UNLV has hired the president of Roger Williams University in Rhode Island as a consultant who will help develop an implementation plan for an American Bar Association-accredited law school, according to President Carol C. Harter.

"Anthony Santoro has an impressive record of helping to establish successful, ABA-accredited law schools," Harter said. "He will provide crucial advice and guidance as we develop plans for a quality law school at UNLV."

Santoro was founding dean of the Roger Williams University School of Law. An experienced legal educator, he served as dean of Widener University School of Law in Delaware and was the founding dean of its Harrisburg campus in Pennsylvania.

He was also founding dean of the University of Bridgeport School of Law in Connecticut, a member of the founding faculty at Western New England College School of Law in Massachusetts, associate dean and associate professor of law at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and visiting professor of law at McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific in California.

"Having participated in the establishment of five law schools, I believe obtaining ABA accreditation on the first attempt is entirely possible," Santoro said. "It is a matter of having sufficient resources and marshaling them in the right way."

Santoro has served as American Bar Association consultant for St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, and has chaired numerous ABA site-evaluation teams.

At UNLV he will work with President Harter, Vice President for Special Projects Lyle Rivera, university faculty and staff, and a 23-member statewide advisory committee to plan the implementation of a law school.