program, issues, goals or activities are defined? These should be specific and not general and may need to address the intersections of one or more categories. What data or information is relevant to understanding the interests involved and clarifying any mistaken assumptions? This data or information would need to be obtained and analyzed and the program refined to reflect any insights gained. What input has been sought from the interest-bearers and how? Often input from members of target groups, affected communities, and intended audiences is sought too late in the process to significantly influence the direction of civic education or engagement. Early communication and exchange of information can be an important factor in success. At the law school, civic engagement and education have been a part of the fabric of our school since the beginning. This year our Voter Education Program includes a series of events statewide together with our partners and sponsors. More information about the Voter Education Program is available on the law school website at http://scholars.law. unlv.edu/debate2016/. Diversity mainstreaming was incorporated into the Voter Education Program from the beginning. As an example, the case studies used in the Voting Rights Project use characters who are diverse in terms of gender and age and come from diverse racial, ethnic, language, regional, and socio-economic backgrounds. The Nevada Revised Statutes used in the project address the issue of voting machine language requirements, ability of employees to take time off of work to vote, and polling place accommodations for physical disabilities, among other issues. The success of the program to date demonstrates the success of diversity mainstreaming on the ground in Nevada. However, it is likely that we will first be able to truly assess the full magnitude of these benefits only after these students have become adults, taken on leadership roles, and return to share their insights and experiences. I, for one, am looking forward to that day. 2016 | UNLV Law
35
WHAT HAPPENS AT BOYD ... IN PICTURES
THE GALLERY
COMMENCEMENT
On May 13, the Boyd School of Law held its 2016 law school Commencement to honor 126 graduates, including Sydney Gambee and Mariah Northington, at right, and Elias Askins, below. This year’s ceremony marked two important milestones: the graduation of Boyd’s first LL.M. in Gaming Law and Regulation students and the law school’s growing alumni base, which now includes more than 2,000 graduates.
36
UNLV Law | 2016
THE GALLERY
ABA PRESIDENT PAULETTE BROWN
American Bar Association President Paulette Brown visited the Boyd School of Law on July 21. During her visit, she met with Boyd students, alumni, administrators, and community partners.
MOOT COURT COMPETITION
A Boyd School of Law Society of Advocates team won second place at the April 2016 Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition at Fordham University School of Law. From left: Ninth Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz, student Hayley Miller, Third Circuit Judge Jane Roth, student Erik Foley, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, student Emily Haws, and Tenth Circuit Judge Paul Kelly 2016 | UNLV Law
37
THE GALLERY
ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK SHANNON BYBEE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
In September 2015, Boyd School of Law students were given the Shannon Bybee Scholarship Award, an annual scholarship that recognizes the best scholarly research papers written on relevant gaming topics by law students. From left: Todd Weiss (scholarship recipient), Kevin Schweitzer (honorable mention), Mary Tran (scholarship recipient), and Marah Hinskey
This year’s Alternative Spring Break program – designed to expose Boyd School of Law students to access-to-justice needs in Nevada – included volunteering at Catholic Charities and Three Square Food Bank, spending time with Boyd alumni and local attorneys, meeting with several judges, and more. From left: students Seleste Hamilton, Bryce Moir, Daniel Hansen, Scott Morris, Monica Martinez, and Lyssa Owens
WILLIAM S. BOYD
The law school was honored to welcome its founder and namesake, William S. Boyd, on March 29 for a conversation with the Boyd community. Mr. Boyd shared personal stories about his philanthropic endeavors, including the creation of the law school, and answered questions from audience members.
38
UNLV Law | 2016
THE GALLERY
SPRING FLING
Boyd School of Law students, alumni, family and friends enjoyed an afternoon of fun at the 7th Annual SPRING FLING barbecue and softball tournament held April 9 at the UNLV Eller Media Softball Stadium. The event included a softball tournament, a barbecue, and family-friendly activities. From left: Rudy Gonzalez ’11, Peggy Liou ’12, Adam Hughes ‘11, and Amber Larson
CLINIC SWEARING-IN CEREMONY
Las Vegas Immigration Court Judge Jeffrey Romig swore in new student attorneys at a Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic ceremony on Jan. 14. 2016 | UNLV Law
39
KEEPING UP WITH BOYD ALUMNI
CLASS ACTIONS
2001 John E. Avery is the owner of The Avery Law Firm in Arlington, Texas.
Lifetime Fitness Summerlin Indoor Tri event this past January. He is currently training for his first Ironman 70.3 event.
Hicks
Procter
Ochoa
McInerney
Christopher J. Hicks is the elected Washoe County District Attorney, where he oversees 180 employees, including 62 attorneys – several of which are Boyd grads. He currently serves on several Nevada Supreme Courtappointed criminal justice commissions and is the president-elect for the Nevada District Attorney’s Association.
