A $2 million gift from Joyce Mack and the Thomas family will provide funds to support the legal clinic in UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law, President Carol C. Harter announced on Thursday, Sept. 20.

"The Thomas and Mack families, for whom our campus sports and events facility is named, have continued to be among the most generous donors to, and visionary supporters of, UNLV," Harter said. "Indeed, it was the vision of Jerry Mack and Parry Thomas that led to the acquisition of the land our campus now occupies. This example of generosity by Joyce Mack and the Thomas family will enable us to enhance our legal clinic, which provides superb educational opportunities for our law students. We are most grateful to the donors for providing us the resources to undertake this crucial project, and we will be asking the UCCSN Board of Regents for approval to name the clinic in the donors' honor."

Harter said this gift, coupled with the funds provided by the Nevada Legislature, is a wonderful example of public and private collaboration.

Dick Morgan, dean of the William S. Boyd School of Law, said, "The legal clinic is an essential part of the academic program at the William S. Boyd School of Law. In this program students, under faculty supervision, represent real clients who otherwise could not afford legal representation, so the clinic serves both educational and community-service purposes while teaching students to become professional attorneys."

The clinic will focus primarily on issues of importance to Nevada's families and children, specializing in cases of abused or neglected children and juvenile delinquency.

"It is our hope that the clinic will provide a much-needed service," Morgan said, adding that associating the Thomas and Mack names with the Boyd School of Law is a great honor for the school.

"Furthermore, Jerry Mack, certainly a leader in building the Las Vegas community, was a champion of the establishment of a law school at UNLV. He worked on that project over the course of several years and offered to provide financial support to such a law school," Morgan said. "It is fitting, therefore, that following Mr. Mack's death Joyce Mack and the Thomas family would honor his memory with this gift to the Thomas and Mack Legal Clinic."