University of Nevada, Las Vegas
First Year Program
UNLV's Lawyering Process Program consists of three required semesters worth 9 credits. The first year program trains students in analysis, writing, and research, as well as introducing interviewing, negotiation, oral argument and professional responsibility. Students take two graded classes that follow the classic predictive to persuasive sequence.
Seven Lawyering Process faculty teach an entering class of around 145. Lawyering Process sections generally include fewer than 20 students. The standard course load for LP faculty is two courses each semester. The faculty/student ratio for the entire program is most often 1/36, although it sometimes dips as low as 1/15 writing students, because Lawyering Process professors also teach podium courses.
Upper Level Programs and Courses
Students choose from a menu of courses for the required third semester class. Current choices include:
Drafting (general or area speicifc); Advanced Advocacy (trial or appellate level); Judicial Writing and a general Advanced Legal Writing Course. Students often choose to take more than one of these courses.
Upper-division students also write a scholarly paper, and practice documents do not fulfill this requirement. Students fulfilling the requirment attend mandatory scholarly-writing workshops taught by LP faculty.
UNLV students have enjoyed learning from nationally respected legal writing teachers from outside our program. Visitors include: Terri LeClercq (?Law and Social Justice? 2006); Linda Edwards (?Briefs That Changed the World? 2007); Terry Phelps (?Narrative, Human Rights and the Law?2008). We look forward to continuing this tradition of bringing in notable scholars to teach at UNLV. Professor Linda Edwards joins us as a visitor for the 2008-09 schoool year.
Faculty
The accomplished Lawyering Process faculty have won university and law school ?outstanding teacher? awards; clerked for state and federal judges; and won grants to develop innovative courses.
The LP faculty are active nationally. They write scholarly and practical articles, present their work at national conferences and currently serve on the Boards of Directors of both LWI and ALWD. We have hosted the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference twice.
The Lawyering Proces faculty vote, serve on committes, and are eligible for 5 year contracts, research grants and professional development leaves. The Director and Associate Director hold named professorships. Our starting salary at the entry-level is $75,000.
The law school faculty has voted unanimously to improve job security for the LP faculty to a structure like ?clinical tenure,? or ?programmatic tenure.? The law school is currently negotiating with the university to create a new job-security status for LP faculty.
Web Links
http://www.law.unlv.edu/lawyeringProcess.html
Other Information
Lawyering Process faculty contribute to the law school's teaching mission by teaching other subjects as a part of their two-course-per-semester load. Classes our current LP faculty members have taught include: Professional Responsiblity; Conflicts; Community Property; Administrative Law; Juvenile Law; Jurisprudence; Estates and Trusts; Family Law; Products Liability; Federal Indian Law; Juvenile Law; and Property. Similarly, the podium faculty sometimes teach in our program or offer classes like Professor Mootz's ?Legal Rhetoric? that enrich our program.
Contacts
Terrill Pollman
Ralph Denton Professor of Law
William S. Boyd School of Law
4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 451003
Las Vegas, NV 89154-1003
(702)895-2407
terrill.pollman@unlv.edu