Peter Ajemian was named a shareholder with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. He is based in the Las Vegas office in their intellectual property department. Amy Feliciano and Puneet K. Garg ‘05 of Las Vegas, opened their own firm, Garg Golden Feliciano & Clark. GGF&C provides highly-skilled legal representation in almost every area of law.
Mark G. Jackson recently moved into a Civil Service position with the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C.
Samantha Jimenez-Hooks won a Heart of Education Award this May. The award recognizes outstanding teachers in Clark County School District who impact the lives of students and their well-being.
2002 Sara Gaskill and Brian Morris ‘08 were married last year and co-founded the Morris Law Center in Las Vegas.
Janean Kelly of Poulsbo, Wash., received her Executive MBA from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business in June. She also placed in the top 5 teams for the Business Plan Competition.
The Allens
Kristina R. Weller joined Richard Harris Law Firm as an associate in Las Vegas. She practices interpleader, personal injury, medical malpractice, mass torts and product liability law. Brenda Weksler writes: “Hello, fellow Boyd alumni! I am excited to have this new way of staying connected to all of you and learning what you are doing.” Brenda has been at the Federal Public Defender Office for the last thirteen years, where she tries cases and handles the occasional appeal. She really enjoys her work and the people she works with. She has also remained very involved with the law school. She is the current president of the Boyd School of Law Alumni Chapter and sits on the board of the UNLV Alumni Association Legacy Board, which sponsors events to bring alumni together. Brenda says it is “wonderful to stay connected to Boyd and to help strengthen and enhance the law school. I hope to see you at some of these events soon.”
2003 Janice Casarotto continues to practice law and is now campaigning for the Butte-Silver Bow County Public Administrator in Butte, Mont. Heather Procter recently celebrated her twelfth year at the Nevada Attorney General Office in Carson City. She continues to focus on 40
UNLV Law | 2016
2005
Beth Rosenblum is a partner with the Law Offices of Rhonda L. Mushkin, Chartered and served as a Pro Tem Domestic Violence Commissioner in the Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court, Family Division.
Mott Nevada. Russel is employed with Hutchison & Steffen in Las Vegas.
Kelly federal and state habeas corpus proceedings. She also participates in several projects for the office, including coordinating training for Mexican prosecutors, investigators and forensic scientists. Heather was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the National Association of Extradition Officials (NAEO), the largest extradition-oriented association in the country.
2004 Russel Geist was appointed to the advisory board of the Congressional Award Council of
Dr. Richard Litt is the co-founder of the Litt Law Firm in Las Vegas. He has been a board certified OB-Gyn for more than 35 years. Richard has been appointed as an Arbitrator for the Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court and is active in handling cases involving personal injury and accidents. His daughter, Amanda Emily Litt, joined the practice several years ago as a partner. Daniel Reed was recently named a Top 40 Lawyer Under 40 in Nevada by the American Society of Legal Advocates. He has also previously been named a Top 40 Under 40 by the National Trial Lawyers, and was awarded membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum for settling a car accident case for over a million dollars. This past year, Daniel won an AVVO’s Client’s Choice award and currently has a 10.0 rating by AVVO. In his spare time, he trains for triathlons, and won first place in the men’s open division of the
2006 Erin Lewis from Las Vegas became a shareholder at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in January 2016. She is also a member of the firm’s intellectual property group working with gaming, entertainment and hospitality clients. Danielle Oakley was recently promoted to partner at the Newport Beach, Calif., office of O’Melveny & Myers. David Ochoa of Las Vegas joined the Lipson, Neilson, Cole, Seltzer, Garin, PC law firm in June of 2016, where he focuses primarily in the areas of insurance defense, real estate and family law.
2007 Alison Brasier of the firm of Cloward, Hicks & Brasier, PLLC, recently won a case where the jury awarded nearly $13 million to the family
CLASS ACTIONS
Bacigalupi
Fielding
of a young woman who died six years ago in a crash caused by a drunken driver. Alison is also a board member of the Boyd School of Law Alumni Chapter.
2008 Earlier this year, Bryce Loveland became a shareholder at the Las Vegas office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. He is a member of the litigation department. Bryce also assists with department and labor audit defense and collection of unpaid employee benefit contributions, withdrawal liability and third party reimbursement. Jessica Taylor of Allen, Semelsberger & Kaelin, LLP in San Diego, recently won a case where the jury awarded over $58 million to 10 households in compensatory and punitive damages after losing their homes due to unreasonable rent rates and illegal practices. This was only the first phase of a lawsuit involving 39 homes.
