UNLV GAMING LAW JOURNAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Faculty Support Team Supervisor
Alissa A. Cooley is the UNLV Immigration Clinic's managing attorney and leads our off-campus Community Advocacy Office. A native Nevadan, she completed her undergraduate degree at UNLV and graduated cum laude from Boyd in 2014. After law school, she became one of the first two justice AmeriCorps (jAC) fellows at the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic, effectively jumpstarting the growth of the Immigration Clinic as a legal aid provider. Over two years as a jAC fellow, she represented over one hundred children, ages two to sixteen, who entered the U.S. without a parent or guardian, in their immigration court proceedings. This work later evolved into the Edward M. Bernstein & Associates Children's Rights Program (2017-2021) and then the Community Advocacy Office (2022-). Ms. Cooley practiced immigration and criminal law in private practice from 2016 to 2021 and co-taught UNLV's Policing and Protest Clinic in 2021, before returning to Boyd full time to lead the Community Advocacy Office. She is a member of the Lt. Governor's Keep Nevada Working Task Force.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant II
Job Titles:
- Systems and Technical Services Librarian
Andy Tang is the Systems and Technical Services Librarian at the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the William S. Boyd School of Law. Andy received his Master of Library and Information Science degree from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in 2008. He previously worked as the systems and electronic resources librarian at Kilgore College from 2009 to 2017, and as the systems librarian at Tulane University in 2017. At Tulane, he served in library IT to provide ILS management, computer support, programming, and archives management system support.
Andy has overall responsibility for technical services and for maintaining the Law Library's integrated library system, discovery interface, and electronic resource management systems.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean of Finance
- Business Operations
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Experiential Legal Education Director, Appellate Clinic / Co - Director, Misdemeanor Clinic
Job Titles:
- University Legal Services Fellow
Before entering the legal profession, Aubrey Maples spent 15 years as an educator. Her background in teaching first focused on supporting first-generation and non-traditional students as they navigated higher education at both community college and university. She has worked in community-based education and victim advocacy in Appalachia. She graduated summa cum laude from the Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee with recognition for her commitment to service to the community and the school. She collaboratively developed a series of virtual lunch and learn opportunities that discussed the intersection of equity, justice, diversity and the legal profession. Her goal in life is to work to make things more fair.
Job Titles:
- Director, Public Policy Clinic / Associate Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Library Assistant / Interlibrary Loan Specialist
Brett processes microfiche and interlibrary loan requests, supports the Circulation Supervisor and Reference Librarians, supervises student employees, and assists patrons with item retrieval and account updates.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Student Affairs
- Director of Graduate Programs
Brian Wall earned his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, J.D. from The College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law, and M.A. and B.A. from Brigham Young University. Prior to joining the Boyd School of Law, he was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He also previously served as Assistant Dean for Admission at William and Mary Law.
Brian joined Boyd in 2016 as Director of Graduate Programs. He led the Admissions and Financial Aid team from 2017-2021, and became Associate Dean for Student Affairs in August 2021. He also occasionally teaches Property, Wills and Trusts, and Lawyering Process at Boyd, as well as a course on Batman at the UNLV Honors College.
Job Titles:
- Interim Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
Cameron Lue-Sang earned his J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law and his B.A. in journalism and mass communication from the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University. Immediately prior to joining the Boyd School of Law, he was the director of admissions at Golden Gate University School of Law and was an assistant director of admissions at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He is licensed to practice law in California.
Job Titles:
- Serials Check - in & Bindery Technician
Candia is responsible for the nearly 1,000 titles in the Periodicals collection, including routing of professional journals and the bindery process. She also assists in maintaining the National Reporter system, newspapers, microfiche and microfilm.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant III
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant III
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Public Service, Compliance and Administration
Christine earned a B.S. in Marketing from Arizona State University and a Master of Education/Educational Leadership with distinction from Northern Arizona University.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator of Community Service
Cliff Marcek received his J.D. degree from the McGeorge College of Law in 1989. He was admitted to the California Bar Association in 1990 and practiced in California for four years before returning to Las Vegas in 1994. Cliff became a member of the Nevada Bar Association in 1994 and practiced for three years with a small firm before opening his law practice in 1997 where he practices in the areas of personal injury law, employment law and family law. He has prosecuted and defended appeals before the Nevada Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Cliff was hired by the law school in its first year, part time, as the Coordinator of Community Service. As the Coordinator of Community Services, Cliff trains and supervises first year law students who provide legal education classes to the public in traditionally underserved areas including family law, small claims court and procedure, guardianship law, bankruptcy law and paternity/custody law.
