UNLV law school seeks clinic location downtown

Diana Sahagun

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

The dean of the UNLV law school is in preliminary discussions with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman to bring a law clinic to downtown.

Richard Morgan, William S. Boyd School of Law dean, met with Goodman last week to discuss possible sites, including the Fifth Street School, which currently houses UNLV's downtown campus.

"The mayor is eager for us to be there. I'm eager for us to be there," Morgan said. "I would like us to have community presence and a community impact."

Clinical programs serve two purposes: they educate students in real "lawyering" with actual clients and provide a community service by providing legal representation, through students, to people who otherwise would not have representation, Morgan said. The clinics generally serve low-income people.

UNLV representatives had been hoping Gov. Kenny Guinn, in his recent State of the State address, would have announced funding for the expansion of UNLV programs, such as the law clinic and a satellite campus in Summerlin.

Instead, the governor proposed setting aside $23 million for the new Nevada State College at Henderson.

The law school currently operates a small clinic, which allows third-year students, under faculty supervision, to act as lawyers for real clients.

UNLV representatives had asked the governor for $1.6 million to expand the clinic at the school.

The clinic has two faculty members and 12 students. It focuses on representation of abused and neglected children and children who are facing juvenile delinquency proceedings.

"The students do good work and it also saves the state money because the students work for free," Morgan said. "The result of the students' work is to avoid institutionalization at the state's expense. Every time they properly convince a judge that a person shouldn't be institutionalized, the state saves a lot of money."

Morgan said he will meet with faculty members to discuss expanding the clinic, but he said a decision is more than a few months away.

"When we will get around to having a clinic downtown, I don't know," Morgan said. "It's not on the front burner, but it's not on the back burner. It's something I very much want to do."