2010 Joanna Myers of Las Vegas joined Dickinson Wright as an associate. Tara H. Popova, an associate at the Las Vegas office of Fox Rothschild LLP, was listed as one of the Top 100 attorneys in Nevada in the 2016 Legal Elite edition by Nevada Business Magazine. Stephen M. Shulman opened his own firm, Willoughby Shulman Injury Lawyers. The Las Vegas firm specializes in personal injury.
2011 Sarah Bassett recently joined Boyd Gaming Corporation as their Associate General Counsel. Melissa Flately was named one of the Reno-Tahoe Twenty Under 40 honorees. She is a Deputy Attorney General in the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Kirk Homeyer joined the Grant a Gift Autism Foundation as a member of the advisory board. The Foundation offers family-centered care to help prepare individuals with autism to lead independent lives. Kirk is an associate at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in their Las Vegas office, and is a former board member of the Boyd School of Law Alumni Chapter Board.
Gorlin
Reitz
David J. Klink opened his own firm, David Klink Attorney at Law. He resides with his family in Phoenix. Ryan McInerney has recently played a leading role in crafting strategic research and communications strategy for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure arm, which spent more than $68 million in the 2014 election cycle on political advertising. In this role, Ryan manages the largest team of U.S. House researchers in the Democratic Party and works directly with pollsters, media consultants, and other political professionals to localize national issues in ways that connect with persuadable voters in districts throughout the country. Kareema Mitchell Allen and Eric Allen ’10 currently run a legal practice in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eric has developed a niche practice in national call center compliance and defense and represents several hundred call centers, lead generators and software dialers vendors across the country. He handles their licensing and compliance, as well as defends contact centers and telemarketers in court and before regulatory bodies such as the FTC and state Attorneys General. Eric has been admitted on a pro hac basis to defend a number of larger consumer class actions in the federal courts of several states. Kareema formerly practiced in the area of domestic relations litigation, but has shifted her focus to personal injury (primarily car accidents) and small claims. She also practices immigration law, with a focus on family based immigrant petitions, adjustment of status, citizenship, inadmissibility waivers, asylum, U visas, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Kareema has also made providing pro and low bono services an important part of her practice. Eric and Kareema were married in August 2014, and welcomed their daughter, Desiree, in July 2015. Eric has two older children, Blake and Ashely, who are thrilled to have a baby sister.
2012 Jason Bacigalupi of Law Vegas joined Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie as an associate in the gaming practice group last fall. Dustun Holmes joined the Las Vegas firm of Pisanelli Bice as an associate attorney, where he practices commercial litigation. Christopher Humes of Las Vegas recently joined the board of Families for Effective Autism
Tran Treatment (FEAT). FEAT’s mission is to provide information on treatment resources for families with children diagnosed with autism, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disorders. Christopher is an associate with the Las Vegas office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. Jakub Medrala of Las Vegas and Nick Donath ‘13 of Henderson last fall celebrated their two-year anniversary of the opening of Donath & Medrala. Timothy Mott and his family welcomed Mays Andrew Mott in April. Tim is an associate at Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial in Las Vegas. Tim remains involved with the law school and is a former member of the Boyd School of Law Alumni Chapter. Colin Seale received the Community Juvenile Justice Award at ACLUNV’s 50th Anniversary Gala in June 2016. This award recognized his advocacy and commitment to teaching young people about justice and fairness, and developing their critical thinking skills. In June 2015, Colin also launched thinkLaw, a curriculum that uses real-life legal cases to teach critical thinking to all learners. Since then, thinkLaw has been launched in 14 Las Vegas schools and is growing to over 30 schools nationwide serving over 5,000 students in the upcoming school year. Colin’s program has also been selected as a 2016 finalist for the Echoing Green fellowship and as a 2016 finalist for the Teach for America Social Innovation Award. Hillary Walsh is a solo practitioner specializing in asylum appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Since 2014, she has worked from Osan Air Base, South Korea, where her husband, Shawn, flies an F-16 for the U.S. Air Force. Over the past two years, she has won several complex appeals for clients who were victims of heinous crimes and torture in their home countries. In 2016, she was awarded the ABA’s Pro Bono Publico Award; authored an article on asylum law which will be published in Catholic University’s Law Journal in 2017; and wrote an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court highlighting the Court’s need to resolve a circuit split regarding the government’s evidentiary burden when it seeks to remove an individual who claims to be a U.S. citizen. She will appear for the first oral argument before the Ninth Circuit in November 2016. Hillary also teaches International Law master’s classes for Troy University at Camp Humphrey’s Army Base, South Korea. Hillary’s assignment in Korea will end in July 2017.
2013 Chaunsey Chau-Duong transitioned from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to the Las Vegas Valley Water District/Southern Nevada Water Authority in late 2015. Jen Shomshor joined Bonner Kiernan Trebach & Crociata, LLP this past March after her husband received active duty Air Force orders to the Washington, D.C. area.
