UNLV law school takes a step toward accreditation

Aaron Clemens

Tuesday, May 30, 2000 | 10:52 a.m.

Only graduates from an accredited law school can become licensed attorneys, so students at UNLV's Boyd Law School took a leap of faith when they applied to the new school, Boyd law student Will Price notes.

The students recently received hope their faith may be rewarded after Boyd secured a key letter of recommendation from the accreditation committee of the American Bar Association.

Boyd Law School Dean Richard Morgan said this morning he isn't celebrating yet, but he is optimistic about the final two steps of the process -- an appearance before an accrediting council and a vote by the ABA's House of Delegates.

During the accreditation team's site visit last November, team members were impressed by Boyd's support from the state Legislature, Board of Regents, State Bar Association, UNLV administration and many private donors.

Morgan will meet in Woodstock, Vt., Saturday with the Council of the Section of Legal Education, which will either approve the recommendation and forward it to the House of Delegates or deny the accreditation.

"The real decision is with the council," Morgan said.

The council could take up to 10 days after the Saturday meeting to let UNLV know what it decides. The House of Delegates meets July 9 in New York.

If UNLV passes those votes, it would receive provisional accreditation. That would allow students to take the bar exam in any state.

Permanent accreditation would not be granted until after the 2-year-old law school moves into permanent facilities and graduates a class that scores well on the bar exam.

The law school sought to complete the accreditation process as quickly as possible.

The first class will not see the permanent law school move into the remodeled James R. Dickinson Library. Eight months of construction setbacks at the new Lied Library mean the remodeling of the old UNLV library has been postponed as well.

It will take 12 to 14 months for renovations of the library to be completed, Morgan said. He hopes the new library is finished by summer so work on the law school can begin and the law school can move by the spring 2002.