Job Titles:
- Director of Externships / Assistant Professor in Residence
Dean Smith has served as an Associate Dean since the founding of the Law School in 1997. She has worked at Arizona State University and UNLV in educational administration since 1974 and in legal education since 1976. Christine serves on many university, state bar, and community committees and is the recipient of the American Bar Association Father Drinan Distinguished Service award for sustained and extraordinary commitment to providing leadership for the legal profession in protecting and advancing human rights, civil liberties, and social justice.
Job Titles:
- Director, Policing and Protest Clinic / Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Co - Director, Misdemeanor Clinic / Associate Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research / Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Professor of Education and Law
Job Titles:
- Founding Director of the Saltman Center
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Academic Affairs / Director of the Wiener - Rogers Law Library
- Director of the Wiener - Rogers Law Library
- Director of the Wiener - Rogers Law Library / Louis Wiener, Jr. Law Library Professor of Law
- Library Administration
Jennifer grew up in Las Vegas, where she attended UNLV for both her undergraduate studies and law school. She graduated from the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, summa cum laude, with a BS in Gaming Management and from the William S. Boyd School of Law, summa cum laude, with her law degree. While at Boyd, she was a member of the Society of Advocates and an Articles Editor for the Nevada Law Journal. She also externed with both the Honorable James C. Mahan of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada and the Clark County District Attorney's Office.
After graduating, Jennifer served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Larry R. Hicks of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in Reno and for the Honorable Andrew J. Kleinfeld of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Fairbanks, Alaska. Following her clerkships, Jennifer entered the Department of Justice through their Honors Program and served as a federal prosecutor for the Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. After returning to Las Vegas, Jennifer was a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, where she focused on consumer rights issues.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the Wiener - Rogers Law Library
- Research Librarian & Assistant Professor
Jim Rich is a Research Librarian and Assistant Professor at the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the William S. Boyd School of Law. He provides research assistance to law faculty and assists library patrons with legal reference services.
Jim holds a Master's degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri. From 2015 to 2018, he was a student at the Boyd School of Law, graduating cum laude with dual concentrations in Workplace Law and Dispute Resolution. For five academic terms during law school, Jim worked as a library research assistant.
Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. From 1993 to 2005, he served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve and from 2005 to 2015 as a public affairs officer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is the proud father of a daughter in grade school and is a member of the American Library Association and the American Association of Law Libraries.
Job Titles:
- Editorial Office
- Professor
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the Wiener - Rogers Law Library
- Research Librarian & Assistant Professor
Justin Iverson is a Research Librarian and Assistant Professor at the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the William S. Boyd School of Law. He provides research assistance to law faculty and assists library patrons with legal reference services.
Prior to joining the Boyd faculty, Justin was a Law Librarian at the Clark County Law Library in Las Vegas, Nevada from 2016-2021, providing reference services and research support to public patrons as well as inmates in pretrial custody. He practiced medical malpractice insurance defense law at Alverson, Taylor, Mortensen & Sanders in Las Vegas from 2015-2016.
Justin received his J.D. cum laude from Savannah Law School in 2015, serving as Managing Editor for the Savannah Law Review and Research Assistant to Professor Andrew McCanse Wright. He also completed externships for the Nevada Attorney General's Office, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia, and Judge John E. Morse, Jr. in the Eastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia. Justin received his Master of Library Science from Emporia State University in 2021.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant III
Job Titles:
- Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow
Leslie Joya brings several years of personal and professional experience with the immigration legal system to the Clinic. Originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, her resilience and commitment to public service stem from growing up undocumented in Los Angeles and witnessing the systemic injustice that migrants face. After graduating from Harvard University, she worked providing legal services to immigrants in New York, Texas, and California. While at UCLA School of Law, she worked with various organizations serving unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers, detained immigrants, and migrants stranded in Tijuana, Mexico under MPP. She is an abolitionist and aims to help her clients survive, thrive, and access justice.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant IV
Job Titles:
- Director of the Saltman Center
Job Titles:
- Business Editor
- Notes Editor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant III
Martha Arellano is originally from Los Angeles, California, where she grew up speaking English and Spanish. Ms. Arellano's love of language led her to expand on her formal English education to also study Spanish and French. She is a twenty-seven year resident of Las Vegas, Nevada and former UNLV engineering student, where she maintained a 4.0 GPA. In 2014, Ms. Arellano began working at the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic and was instrumental in the implementation of the AmeriCorps program for Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, the predecessor of the Edward M. Bernstein and Associates Children's Rights Program. Over the last few years at the Clinic, she has served as an interpreter, translator, administrative assistant, and legal secretary. She has been described as the program's "heart and soul."