2015 Cory Fielding began working in April as an associate attorney for Thornton Byron, LLP, a boutique estate planning and tax firm in Boise, Idaho. Craig Friedel joined Solomon Dwiggins & Freer, LTD as an associate, where he focuses on trust and estate litigation, trust and estate administration, and business and commercial litigation. He lives in Henderson. Lee H. Gorlin works for the Honorable Justice Michael A. Cherry at the Nevada Supreme Court in Carson City. Benjamin K. Reitz is an Associate in the Commercial Litigation group at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP. Ben’s practice includes a wide range of complex business disputes, class actions, appeals, and pro bono work. He also provides legal advice and support for Brownstein’s congressional lobbying practice in Washington D.C. A resident of Downtown Las Vegas, you may see him jogging the streets around the court house or enjoying bacon jam at Carson Kitchen. Ben celebrated several weddings this past year, none of which were his own. Mary Tran joined the Las Vegas office of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP as an associate in May 2016.
ALUMNI REMEMBERED We wish to recognize the William S. Boyd School of Law alumni who have passed since our last issue: Bryan Andersen ’14 Andrew Freeman ’07 Jeffrey Hensley ’07 Ronald Serota ’01 Michael E. Young ’06 2016 | UNLV Law
41
KEEPING UP WITH BOYD ALUMNI
CLASS ACTIONS
ALUMNI REUNION
On Oct. 17, Boyd School of Law alumni gathered at the ARIA Resort & Casino for a reception, dinner and awards program. The event featured a special reception for the reunion classes of 2005 and 2010, a reception for all alumni, and an all Boyd dinner and awards program. Above, from left: Daron Dorsey ’01 (Alumni Volunteer Leadership Award), Kelly Dove ’07 (Distinguished Service Alumni Award), Derek Armstrong ’10 (Young Alumni Award), Dean Daniel Hamilton, Nadin Cutter ’08 (Alumna of the Year for the UNLV Honors College), The Honorable Linda Marquis ’03 (Alumna of the Year for the Boyd School of Law), and Joe Cain ’01 (Alumni Volunteer Leadership Award) Top right, from left: KaySea Wadley and Kareema Mitchell Allen ’10 Bottom right, from left: Kendal Weisenmiller ’10, Kelly Stout ’10, and Mark Weisenmiller ’10
ALUMNI GOLF TOURNAMENT Boyd School of Law alumni hit the green Oct. 16 at The Legacy Golf Club for an afternoon of competitive fun. The Alumni Golf Tournament kicked off two days of festivities as part of the 2015 Alumni Weekend. From left: Boyd Moss ‘03, Sean Claggett ‘03, Michael Viellion ‘04, and Barry Moore
42
UNLV Law | 2016
CLASS ACTIONS
Alumna Receives American Bar Award UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law alumna Hillary Gaston Walsh ’12 in August accepted the American Bar Association (ABA) 2016 Pro Bono Publico Award. “Hillary has demonstrated that she is committed to providing access to justice for indigent and underrepresented populations,” Boyd School of Law Dean Daniel Hamilton wrote in his nomination letter. “What’s particularly interesting about Hillary’s pro bono work is that for the past few years, Hillary has spent more than a thousand hours representing pro bono clients in the United States remotely from her home at Osan Air Base in South Korea. … I am very proud of Hillary and her work.” Walsh’s passion for defending human rights was born when she volunteered at an orphanage in Uganda. Since, Walsh has: worked at Boyd’s Immigration Clinic during law school as a student attorney; taken on numerous pro bono cases through organizations such as the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and Salvation Army; taught free
H H H
3RD ANNUAL
legal education classes; and written amicus briefs and appeared numerous times before the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals defending her clients. Recently, Walsh submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Boyd’s Immigration Clinic and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project requesting certiorari to clarify a circuit split over what the government’s burden of proof is when establishing that the person it seeks to deport is an “alien,” and not a U.S. citizen. In addition, Walsh wrote an article on asylum law titled, “Forever Barred: Reinstated Removal Orders and the Right to Seek Asylum” that will be published in spring 2017 by the Catholic University Law Review. And, in the continuing pursuit of her passion, Walsh is applying for a teaching fellowship at Georgetown in connection with its LL.M. program in immigration asylum work. “I am incredibly fortunate to do the work I believe I was created to do, and being rec-
ognized for doing it by the ABA and the many people who nominated me is a huge honor,” said Walsh. “My clients have endured unspeakable tragedies … and I get to help put them on a path to a brighter future.”
