Students up to the challenge of new law school

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1998 | 10:44 a.m.

The inaugural class at the nation's newest law school has been hard at work inside the former Paradise Elementary School building across the street from the Thomas & Mack Center for a month.

As the first-year students familiarize themselves with the intricacies of tort law and bury themselves in the arguments of precedent setting cases, construction workers continued to put the finishing touches on the facility at 851 E. Tropicana Ave.

The William S. Boyd School of Law -- Nevada's first state-supported law school -- will hold a formal grand opening for the public from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7.

As part of the ceremony, Judge Richard Arnold of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals will speak at the UNLV Alumni Center at 7 p.m.

Law school Dean Richard Morgan complimented the students and faculty on adapting to their new environment.

"Things went very well during the first week of class," noted Morgan, former dean of the Arizona State University School of Law.

Students had an intense introduction to law the week of Aug. 24 -- a week before the rest of the UNLV campus began classes.

"We introduced people to the nature of the profession, skills and values lawyers need and we introduced them to good role models," Morgan said.

The introductory law classes were held across the street in the UNLV classroom building complex to allow workers to complete major remodeling projects.

"There have been no major glitches," said Morgan, who is teaching contracts, this semester in addition to handling his administrative duties.

Students Mark Jackson, 33, a Louisiana native, and Laura Browning, 27, a native of Las Vegas, couldn't be happier.

"Everything's going very smooth," said Jackson, who attended a semester of law school at the University of Houston before being drawn to UNLV in part by the excitement of being involved in something new. "The professors here are much more humane."

Browning, a UNLV graduate and a former part-time dance instructor at the university, said she had always wanted to go to law school.

"But I didn't think I had the patience for the research," she said.

It's a little early to decide what she will do with her law degree, but she's leaning toward being a prosecutor.

Jackson likes the idea of becoming a mediator.

Jackson, Browning and their 138 classmates are being taught by 11 professors.

Teaching at a new law school is as exciting as being a student, according to those professors.

"Everything is new and fresh," Shannon Bybee said. "There's no attitude of 'we've always done it this way.' There is an openness to innovation."

Bybee, who also is teaching contracts, is executive director of the UNLV International Gaming Institute and associate professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

He is a founder and past president of the International Association of Gaming Attorneys and has served as chairman of the Gaming Law Committee with the American Bar Association.

Annette Ruth Appell said she shares Bybee's sense of excitement at being able to shape a new law school and its students.

One of her goals, she says, is to teach arbitration.

"Avoiding disputes is important," said Appell, who received her law degree in 1986 from Northwestern University and practiced law in Chicago for several years. She also taught law before joining the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1996.

Terrill Pollman, director of legal research and writing, is teaching property and lawyer skills.

She said gave up a position at the University of Illinois College of Law to plunge into the new program in Las Vegas.

"It makes it easy to talk to students about the risk they are taking," said Pollman, who graduated magma cum laude from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1990. "We all left good-paying jobs to try something different."

Scott J. Burnham is a visiting professor from the University of Montana School of Law. He is teaching a variety of courses including contracts, commercial and consumer law and intellectual property.

He said he chose to spend a year at UNLV because he "wanted the opportunity to be in on the ground floor of an innovative school, to help establish traditions of the school.

"This isn't going to become an excellent school, it is going to start out as an excellent school."

If that is the case, then becoming accredited should not be a concern.

The last state-supported law school to open its doors was in Atlanta at Georgia State University, which began admitting students in the 1984.

"We got provisional accreditation in record time, a year and a half," said Associate Dean Steve Kaminshine, who was at the school when it opened 14 years ago.

Frank Durand, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at the UNLV law school, said that unless there is a special exception, graduates of unaccredited law schools are not allowed by the American Bar Association to take the bar examination in any state.

That's why school officials are working hard toward becoming accredited before the first class graduates three years from now.

Durand doesn't see any problem standing between UNLV's law school and accreditation.

"You have to be in existence one year before you seek accreditation," Durand explained. "So in August 1999 we will ask the ABA to send in an on-site examination team."

There are 180 accredited law schools in the United States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and other territories.

To be accredited the school must meet the ABA's standards for faculty, student body and resources library among others.

According to the ABA, a law school may be granted provisional approval for accreditation after one year if it assures that the school will be in full compliance with ABA standards within three years after receiving provisional approval.

A law school that has had provisional approval for two years may be considered for full approval if it meets ABA standards.

Site-evaluation teams are generally comprised of legal educators, practicing attorneys or judges and a university administrator.

The accreditation committee is comprised of members of the academic community, the legal profession and the general public.

Kaminshine said it is important to establish the school's credibility immediately through the hiring of its faculty.

There are some similarities between the law schools at UNLV and Georgia State.

While Nevada had no law school, Georgia had only one public law school at the University of Georgia in Athens. It also had two private ones: the law schools at Emory University in Athens, and Mercer University in Macon.

Because there was no state-supported law school in Atlanta -- the most populated city in the state -- opening a school there filled a market nitch and quickly became a success.

"We've had incredible luck in getting quality applicants and in placement," Kaminshine said. "Atlanta is a magnet. It's a very attractive place to be and it's inexpensive."

The Georgia State University law school has 600 full-time students. UNLV's goal is too reach an enrollment of 420.

Total law school enrollment in ABA-accredited schools is about 130,000. Of that number about 58,000 are women and 26,000 are minorities.