Job Titles:
- President Elect
- Vice - President
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant III
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director, Immigration Clinic / Professor of Law
Prof. Kagan is a noted scholar of international refugee law and immigrant rights in the United States. Before coming to Boyd in 2011, Prof. Michael Kagan spent 10 years building legal aid programs for refugees throughout the Middle East and Asia. In addition to directing the UNLV Immigration Clinic, he has consulted on hundreds of criminal cases involving non-citizens with the Clark County Public Defender. Visit Prof. Kagan's faculty page for more about his scholarship and teaching.
Michael Shamoon completed his B.A. in political science and French at UNLV, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2016. He received his J.D. from the William S. Boyd School of Law in 2019. An immigrant from Iraq, he encountered many of the obstacles that immigrants face today. His experience with the system inspired him to pursue a legal education with a focus in immigration. As a law student, he worked with refugees, asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors. As head of the University Legal Services project, he represents UNLV and CSN students, staff, and their family members in immigration matters. Mr. Shamoon is fluent in Arabic and French. In his free time, he enjoys traveling abroad and immersing himself in the diverse languages and cultures of the world.
Job Titles:
- Vice President Philanthropy
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor
- Lead Articles Editor
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Career Development
- Associate Director of Career Development and Public Interest Advisor
Nikki Harris received her B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College. She earned her J.D. from New England School of Law, where she served as the Lead Article Editor for the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement and was the President of the Black Law Student Association. Prior to law school, Ms. Harris was the Rackets (organized and white collar crime) Bureau Administrator for the New York County District Attorney's Office. While attending law school, she was an intern at Greater Boston Legal Services in the Health & Disability and Family Law departments. Ms. Harris completed a summer externship with the Arizona Attorney General's Office in the Complex Litigation Unit of Child Support Enforcement. Prior to joining the staff at the Boyd School of Law, she was an Adjunct Instructor at Everest College in the Criminal Justice, Paralegal, Medical Assisting, and Business departments. She also taught career skills courses and assisted students and alumni with their career development plans. As Associate Director of Career Development and Public Interest Advisor, Ms. Harris provides career counseling to students and alumni, assists them with placement and networking opportunities, and develops programs and resources to assist students and alumni with their job search. Ms. Harris also serves at the Chair for the Las Vegas chapter of the National Bar Association's Good & Wellness Committee.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean of Career Development
- Assistant Dean of Career Development and Judicial Clerkship Advisor
- Director of Career Development
Rachael Reese Adair joined Boyd as the Director of Career Development and Judicial Clerkship Advisor after having ten years of legal practice experience in the federal judiciary, private practice, and the corporate world.
Rachael began her legal career as a judicial law clerk for the late Honorable Thomas M. Shanahan of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. A native New Yorker, Rachael then joined Winston & Strawn's New York office as a litigation associate, focusing on white-collar crime, securities fraud litigation, and complex commercial litigation. After three years at Winston, she returned to the judiciary, this time as a Staff Attorney with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Rachael then became in-house corporate counsel, first for MetLife in New York and then for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii. Immediately prior to joining Boyd, Rachael served as in-house counsel for Viewbox Holdings, a small tech startup with offices in Las Vegas.
Rachael received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center (GULC). While at GULC, she was a student attorney in the Family Advocacy Clinic, representing families pro bono in regulatory and administrative disputes involving special education issues. During law school, she also spent time studying in Singapore and working for a Singapore law firm. A retired Division-I basketball player, Rachael graduated from Fordham University, cum laude, with a BA in International Political Economy. Rachael received numerous student-athlete and leadership awards during her undergraduate years at Fordham.
Rachael is licensed in New York, California and the District of Columbia.