H H H
GOLF TOURNAMENT SAVE the DATE! FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2016 The Legacy Golf Club, Henderson
UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law
Annual Alumni Dinner and
Five • Ten • Fifteen
William S. Boyd School of Law
Year Class Reunions
MARK YOUR CALENDAR! SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2016 https://www.unlvalumni.org/law-golf-2016
2016 | UNLV Law
43
RECOGNIZING BOYD’S SUPPORTERS
DONORS
$1,000,000+ $500,000$999,999
Regulation * Irwin A. Molasky & Susan Molasky * Oakland Law Group PLCC * Nancy B. Rapoport * Kim M. Sinatra * Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys
* Thomas & Mack Company and Thomas and Mack Families
$5,000-$9,999
$100,000$249,999
* Paola Armeni ’03 * Alison Brasier ’07 * Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP * Adam Bult ’04 * Sean K. Claggett ’03 & Louella Claggett * Kelly Dove ’07 * Fennemore Craig PC * Perry Friedman ’16 * The Honorable Lloyd D. George * Brian Irvine ’01 * Michael B. Lee ’06 * Kfir Levy ’03 * NV Energy * Robert W. Potter ’02 * Protecting Our Future Action Fund * Terina M. Salerno ’01 & Victor J. Salerno * Trevor Waite ’14
* William S. Boyd & The Boyd Foundation
* The E.L. Cord Foundation * MGM Resorts International * Thomas A. Plein Foundation Ltd.
$50,000$99,999 * Peter S. Christiansen * Samuel Lionel & Lexy Lionel and The Lionel Trust
$25,000-$49,999 * The Brookings Institution * Daniel W. Hamilton & MaryAnn Winkelmes * Denver Water * Eglet Law Group * Garman Turner Gordon LLC * Michael A. Saltman & Sonja Saltman * State Bar of Nevada Gaming Law Section * Station Casinos LLC
$10,000-24,999 * Lynnda G. Brown ’04 * Harris & Eliza Kempner Fund * Lori E. Kalani * International Center for Gaming 44
UNLV Law | 2016
$2,500-$4,999 * Michael J. Cane * The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas * Ifrah Law * Konami Gaming * Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP * Mundell, Odlum & Haws LLP * Snell & Wilmer LLP
$1,000-$2,499 * Bailey Kennedy LLP
* Ballard Spahr LLP * The Honorable Linda M. Bell * Mary E. Berkheiser * Barbara E. Buckley * Anthony N. Cabot * E. Joe Cain ’01 * Conrad N. Hilton Foundation * Robert C. Correales & Julia A. Correales * Dickinson Wright PLLC * M. Daron Dorsey ’01 & The Honorable Jennifer Dorsey * Fantini Research * Greenberg Traurig LLP * Edward K. Hamilton * Marjorie L. Hauf ’02 * Dr. Jeremy Lipshutz * Richard J. Morgan * Steve Morris & The Honorable Kristina Pickering * Billie-Marie Morrison ’01 * Jeanne F. Price * Rosa Solis-Rainey ’01 & Dayne E. Rainey * Santiago Asensi * Christine L. Smith * Doreen M. Spears-Hartwell * Jeffrey W. Stempel * Michael B. Viellion ’04
$500-$999 * Armstrong Teasdale LLP * Linda L. Berger * Holly E. Cheong ’10 * Constantinos Couccoullis & Alexia Couccoullis * Jacqueline A. Gilbert ’07 * Leslie C. Griffin * Jean-Paul Hendricks ’06 & Kara B. Hendricks ’01 * Iqbal Law PLLC * Jenny Lee ’12 * Thomas O. Main * Maupin Naylor Braster * Samuel P. McMullen
* Nevada Legal News * The Honorable Philip M. Pro & Dori S. Pro * Jean R. Sternlight * Student Bar Association * Anne R. Traum * Stacey A. Tovino * Valerie Wiener
$250-$499 * Michelle D. Alarie ’10 * Jeanette H. Barrick ’13 * Chelsie C. Campbell ’05 * William Conine & Judy Conine * Frank D. Durand * Ford & Friedman LLC * Charles E. Gianelloni ’12 * The Jansen Family Trust * Marketa Trimble Landova * Francine J. Lipman * Lipson, Neilson, Cole, Seltzer & Garin, P.C. * James E. Murphy ’03 & Jessica W. Murphy ’03 * Casey G. Perkins ’10 * Ngai L. Pindell * Heather A. Robertson ’07 & James B. Robertson ’08 * Amber Robinson ’06 * Keith A. Rowley * Howard Siegel * Raymond W. Smith ’03 * John O. Swenseid * Marissa R. Temple ’04 * Upside LLC DBA The UPS Store * Sandy Van ’07 * Brenda Weksler ’02
