Alumni Spotlight: The Honorable Linda Marquis

Linda Marquis (Boyd ‘03) started down the path to a legal career as a teenager, doing clerical work and running errands for a law firm. Now she is the presiding judge in Department B at the Clark County Family Court.

Throughout law school and her career, Judge Marquis has been an engaged and active member of the legal community. As a student at Boyd, Judge Marquis taught the Family Law Community Service Class and witnessed first-hand how intimidating and confusing the legal process can be for individuals outside of the legal profession. She went on to work with Professor Mary Berkheiser as a student attorney in the Juvenile Justice Clinic.

After graduation, Judge Marquis’ focused her practice on criminal law and juvenile abuse and neglect cases. She worked closely with families in crisis and continued to assist children involved in the system. Outside her practice, Judge Marquis served as the President of the Boyd School of Law Alumni Association, spoke at law school graduations, participated in community events, and led continuing legal education classes. In 2006, the State Bar of Nevada awarded Judge Marquis with the Access to Justice Award for outstanding service.

Prior to being elected as a District Court Judge in Department B, Judge Marquis served as a Justice of the Peace Pro Tem in Las Vegas Justice Court and North Las Vegas Justice Court, an Alternate Judge for the Las Vegas Municipal Court, and the Clark County Commission appointed her as a Presiding Officer for the Police Fatality Fact Finding Review Board. Judge Marquis reflects on her time in the Juvenile Justice Clinic with fondness, stating, “Professor Berkheiser’s love of pro bono work and passion for juveniles in Clark County is contagious. Now, as a judge, it is wonderfully encouraging to see a new generation of Rebel Lawyers appear in front of me infected with passion.”

Clinic Connections: Lucy Flores JD ’10: Legislative Externship Paves the Way to a Career in Politics

Some students catch the political bug in law school. For Lucy Flores (BSL 2010), the legislative externship was a stepping-stone on her pathway to a political career. As a 2L in 2009, Flores participated in the legislative externship, which is offered every odd year during the biennial Nevada Legislative Session. A year later, Lucy graduated and successfully ran for the Nevada Assembly in 2010.  This fall she is a candidate for Nevada Lieutenant Governor.

Clinic Connections: Gaining Appellate Expertise: Seth Floyd (Boyd ’10)

On his first day at a law firm in 2011, Seth Floyd was asked to list his area of expertise for his firm bio. He listed appellate, knowing it was more aspirational than factual at the time. “Apart from my summer clerking experience, I’d only been practicing at the firm for a few hours. But I figured, why not, that’s what I like best.” Back then Seth was fresh off a clerkship with Justice Hardesty at the Nevada Supreme Court and had fallen in love with appellate work as a student in Professor Anne Traum’s Appellate Clinic, where he had the chance to orally argue an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.