Rex Alan Jemison

Rex Alan Jemison was a veteran Las Vegas lawyer whose career spanned five decades. An Oklahoma native, he came to Las Vegas as a child in 1938 when his father moved the family so he could work at Hoover Dam. Jemison was an honors student at Las Vegas High School and went on to graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno, before earning his law degree at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He completed postgraduate work at Stanford University and practiced privately in California and Kansas before returning to Las Vegas in the early 1960s.

In Las Vegas, Jemison became a founding partner of the firm that grew into Beckley Singleton, where he was drawn to complex litigation and appellate work. Among his notable matters, he was involved in litigation arising from the MGM Grand fire and helped the city of Las Vegas prevail in its eminent domain case against the Pappas family. He won a 1994 term limits decision that allowed Gov. Bob Miller to seek another term, and prevailed in a similar case on behalf of state judges in 1996.

Guided throughout his practice by a simple philosophy - to 'be right' - Jemison was widely respected among the Nevada bar and counted among those he mentored the future U.S. Senator Harry Reid. He died in 2007 at the age of 78.