UNLV's Center for Democratic Culture (CDC) and the William S. Boyd School of Law will present a conference titled "Judging the Judges: Should we Elect or Appoint Nevada Judges?" from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 10 at the William Boyd School of Law, Room 102.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, is part of the CDC Justice & Democracy Forum series, which offers a nonpartisan setting for the exchange of views on issues central to the Southern Nevada community. Individuals who attend the event will be eligible to receive continuing legal education (CLE) credit through the Nevada State Bar.

Among the conference participants will be prominent local and federal judges, attorneys, legal scholars, and social scientists.

The first session of the conference, "Evaluating Judicial Talent: Surveying, Ranking, and Promoting Judges" will be held 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and will be moderated by Jeffrey W. Stempel, professor of Law at UNLV. Among the panelists will be U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro; Cam Ferenbach, president, and Constance L. Akridge, president-elect, of the Clark County Bar Association; District Judge Jackie Glass; John Curtas, member of the Board of Governors of the Nevada State Bar; Donald Carns, UNLV sociology professor; and Nancy Downey, of Downey Research Associates.

The second session, "Judicial Elections vs. Judicial Selections," will be held 1:30-4 p.m. and will be moderated by Ted Jelen, professor and chair of UNLV's political science department. Panelists for this session will include Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker; Thomas Mitchell of the Las Vegas Review-Journal; District Judges Dianne Steel and Nancy Saitta; and Michael Bowers, professor of political science at UNLV.

A special luncheon with the conference participants is scheduled from 12:30-1:30 p.m. and will cost $24 per person. To order tickets for the luncheon, send a reservation request to cdclv@unlv.edu.

For more information, contact Dmitri Shalin, professor of sociology and director of UNLV's Center for Democratic Culture, at 895-0259.