$100-$249 * Richard A. Andrews ’13 * Christian L. Augustin ’15 * Ian C. Bartrum * Christopher L. Blakesley * Bruce A. Bondy * Christine L. Brady ’08
DONORS
* Vicky A. Brady ’13 * Keith A. Brown ’05 * James J. Butman ’02 * Shanon L. Clowers ’06 * Venicia G. Considine ’08 * Jeremy K. Cooper ’08 * Patricia J. Coyne ’01 * Nicolas R. Donath ’13 * Linda H. Edwards * S.D. Flinn * Eric H. Franklin * Sally L. Galati ’05 & Craig S. Galati * Eric D. Gannon ’08 * Elana T. Graham * Cheryl A. Grames ’12 * Sara G. Gordon * Ann Hamilton * Mary Hamilton * Rachel A. Hamilton * Saman R. Heidari ’13 * Christopher E. Horner ’08 * Lori D. Johnson * Jonathan R. Hicks and Associates PLLC * Kaempfer Crowell * Sylvia R. Lazos * Akke Levin ’04 & Ari L. Levin * Victoria L. Marchand * Gary S. Marrone ’07 * Layke A. Martin * Thomas McAffee * Mary F. McCarthy * Ann C. McGinley * Moloney & Associates CPA Firm * Dawn F. Nielson ’16 & Robert L. Nielson * Lydia R. Nussbaum * Christian M. Orme ’06 * Karlee M. Phelps ’11 * John J. Piro ’10 & Leslie M. Piro ’09 * Terrill Pollman * Benjamin K. Reitz ’15 * Russell Rosenblum
* Michael Rosenman * Mark A. Sakurada * David A. Sandino * Rebecca L. Scharf & Matthew Schneider * Kevin Schweitzer * Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation * Midgene M. Spatz * Kelly B. Stout ’10 * David S. Tanenhaus & Virginia L. Tanenhaus * Louis A. Toledo ’06 * Janet E. Traut ’01 * Jean M. Whitney * Homa Woodrum ’07 & Adam Woodrum ’06
$1-$99 * Emily Allen-Wiles ’14 * Rachel J. Anderson * Alannah Ariel ’16 * Kelly AuCoin * Catherine Bacos * Carolyn A. Barnes * Erin R. Barnett * Maria-Nicolle M. Beringer ’04 * Joel Brant * Cara D. Brumfield ’16 * Lora Caindec ’16 * Jessica E. Chong ’15 * Shelby A. Dahl ’15 * Vaneh Darakjian * Bonnie Dietrich * Loline-Marie C. Djidade ’16 * Angela H. Dows ’06 * Jennifer L. Foley ’04 * Dianne K. Fouret * Katherine Frank ’16 * Maxim Gakh * Sydney R. Gambee ’16 * Dan Gerstein * Stephanie Getler ’16 * Erin M. Gettel ’15 * Michael J. Gianelloni ’12
* Jeffrey R. Hall ’05 & Hillary Hall * Eun K. Halstead & Edward Halstead * Colin R. Harlow ’03 * Matthew Hersh * Marah J. Hinskey ’16 * Jordan Hollander ’16 * Joan W. Howarth * Monica Janda ’16 * Paul H. Janda ’16 * Gil Kahn ’16 * George J. Kunz ’09 * Brianna Lamanna ’16 * Samantha Leister * Benjamin Mankiewicz * Darryl Martin * Fatma E. Marouf * Jennifer K. Mayhew ’08 * Carol A. Mittwede * Craig R. Moir * Jennifer N. Odell ’16 * Becky A. Pintar ’01 * Shawnna Pomeroy * Alicia D. Portillo * Paul S. Pratt ’02 * Christina M. Prendergast * Norman M. Rauls ’06 * Sharon R. Rigby ’06 * Sandra Rodriguez * Stephen A. Spelman ’16 * Thomas W. Stewart ’16 * Jaimie A. Stilz ’14 * Dorian E. Stonebarger * Leslie Strasser Murdock ’13 * The Honorable Gloria J. Sturman * Dawn H. Hathaway Thoman ’14 & A. Randall Thoman * Reginald Thomas ’16 * Elijah J. Tredup ’16 * Lucas J. Tucker ’06 * Julianne Marie K. Unite ’14 * Alexander Viorst * Cayla J. Witty ’12 * Nicolas M. Wooldridge ’03
* Adam Wynott ’16 * Shane J. Young ’04
SPECIAL GIFTS * Edward M. Bernstein & Associates
