Nancy B. Rapoport is the Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and an Affiliate Professor of Business Law and Ethics in the Lee Business School at UNLV.
After receiving her BA, summa cum laude, from Rice University in 1982 and her JD from Stanford Law School in 1985, she clerked for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then practiced law (primarily bankruptcy law) with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco from 1986-1991. She started her academic career at The Ohio State University College of Law in 1991 and later became a full professor and the college’s associate dean of student affairs.
Rapoport has served in a multitude of leadership roles in higher education, including as dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law and as dean and professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center before joining the faculty of UNLV’s Boyd. At UNLV, she has served as interim dean of Boyd, senior advisor to the president, acting executive vice president & provost, acting senior vice president for finance and business, and special counsel to the president.
Rapoport’s specialties are bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, law firm behavior, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture. Her books include (with co-author—and husband– Jeffrey D. Van Niel) Corporate Scandals And Their Implications, Law School Survival Manual: From LSAT To Bar Exam, and Law Firm Job Survival Manual: From First Interview To Partnership. She is admitted to the bars of the states of California, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas, and of the United States Supreme Court.
Rapoport joined the Board of Trustees of Claremont Graduate University in 2021.