Professor Nancy Rapoport Invited to Serve on The Business Lawyer's Editorial Board

Nancy B. Rapoport is the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Professor Rapoport was recently invited to join the editorial board of The Business Lawyer, a quarterly business law journal circulated to some 60,000 readers in the country. The Business Lawyer focuses on articles of interest to business lawyers, including developing trends and case law analysis.

During her one-year term as a member of the editorial board, Professor Rapoport will review articles submitted for publication, provide advice in connection with the journal, meet with other members of the editorial board at the American Bar Association's Business Law Section Spring Meeting, and more.

Professor Rapoport's specialties are bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  

Professor Ruben Garcia to Present at 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association

Ruben J. Garcia is a Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Professor Garcia will attend the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association (ABA) in Boston on Aug. 8.

He will present the Affiliate Report of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) to the Council of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar in his capacity as Co-President of SALT.

A recognized expert in the field of labor and employment law, Professor Garcia teaches Labor Law, Employment Law, Constitutional Law, and Professional Responsibility at the Boyd School of Law. He has been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, among others, and has appeared on national and local radio and television programs.

Professor Nancy Rapoport's Paper Makes Top 10 Download List

Nancy B. Rapoport is the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Professor Rapoport's paper, "'Nudging' Better Lawyer Behavior: Using Default Rules and Incentives to Change Behavior in Law Firms," recently made the Social Science Research Network's top 10 downloads list for the topic area of Law Firms/Legal Practice. The article was published in the St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics, Volume 4.

The abstract reads, "This article examines how incentives in law firms can affect lawyer behavior and suggests some possible changes to incentive structures and default rules that might improve the ethical behavior of lawyers. In the changing landscape of law practice — where law firm profits are threatened by such changes as increased pressure from clients to economize and the concomitant opportunities for clients to shop around for the most efficient lawyers — are there ways to change how things are done in law firms so that firms can provide more efficient and ethical service? This article suggests that an understanding of cognitive biases and basic behavioral economics will help law firms tweak their incentives and default rules to promote the improved delivery of legal services."

Professor Rapoport's specialties are bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  

Professor Nancy Rapoport's Article Cited by Judge Mark Bennett

Nancy B. Rapoport is the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Her article "Where Have All the (Legal) Stories Gone?" from the Fall 2009 issue of the Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel's M/E Insights, was cited by The Honorable Mark W. Bennett of the United States District Court in the Northern District of Iowa. Judge Bennett cited Professor Rapoport's work in his article "Eight Traits of Great Trial Lawyers: A Federal Judge's View on How to Shed the Moniker 'I Am a Litigator,'" published in the University of Texas School of Law's The Review of Litigation Winter 2014 issue.

Judge Bennett's article reads, "Is the legal academy to blame for poor storytelling skills among lawyers? While criticism of legal education is certainly reaching a modern-day zenith, it would be unfair to place too much of the blame on the education system, since '[n]arrative theory and storytelling have emerged as threads in legal scholarship steadily over the past 20 years.' Regardless, I have never heard any judge comment that lawyers are improving in the art of storytelling. Why is this? Perhaps Professor Nancy Rapoport described it best: Few law professors stay in touch with the practice of law [and, as a result, w] e just don’t have much credibility when it comes to telling students how lawyers work, or what good lawyers need to know, because few of us stayed long enough in the practice of law to have been considered good lawyers."

Professor Rapoport's specialties are bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  

Professor Mary LaFrance Featured on 8 News NOW

Mary LaFrance is the IGT Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law.

On July 18, she was featured in the 8 News NOW segment I Team: Las Vegas businessman victim of trademark bullying.

The segment is about Las Vegas businessman Don Rubenstein, who sells Farmer Brothers' products online under the company name Easycoffee. Rubenstein recently received a letter from a law firm representing British airliner easyJet, threatening to sue if the word "easy" isn't dropped from the name "Easycoffee."

"This will strengthen their case when they want to go after a bigger target that can afford to defend itself," Professor LaFrance said during the interview. "Such as E-Z Rental car."

Professor LaFrance’s teaching and research interests include domestic and international intellectual property law, as well as the taxation of intellectual property.

Professors Mary LaFrance, Marketa Trimble to Present at Intellectual Property Scholars Conference

(l-r) Professors Mary LaFrance and Marketa Trimble

Mary LaFrance is the IGT Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law. 

Marketa Trimble is an Associate Professor of Law at the Boyd School of Law.

On Aug. 7 and 8, Professors LaFrance and Trimble will attend the Intellectual Property Scholars Conference at the UC Berkeley School of Law. There, they will present new papers.

The conference brings together intellectual property scholars to present their works-in-progress.

Professor LaFrance’s teaching and research interests include domestic and international intellectual property law, as well as the taxation of intellectual property.

In her research, Professor Trimble focuses on intellectual property and issues at the intersection of intellectual property and private international law/conflict of laws.