ENDOWMENTS * Howard & Leontyna Babcock Endowed Scholarship * Boyd Law School Opportunity * Ralph Denton Professorship * Robert Faiss Fellowship for Community Service * Gordon I. Fink Scholarship * Forsman & Pescetta * Noel Gage Scholarship * Leo Gibrich Law Scholarship * Fred D. Gibson III Memorial Scholarship * Lawrence Ita Scholarship Endowment * Clifford A. Jones, Sr. Law School Scholarship * K. Michael Leavitt * Doris S. & Theodore B. Lee Professorship * Judge Jack & Lulu Lehman Professorship * Joyce Mack Professorship * Charles H. McCrea Jr. Scholarship * J. Morgan Chair in Law * Thomas A. Plein Endowed Scholarship * Barbara J. Williams-Rollings & Willard Rollings Scholarship * William & Alberta Stern Law Scholarship * Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic Endowment * Emilie N. Wanderer Scholarship * William S. Boyd School of Law 2016 | UNLV Law
45
DONORS
Daron Dorsey ’01 (left) and Joe Cain ’01
Leading the Alumni Leadership Circle Paying it Forward The path to law school wasn’t easy for Lori Kalani. There were many personal obstacles; but with perseverance and determination, she earned her B.A. and MBA at UNLV. Then, the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law opened in 1998. She applied in 1999 but didn’t make the cut for admission and was put on the waiting list. Kalani sought the assistance of her employer at the time, who agreed to help with a personal introduction to the dean of the law school, and she was admitted to attend the 1999 part-time program. A year later she transferred to George Mason University where she earned her J.D. Now she’s paying it forward by establishing a scholarship at the Boyd School of Law in the name of her former employer, Piero’s 46
UNLV Law | 2016
The UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law is still relatively young, as are efforts to maintain relationships with its graduates. That makes the work of Alumni Leadership Circle co-chairs Joe Cain ’01 and Daron Dorsey ’01 crucial to fundraising efforts directed toward alumni. “The Circle gets together a few times a year with the Dean of the law school and some of the other staff,” said Cain, who was named the Boyd School of Law’s Alumnus of the Year at UNLV’s 2016 Annual Alumni Awards. “It helps brainstorm policy and initiatives for the school, and what we can be doing to get alumni more engaged and how alumni can help strengthen the school.” Cain and Dorsey founded the Alumni Leadership Circle in 2014. They were honored with the Volunteer Leadership Award at the 2015 Boyd Alumni Dinner. “I think founder simply means ‘people there at the beginning,’” joked Dorsey, who, like Cain, was among Boyd’s first students. “Joe and I felt it was important for us to step up and get things off the ground since we have been here from the beginning. Now that we have a base of alumni that’s going to multiply exponentially, we need to find ways
for people to stay connected to the law school.”
Italian Cuisine owner Freddie Glusman. The scholarship is making it possible for student Benjamin Leavitt to begin studies at Boyd this fall. “I grew up in Las Vegas, came from a broken family, and overcame a lot of adversity,” said Kalani, now co-chair of Washington D.C.-based Cozen O’Connor’s State Attorneys General Practice. “I know from my own experiences that one of the tough things for me was first and foremost overcoming personal challenges and then finding the money to go to school. I’ve worked hard and now I have the means to provide help to somebody who has overcome similar challenges.” Kalani has received correspondence from Leavitt (she does not participate in the eligibility process) and looks forward to meeting the first scholarship recipient in person. “Freddie is the one who helped give me my start,” said Kalani. “Had Boyd not let me in, I might not be the successful lawyer I am today.”
