12/2/2023

No Two Days the Same

City Attorney Nicholas Vaskov (’02)
City Attorney Nicholas Vaskov (’02)

By: Paul Szydelko

Henderson City Attorney Nicholas Vaskov will always be grateful to the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV for a career he never expected.

While earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from UNLV, he wanted to go to veterinary school. After working as a veterinary technician as an undergraduate, however, he had second thoughts and sought a new career path. His girlfriend (now wife) suggested that the nascent law school might be that path and signed him up for the LSAT.

A few months later, he was a member of the second class at Boyd Law under way in the former Paradise Elementary School campus. The classes were small, and the dozen or so faculty members were friendly.

“For someone like me with no expectations or understanding of what I was getting into, it was the perfect setting,” Vaskov says. “It was welcoming and not the least bit intimidating. I enjoyed it from Day 1.”

Judges, elected officials and philanthropists visited the first week to espouse the school’s importance to Nevada’s future and foretell the essential roles graduates would have. “Those statements seemed fanciful to me at the time,” Vaskov says. “I was just hoping to survive the first
semester—but they turned out to be prophetic.”

The numerous fellow alumni who work with Vaskov reflect that vision, he says. “Boyd Law graduates have conquered just about every peak in business, law, and government possible. If anything, the officials that spoke to our class that first week underestimated the impact Boyd graduates have had on Nevada.”

No two days are the same for Vaskov, Henderson’s city attorney since 2018, working to support the City Council’s priorities and a team of nine prosecutors and 12 civil practitioners at the intersection of law, public policy, and politics.

The ability to develop close working relationships with clients and understand their needs is essential for in-house counsel to anticipate issues and find solutions before they become major problems, he says.

“This collaborative service model makes practicing law in our office pretty cool,” Vaskov says.