Job Titles:
- Boyd School of Law in 2018 As Executive Assistant
- Executive Assistant to the Dean
Rachel Santos joined the Boyd School of Law in 2018 as Executive Assistant to the Dean. A native of Michigan, Rachel moved east for college, graduating with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Connecticut. She and her husband relocated to Las Vegas in 1999 for his job, and Rachel went on to earn a Master of Arts in English from UNLV, where she also taught courses between 2004 and 2007. Her professional background includes several years in executive support experience, most recently as Executive Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer at Nathan Adelson Hospice.
Job Titles:
- Director of Education Advocacy Clinic and Kids' Court School
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Emeritus, UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant IV
Job Titles:
- Dean and Professor of Law
- Interim Dean
- Law School Senior Administration
Job Titles:
- Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Nevada Las Vegas
Sarah Gonzales is Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law. At UNLV she is in charge of recruitment, marketing and admissions for non-JD programs including the LLM in Gaming Law. She was previously Assistant Director, and Director of Recruitment and Marketing at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law for over 14 years. In addition to her work in higher education, Gonzales serves the NAFSA: Association for International Educators on their Trainer Corp team teaching Intercultural Communication in Practice, Admissions and Placement of International Students, and Assessment and Evaluation for International Educators. She has also taught Cross Cultural Negotiation and Conflict Management at Pepperdine Law for five years prior to joining UNLV, and is Coordinator of the Research Network for Families in Global Transition, a cross-cultural education and training organization for expats.
Job Titles:
- Editor - in - Chief
- Managing Editor
Job Titles:
- Development Specialist
- Web Designer
Shane Gammon received his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2003. During college he began his career working as a reporter for the Las Vegas SUN and later as a digital marketer and web designer for the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN). After graduating, he returned to Las Vegas to continue working in digital communications with the Las Vegas Review-Journal for 11 years, ultimately becoming the Senior Web Developer and Special Projects Coordinator.
As the Web Designer & Development Specialist for the Boyd School of Law, he works with faculty, staff and students to manage, design and develop new functionality for the school's website and web portal.
Shweta Kadam earned both her B.S. and M.S. in Physics with specialization in Electronics from University of Mumbai, India. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
As Director of IT, Ms. Kadam is primarily responsible for oversight of information technology systems, equipment and services for the Law School, with an emphasis on educational technology. It includes overarching accountability for technology necessary to support the academic, research, and administrative units of the Law School, including services provided to the Law School faculty, students, staff, and administrators. In addition she is responsible for planning, design, implementing Internet Servers including portal, law school website and database server.
Sonja Saltman co-founded the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution in 2003. Mike Saltman is a well-known local developer, a Distinguished Nevadan, member of the Board of Governors of the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, a UNLV Foundation Trustee, and former Chair of the Council for a Better Nevada, among many other activities. He holds a B.A. from Michigan State University and a J.D. from Wayne State. Sonja Saltman is a co-founder of the Existential Humanistic Institute in San Francisco and Honorary Consul for Austria in Las Vegas and is also a Distinguished Nevadan. Her many activities include serving as a member of the Executive Board of the Anti-Defamation League, and the boards of Nevada Women's Philanthropy and the Black Mountain Institute. She earned her master's degree in psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Together, Michael and Sonja Saltman have worked for greater peace around the world. They have not only made generous financial contributions to various organizations, but also engaged in hands-on activities supporting world peace. For example, they have run a basketball program to encourage good relations between Israeli Jewish and Arab teenagers [link to Streetball Hafla] and rebuilt homes and bridges in ravaged Bosnia. They provide inspiration and ideas to the Saltman Center for Conflict resolution every day.
Stacy Shiroma received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1985 and his Master's Degree in T.E.S.L. (Teaching English as a Second Language) from the University of Hawaii in 1994. Over the past 15 years, he has held various positions in the education field as an instructor, academic advisor, and a language school director. Prior to joining the Boyd School of Law, Stacy worked at the University of Phoenix Hawaii Campus as the Liberal Arts Department Chair and then at the University of Phoenix Nevada Campus as the Admissions Operations Supervisor.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Academic Success Program
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
- Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Serials Maintenance and Budget Technician
Xin is responsible for invoice preparation and processing, generating monthly acquisitions reports, serials ordering and receiving, copy cataloging and holding verifications, and oversees students in shelving new and replacement materials.
Job Titles:
- Research Librarian & Assistant Professor