News and notes from the legal industry

County Bar Association to hold annual meeting

The Clark County Bar Association has announced it will hold its president’s luncheon and annual meeting on Dec. 12 at Morton’s The Steakhouse at 450 E. Flamingo Road. The event begins at noon.

The luncheon will feature a special presentation by Nevada Supreme Court Justice James W. Hardesty. His presentation, “The Need for a Court of Appeals” will outline the proposed expansion of Nevada’s court system.

This event will offer one CLE credit for Nevada attorneys. Also scheduled for Dec. 12 is the election for the association’s 2014 executive board. For more information, visit www.clarkcountybar.com

State high court unveils its redesigned website

The Nevada Supreme Court recently launched its redesigned website, streamlining existing features to make them easier to find while adding other features.

“Our new website places the most useful information at the forefront, requires fewer clicks to get visitors where they want to be and allows one-click downloads of documents,” Chief Justice Kristina Pickering said.

The case search feature provides free access to documents filed in Supreme Court cases, while the redesign prominently features the court’s oral argument calendar and case depositions, and users can view live streaming of oral arguments.

Pickering said the “Supreme Court is committed to making its proceedings as open and accessible as possible.”

For more information, visit supreme.nvcourts.com.

Law students to compete in regional counseling contest

Stephen Davis and Gil Kahn, students at the Boyd Law School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will represent the school at the American Bar Association Law Student Division’s regional Client Counseling Competition in spring 2015.

Davis and Kahn took first place during the 15th annual in-house client counseling competition held on campus Nov. 1-2.

The competition required student teams to conduct simulated initial lawyer-client interviews while being critiqued by a panel of judges.

The pair competed against fellow Boyd students, including second-place winners Cameron Busby and Brian Terrell as well as third-place winners Dawn Nielsen and Brandi Loffer.

Busby and Terrell will represent the law school at the ABA regional competition in Santa Clara, Calif., in February.

80 percent of Boyd students passed bar on first attempt

In Case You Missed It: Eighty percent of Boyd Law School graduates who took the Nevada Bar Exam for the first time in July passed the test. Statewide, 76 percent of people who took the bar passed it on their first try.

Boyd Dean Dan Hamilton said the “rigorous curriculum prepares students for diverse challenges in practice, and for success on the bar.”

According to figures released by the law school, 74 percent of all Boyd test-takers passed the exam. The pass rate is 8 percent higher than the state’s overall pass rate for all test-takers.

CHRIS SIEROTY | LAS VEGAS BUSINESS PRESS