Lecturer Bios
Nancy B. Rapoport , Esq.
Nancy B. Rapoport is a UNLV Distinguished Professor, the Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and an Affiliate Professor of Business Law and Ethics in the Lee Business School at UNLV. After receiving her B.A., summa cum laude, from Rice University in 1982 and her J.D. 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 she moved from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure in 1995 to Associate Dean for Student Affairs (1996) and Professor (1998) (just as she left Ohio State to become Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law). She served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1998-2000.
She then served as Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center from July 2000-May 2006 and as Professor of Law from June 2006-June 2007, when she left to join the faculty at Boyd. She served as Interim Dean of Boyd from 2012-2013, as Senior Advisor to the President of UNLV from 2014-2015, as Acting Executive Vice President & Provost from 2015-2016, as Acting Senior Vice President for Finance and Business (for July and August 2017), and as Special Counsel to the President from May 2016-June 2018. In 2022, UNLV’s Alumni Association named her the Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year.
Joseph R. Tiano, Esq.
Joseph R. Tiano Jr., Esq. is Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Legal Decoder. After practicing law for nearly 20 years, Joe founded Legal Decoder because he saw that clients lacked the analytic tools and data to effectively price and manage the cost of legal services delivered by outside counsel. Joe set out to build an intelligent, data driven technology company that would revolutionize the way that legal services from outside counsel are priced and economically evaluated.
Joe is a prolific author having (co-)authored seven law review articles and regularly presents at CLEs and other seminars and courses on topics ranging from legal data analytics to legal ethics and legal malpractice.
Previously, Joe was a Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP and Thelen LLP where he grew and managed all aspects of a multi-million-dollar cross-border finance practice. Entrepreneurship runs through Joe’s veins since his early days as a venture capital lawyer representing transformative technology companies, like Blackboard Inc., and many of the outgrowths of Blackboard (WeddingWire, Presidium, Starfish Retention Solutions and others). Joe has been a prolific writer publishing numerous articles on substantive legal issues and the legal industry in general.
Joe graduated from Georgetown University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and received his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1995. Joe lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife, Meredith, and their two boys, Gabriel and John-Paul.
During the rare moments when he is not working, Joe can be found taking his sons on hikes, watching their extracurricular activities and helping Meredith implement her design creations.
Joseph Wilson, Esq.
Joe Wilson is the section leader of the Dispute Resolution Practice at Bevilacqua PLLC. He has over twenty years of experience efficiently and effectively representing parties involved in business disputes and has helped numerous clients achieve favorable results. Joe has represented clients in proceedings before federal and state courts and administrative agencies, as well as in arbitrations and mediations and settlement negotiations.
He has served as lead counsel for parties facing various kinds of business-related disputes, including ones involving employment matters, breaches of fiduciary duty, commercial leases, consumer protection claims, loan agreements, service agreements, federal and state regulatory regimes, and claims of fraud and other business torts. Joe has first chair trial experience, and he has zealously represented Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller businesses and organizations and individuals.
On several occasions, Joe investigated legal claims threatened against clients, as well as potential claims that his clients were considering bringing, to provide advice on the merits of those claims, their likely outcomes, and strategies for proceeding. In addition, he has frequently counseled businesses and other clients on legal and related issues impacting them, and he has helped clients to craft solutions to mitigate their legal and regulatory risks, better achieve their goals – and avoid disputes and litigation in the first place. He also has experience advocating for clients’ interests before administrative agencies.
Early in his legal career, Joe served as the law clerk to a District of Columbia judge handling a busy docket of civil cases. Joe is admitted to practice law in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York as well as in several federal district and appellate courts throughout the country. He graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Wilson did his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service.
Steven Aquino, Esq.
Steve advises tech-based startups, web3 enterprises, financial institutions, investment banks, and public and private securities issuers on a variety of legal, regulatory, and risk-management matters related to their products, commercial contracts, and business operations.
Steve’s particular interest and area of expertise is in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, and the often complex and unsettled legal environments in which they operate.
Steve also has substantial experience representing clients in commercial disputes and regulatory proceedings throughout the country and across borders.
