Lewis & Clark Law School
The Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College (also known as Lewis & Clark Law School), is an American Bar Association-approved private law school in Portland, Oregon.
The law school received ABA approval in 1970[4] and joined the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 1973.[5]
Lewis & Clark Law School offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, including a range of scholastic concentrations and legal certificate programs, as well as Master of Laws (LLM) and Master of Studies in Law (MSL) degrees in environmental, natural resources, and energy law, and LLM and MSL degrees in animal law.
Each class in the three-year J.D. program has approximately 180 students. The dean of Lewis & Clark Law School is Jennifer J. Johnson, Erskine Wood Sr. endowed Professor of Law, a securities law scholar and arbitration expert, as well as a member of the American Law Institute.[6]
Lewis & Clark law students can complete their degrees on full-time or part-time schedules, take courses during the day or evening, and focus in a number of legal specialties. The institution has a general law review and a range of specialty programs, including environmental law, public interest law, and the lawyering program. According to Lewis & Clark's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 75.8% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-preferred employment nine months after graduation.[7]
Campus grounds[edit]
The law school grounds are adjacent to a forested natural area, replete with 14-miles of biking and jogging trails in Tryon Creek State Park. The Law School is 4-miles from downtown, in the Southern hills of Portland, west of the Willamette River, at the base of the undergraduate campus of Lewis & Clark College.[8]
The Lewis & Clark College undergraduate, graduate school, and law campus grounds collectively occupy 137 acres (554,000 m2), centered on the M. Lloyd Frank Estate on Palatine Hill in the Collins View neighborhood of Southwest Portland.
History[edit]
Lewis & Clark Law School's origins began with the University of Oregon establishing a Department of Law in Portland in 1885. After the Oregon State Legislature moved the program to Eugene, Oregon in 1915, several law faculty members resisted the move, and formed the Northwestern College of Law.
In 1965, the faculty and overseers of Northwestern College of Law joined with the president and trustees of Lewis & Clark College to incorporate the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College.[9] Harold Wren was Dean of the law school from 1969 to 1972.
Today the college has over 100 faculty and staff.[10] Faculty members regularly appear as experts in legal proceedings, publish legal texts and contribute primary research findings to legal scholarship around the country.[11]
Animal Law Program[edit]
Lewis & Clark Law School is a pioneer in the field of animal law, it offered some of the first animal law courses in the world and in 1992 students founded the first Animal Law Conference in the U.S.[14] The Center for Animal Studies (CALS) was founded at the school in 2008, becoming the first formal animal law program in the world and eventually giving rise to the first Animal Law Clinic.[14] In 2012 CALS launched the first post-JD master of laws (LLM) in Animal Law.[15] The school has the top ranked animal law program in the United States.[16]
Lewis & Clark Law School supports three student-edited scholarly journals:
Practical skills[edit]
National moot court competitions[edit]
Lewis & Clark law students benefit from the campus serving as a destination for several national moot courts. In 2013, Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts launched Lewis & Clark's Environmental Moot Court Competition, presiding as a guest judge.
[21]
The campus also serves as the permanent host of the National Native American Law Students Association (NALSA) Moot Court Competition and the International Law Students Association (ILSA) Pacific Regional Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.[22] Additionally, the ILSA Student Initiated Lecture Series at Lewis & Clark has been internationally recognized for academic excellence.[23]
Semester abroad opportunities[edit]
In addition, the law school has developed a number of exclusive global summer externship placements. There are options in India for students interested in business, litigation, transactional, public interest, human rights, and environmental practice through placement with firms and NGOs in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.[24] The law school has also secured exclusive placements in Asia, for students interested in international law firm experience. Past placements include firms in both Beijing and Shanghai, China.[25]
Employment[edit]
According to Lewis & Clark's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 75.8% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-preferred employment nine months after graduation.[7] Lewis & Clark's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 20.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[26]