"I'm very pleased with them. I think we've a very strong class," said Dean John V. White. "We've been able to maintain our strengths despite a nationwide drop in the number of applications. It's also very diverse and very strong in the number of Nevadans, which is always a high priority for us."

There are 153 first-year law students at the Boyd School this fall, about the same number as last year. They come from a variety of backgrounds and range in age from 21 to 73.

At a time when law school applications are dropping at schools across the nation, the Boyd School saw a healthy number of applications this year — 1,713 — and accepted only about 23 percent of the applicants.

At the same time, the school was able to keep its rigorous academic admissions standards. The median grade point average was 3.38 and the median LSAT score was 157.

The class is split pretty evenly between men and women (79 male, 74 female), and more than 75 percent of new students are Nevada residents.

Among Nevadans, the school saw a record number of new students from the University of Nevada, Reno — 18. And there are 42 students who received their bachelor's degrees from UNLV.

Students came from more than 70 academic institutions. After UNLV and UNR, the major contributors of students were Brigham Young University, Arizona State University, University of Southern California and the University of Utah.

The law school is also becoming more ethnically and racially diverse. The number of minority students at the law school continued to rise with this incoming class. Thirty percent of the incoming class are minorities, the highest the school has seen so far (it was 28 percent last year). Blacks make up 7 percent of the incoming class, Asians 12 percent, Hispanics 8 percent, and Native Americans 3 percent.

The part-time curriculum continues to be a draw for many students who could not otherwise afford to attend law school. There are 41 students enrolled in the part-time night program and six in the part-time day program. The other 106 are enrolled in the traditional full-time program.

But the students are not the only new people around the law school this year. Dean White came on board only a couple of months ago, after a lengthy tenure at Louisiana State University's school of law. Former Dean Richard Morgan retired in June to spend more time with his family, pursue private legal work and public service work.

White is expected to take the Boyd School into its next phase of growth, strengthening its academic and scholarly work while continuing the school's tradition of community service.

The school's reputation as a legal powerhouse, especially in gaming law and other practice areas with a strong market in Las Vegas, has grown along with the school. The Boyd School was ranked among the top 100 tier-one schools in 2007 by several college ranking organizations, a major accomplishment for a 10-year-old institution.

• Emily Phan has joined the Las Vegas office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the firm announced this week.

She previously was an associate of Proskauer Rose in Los Angeles.

Phan will be part of the firm's corporate and securities group. Her practice includes advising and representing financial institutions, initial purchasers and placement agents in high-yield debt and equity offerings. She also represents sellers and buyers in public and private merger and acquisition transactions.

• The Clark County Bar Association is giving the legal community its first public glimpse of new Boyd School of Law Dean John V. White.

White, who became dean in June after the retirement of founding dean Richard Morgan, will speak at the Bar's October luncheon Oct. 18 at Morton's Steakhouse, 400 E. Flamingo Road.

White will address the current status of the law school.

The luncheon starts at noon and tickets are $45 for members and $60 for non members. Reservations must be made by Oct. 12.

For more information on Dean White, log on to http://www.law.unlv.edu.

For more information on the luncheon or to RSVP, log on to www.ccba.net.

• Research and Markets has released the latest edition in its "How to get an edge" series, this time focusing on lawyers.

The book, available in both hard copy and electronic form includes advice and tactics from top lawyers across the globe. It is designed to give lawyers an insight into how they did it and how attorneys can put their careers on the fast track.

Purchasing and other information can be found at www.researchandmarkets.com.

• The Hispanic Institute held a protest outside a calling card convention in Las Vegas Sept. 19 to call attention to alleged fraud in the calling card industry.

The organization's president, Gus West, said that some calling card companies sell cards advertising a certain number of minutes, but delivering far fewer. The group claims many card companies participate in deceptive advertising that affects thousands of immigrants each year.

Institute research has found that pre-paid cards are used in about 11 billion calls a year and that most calling cards deliver only about 60 percent of the minutes promised, costing consumers about $1 million a day, according to West.

West and others protested outside the Intele-CardExpo and held a press conference at the Rafael Rivera Community Center.

"Calling card fraud is quickly becoming a national issue," West said. "The companies meeting in Las Vegas this week should know that consumers will not stand for their dishonest activity."