Boyd to Host Second Annual Public Interest Law Film Festival

The Boyd School of Law is very pleased to announce that it will be hosting the Second Annual Public Interest Law Film Festival on September 13 and 14, 2012.

This year's festival, the theme of which is "Legitimacy, Process, and Penalty," will feature three films, including Crime After Crime: The Fight to Free Debbie Peagler, Hot Coffee, and abUSed: The Postville Raid. Distinguished festival presenters include Yoav Potash, award-winning filmmaker; Barbara Buckley, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada; Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin, UC Davis School of Law; and Justice Michael L. Douglas, Nevada Supreme Court.

The Second Annual Public Interest Law Film Festival will be held at Boyd School of Law's Thomas and Mack Moot Court Facility beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 13, 2012, and closing with a reception in the early evening of Friday, September 14, 2012. The Film Festival schedule is available here. Registration information is available here. Tax-deductible donation information is available here.

Boyd Faculty Members at SEALS

The Boyd School of Law was well represented by Professors Ian Bartrum, Linda Berger, Ann McGinley, and Stacey Tovino at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) 2012 Annual Conference in Amelia Island, Florida.

Professor Ian Bartrum (right) served as an invited participant in the Junior Faculty Workshop. Professor Linda Berger served as a facilitator for the Legal Writing Institute's Writers' Workshop held in conjunction with the conference. Professor Ann McGinley participated in a discussion group on "Contemporary Issues in Gender and Law" and spoke on "Masculinities Theory Meets Feminist Theory" as part of a "Masculinities, Manliness, and Law" panel. Professor Stacey Tovino presented "The Rhetoric of Health Information Confidentiality" as part of a "Health Care, Health Law, and Rhetoric" panel and discussed the implementation of the essential health benefits ("EHB") provision within the Affordable Care Act as part of a discussion group on the Supreme Court's recent opinion upholding most of the health care reform bill.

Road Scholars (August 2012)

The Boyd School of Law is pleased to release the August 2012 edition of Road Scholars.

Road Scholars provides monthly information about the speaking engagements and conference participation of Boyd faculty members. During August 2012, Boyd faculty members will attend conferences and give invited talks, guest lectures, and panel presentations in Amelia Island, FL, Big Sky, MT, Chicago, IL, Eugene, OR, Maui, HI, Santiago de Chile, SA, Stanford, CA, and Tokyo, JP.

The archives of Road Scholars may be accessed here.

Boyd Ranks 45th Among Nation's Top 71 Most-Cited Law Faculties

Authored by the University of St. Thomas' Gregory Sisk, Valerie Aggerbeck, Debby Hackerson, and Mary Wells, a recent study ("Scholarly Impact of Law School Faculties in 2012: Applying Leiter Scores to Rank the Top Third") explores the scholarly impact of law faculties, ranking the top third of ABA-accredited law schools.  Refined by Professor Brian Leiter, the "Scholarly Impact Score" for a law faculty is calculated from the mean and the median of total law journal citations over the past five years to the work of tenured members of that law faculty. In addition to a school-by-school ranking, the impact study reports the mean, median, and weighted score for each law faculty, along with a listing of the tenured law faculty members at each ranked law school with the highest individual citation counts. The recent study ranked Boyd School of Law quite favorably - 45th in the nation.

Rankings have limitations - and a ranking system based on citation counts can be criticized for its inability to take into account the (lack of) popularity of certain doctrinal areas or negative references to scholarship. Much more than a ranking, we are proud to be recognized by our peers for good, meaningful scholarship. According to the study, "Three newer law schools accredited within the past two decades ... [including Boyd School of Law] ... have already made a scholarly impact that dramatically outpaces their present academic reputations." The study concludes that Boyd School of Law "continues to rank in the second quartile for U.S. News at #76, but rises more than 30 ordinal ranking levels to #45 for Scholarly Impact" and "enjoy[s] less than half the academic reputation that Scholarly Impact Scores would suggest [it] deserves."

Along with Dean Nancy Rapoport, Professors Linda Berger, Linda Edwards, Ruben Garcia, Sylvia Lazos, Thomas Main, Ann McGinley, Jeff Stempel, Jean Sternlight, and David Tanenhaus are listed in the study as Boyd's most highly-cited scholars

Passing of Nevada legend Ralph Denton.

One of Nevada's "greats"--Ralph Denton--has passed away.  You can read his obituary here and an oral history here.  His family is in our thoughts at this most difficult of times.

Road Scholars (July 2012)

The Boyd School of Law is pleased to release the July 2012 edition of Road Scholars.

Road Scholars provides monthly information about the speaking engagements and conference participation of Boyd faculty members. During July 2012, Boyd faculty members will attend conferences and give invited talks, guest lectures, and panel presentations in Amelia Island, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Como, Italy; Evanston, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nashville, Tennessee; Newport Beach, California; Nicosia, Cyprus; Reno, Nevada; and Seattle, Washington.

The archives of Road Scholars may be accessed here.