Acclaimed law professor honored

February 19, 2009 by Renata Follmann 

Nancy Rapoport research on lawyers in popular culture sets her apart from the crowd

UNLV law professor Nancy Rapoport is a national award winner, but it’s her relationship with students that makes her stand out.

Last month, Rapoport was honored with the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel’s Public Service Counsel Award, an honor that came as

no surprise to the Boyd School of Law community. 

In honor of her accomplishments, Rapoport was featured as a nominee in Variety Magazine, she attended an awards dinner at the House of Blues in West Hollywood and received a statue.

“It’s a beautiful statue and I’m really proud of it,” she said. “I posted pictures of it all over my blog.”

Rapoport is the Gordon Silver Professor of Law, a salary stipend awarded by the Gordon Silver law firm for a professorship.

“I think highly of the firm, so receiving this award was an honor,” she said. 

She received her bachelor’s from Rice University in 1982 and her juris doctorate from Stanford Law School in 1985. Rapoport, a Texas native, previously taught at the Ohio State University until becoming dean of the law school at the University of Nebraska, and later a dean at University of Houston. She then moved to UNLV in July 2007. She is also a professional international and standard ballroom dancer.

“I paid attention to Boyd since the school’s founding,” Rapoport said. “A friend of mine was leaving Boyd and told me about the position.  I jumped on the offer as soon as my contract at Houston was up.”

Law student Bobby Hager said Rapoport exudes confidence and brings energy to every class.

Law student Cristina Olsen said Rapoport is a great story teller who brings real world examples into her lessons through use of movie clips and other visuals.

“It’s a very nice honor for [Rapoport] and the law school,” Steve Johnson, associate dean, said. 

“Perhaps the things that strike one most are her collegiality, her consistent willingness to be helpful with any project, and her extraordinary energy,” Johnson said.

Rapoport believes she received the award for her lectures across the country on how lawyers are viewed in popular cultures. Working in the public sector with an established accomplishment in the area of entertainment, media and/or communication is a prerequisite for the award.

For years she has studied the fictional relationship between Hollywood and its portrayal of lawyers—whether or not they are portrayed as good guys or bad guys and their role to the plot.

“If lawyers in movies behave how they are supposed to in real life, movies would be more [realistic],” Rapoport said. “For example, in ‘Legally Blonde,’ [Elle Woods] wouldn’t be able to practice law until her third year, not in her first year.”

Rapoport believes the fact that UNLV encourages its faculty to go above-and-beyond is exciting, and that when they do, an e-mail goes out to everyone saying “Hey, look what this person is doing.”

“This is a school that is excited about everyone’s accomplishments,” Rapoport said.

Rapoport has no plans to stop with one award and she has very promising goals for the Boyd Law School at UNLV. She wishes that UNLV becomes a go-to school for students from coast-to-coast.  

“The more chances faculty have to demonstrate all the research that is being completed here, the more chances there are to appeal to graduates,”   she said.