December 2007

AN EMPHASIS ON PROFESSIONALISM

BY DEAN JOHN VALERY WHITE, BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW

The William S. Boyd School of Law is very proud this month because 85% of our graduates taking the Nevada bar exam for the first time passed.  This marks consecutive years now in which our graduates have excelled on the Nevada bar exam.  This is a significant indicator of the maturity and success of the Boyd School of Law and is an important achievement for our graduates and for the state.  But in celebrating this success, I am forced to remind myself that the bar exam is an assessment of minimum competence to practice law, a reminder that is in accord with this month’s focus on lawyers as people.

Our affection in the United States for quantifiable indicia of success often blinds us to what we are really trying to measure.  I am happy that the Boyd School of Law has established itself as a source of very fine lawyers for the state.  However, my confidence in this statement comes as much from the many excellent young Boyd lawyers I have met so far who are making a mark on the State Bar of Nevada.  That is at least as much the result of our focus at the Boyd School of Law on professionalism and a lawyer’s responsibility to the community and courts as it is the consequence of our very excellent teaching.  The rapid growth of the state and bar presents numerous opportunities for young lawyers to go astray, as do the many attractions in our state’s cities.  Lawyers are people and, therefore, fallible.  Becoming a member of a profession such as ours is no guarantee of success, nor does it mean that new lawyers will contribute to our community.  We emphasize professionalism at Boyd in hopes of ensuring both. 

I look forward to the continued improvement of our graduates’ performances on the Nevada bar examination.  But I am also eager to witness their increased proliferation in the bar, carrying with them, I hope, lessons which will help justify the name “profession” for themselves and their lawyer colleagues.