“On behalf of Joyce Mack and the Thomas family we are honored to continue our support of the UNLV Boyd School of Law.” DONORS
DEAN’S SCHOLARSHIP INITIATIVE
Joyce Mack (left) and Tom Thomas
DONOR SPOTLIGHT
Thomas and Mack Families The Thomas and Mack families recently gave a $750,000 gift to the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. Portions of the gift will fund the Joyce Mack Professor of Law and scholarships that are part of the Dean’s Scholarship Initiative, a campaign to raise $2 million for student scholarships over three years. The critical funding raised through the Dean’s Scholarship Initiative will strengthen the law school by attracting and retaining the highest quality students and providing them with the experience necessary to obtain jobs after graduation. Scholarships can be the deciding factor for prospective and current students, and they play an integral role in improving
the national reach and reputation of the law school. “On behalf of Joyce Mack and the Thomas family we are honored to continue our support of the UNLV Boyd School of Law,” said Tom Thomas, managing partner of the Thomas & Mack Company. “We congratulate Dean Hamilton, the professors and administration for their remarkable work and the well-deserved national recognition which places the Boyd School of Law among the nation’s elite. We are especially grateful for our association with the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic and the impact that program has on serving the needs of the community.” The Thomas and Mack families have a long history of giving
Scholarships strengthen the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law by attracting and retaining top students, as well as reducing student debt after graduation. In 2015, the Boyd School of Law launched the Dean’s Scholarship Initiative, with the goal of raising $2 million for student scholarships over three years. The law school appreciates the following donors who have generously supported the Dean’s Scholarship Initiative: • Chris Jansen • Class of 2016, in honor of the late James “JR” Wood • Perry Friedman • Peter Christiansen • State Bar of Nevada, Gaming Law Section • Station Casinos • Thomas A. Plein Foundation • Thomas & Mack Company
to UNLV. At the Boyd School of Law, specifically, the families established the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic and the Thomas & Mack Moot Court. The mission of the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic is to serve the community, educate students, and improve the law. The Clinic offers several clinics in regular rotation and is also home to the Kids’ Court School, a nationally recognized, research-based program that educates child witnesses about the judicial process. The Thomas & Mack Moot Court, built in 2007, is a 6,000-squarefoot facility with a courtroom and 100-seat auditorium in which legal education, legal argument simulation activities, and court hearings occur. 2016 | UNLV Law
47
DEAN’S COUNCIL Ogonna Brown ’01 Holley, Driggs, Walch, Puzey, Thompson Michael Bonner Greenberg Traurig Judge Richard Boulware U.S. District Court Bill Boyd Boyd Gaming Joseph Brown Kolesar & Leatham Sen. Richard Bryan Fennemore Craig Barbara Buckley Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada Alex Fugazzi Snell & Wilmer Jennifer Carleton Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
Catherine Cortez Masto Miles Dickson ’11 JABarrett Company Jason Frierson ’01 Surratt Law Practice Gerald Gordon Garman Turner Gordon Brian Irvine Dickinson Wright Philip Kohn Clark County Public Defender Samuel Lionel Fennemore Craig Judge Gloria Navarro U.S. District Court Michael Saltman The Vista Group
Tom Thomas Thomas & Mack, Co. Dan Waite Lewis Roca Rothgerber Melissa Waite ’07 Jolley Urga Woodbury & Little Steven Wolfson Clark County District Attorney Kendelee Works ’05 Christiansen Law Tom Gallagher Tom & Mary Gallagher Foundation Robert Eglet Eglet Prince Ellen Schulhofer Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck Brenda Weksler ’02 Federal Public Defender’s Office
DONORS
ALUMNI LEADERSHIP CIRCLE The Alumni Leadership Circle is a group of dedicated alumni who have taken a leadership role in supporting the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law and play a vital role in the strategic direction of the school.
Ogonna M. Brown ’01 E. Joe Cain ’01 Justin L. Carley ’06 Sean K. Claggett ’03 Zachary B. Conine ’13 Miles R. Dickson ’11
M. Daron Dorsey ’01 Marjorie Hauf ’02 Michael Joe ’07 Matthew I. Knepper ’12 A. Moore ’01 Billie-Marie Morrison ’01 Casey G. Perkins ’10 Becky Pintar ’01 Robert Potter ’02
Terina Salerno ’01 Quinton R. Singleton ’08 Rosa Solis-Rainey ’01 Leon Symanski ’01 Melissa L. Waite ’07 Trevor Waite ’14 Brenda Weksler ’02 Kendelee L. Works ’05
BOYD ALUMNI CHAPTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gabrielle H. Angle ’10 Alison Brasier ’07 Lauren Calvert ’07 Andrew Coates ’15 Kelly Dove ’07 Max Fetaz ’11 Jack Fleeman ’07 Erin Gettel ’15 Blake Gross ’05 William Horne ’01 Amy Ismail ’13 48
UNLV Law | 2016
H. Sunny Jeong ’12 Maggie Lambrose ’09 Danny J. Lovell ’05 Stacy Newman ’16 Ashley C. Nikkel ’12 Jessica Perlick ’13 Francesca M. Resch ’12 Lawrence Ruiz ’08 Quinton R. Singleton ’07 Ray Smith ’03 Alex Spelman ’16
Mark M. Weisenmiller ’10 Brenda Weksler ’02 Daniel W. Hamilton, Dean and Richard J. Morgan Professor of Law Layke Martin, Assistant Dean for External Relations Lori D. Johnson, Faculty Liaison Carolyn Barnes, Director of Alumni Relations Alex Velto, Student Liaison Stephanie Glantz, Student Liaison
NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID
UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW 4505 S. MARYLAND PARKWAY, BOX 451003 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89154-1003
LAS VEGAS, NV
SUPPORT THE DEAN’S SCHOLARSHIP INITIATIVE “It is a privilege to be in law school. Not everyone is able to be in a position to advocate for others. As future attorneys, we are in a unique position to speak up and make a world of difference to our clients and community.” Beatriz Aguirre, 2L
Support scholarships today: law.unlv.edu/give