Thu, Mar 27, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

To say UNLV’s Boyd School of Law has humble origins is an understatement. Members of the original class of 140 students started their legal studies in a former elementary school.

That was a decade ago this fall, and since then the school has grown into a new building and made incredible strides in what is a blink of an eye in the academic world. Under founding Dean Richard Morgan, the school became accredited, earned admission to the prestigious American Association of Law Schools and made its way into U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 rankings.

The school has been noted for its contributions to the local legal community and has given Las Vegas more prestige. It has also been a benefit to the region because the school has made public service a mandate.

As the Las Vegas Sun’s Charlotte Hsu and Brian Eckhouse reported Wednesday, students are required to be involved with the community. The school puts on workshops to help the public understand legal issues surrounding bankruptcy, family law and immigration.

As well, the school has launched several programs aimed at helping people who otherwise couldn’t afford an attorney. Students represent, under faculty direction, children, immigrants and other people who need help. For example, students helped a woman gain citizenship after her completed application lingered for two years. So far students have represented people in 677 cases.

Boyd’s community orientation has carried over to the students’ careers. Boyd graduates last year made up about 15 percent of the attorneys taking cases pro bono through the nonprofit Clark County Legal Services.

Part of the reason for the success is that students see Las Vegas as their home.

Leah Martin, a 2001 Boyd graduate, said the students “want to be here, have roots here and want to stay.”

As the law school demonstrates, that is good news.