Jared Margolis to serve as inaugural ENR Research Associate
Oregon Law’s Jared Margolis recently was appointed as the first Research Associate for the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center (ENR). The ENR program focuses on public interest environmental law and innovations in environmental legal education. Jared Margolis will serves as the first ENR Research Associate
Throughout the past six years, Margolis has developed a private law practice with a focus on energy and environmental regulation and land use law. After earning a master’s degree in environmental studies from Brown University, he attended the Vermont Law School, where he was the environmental editor for the Vermont Law Review. Margolis also serves as the executive director for the Northern Environmental Law Center.
Most recently, Margolis has been working on the proposed relicensing of Vermont Yankee, a nuclear power plant in Vermont. In that case, Margolis represents the New England Coalition (NEC), a nonprofit advocacy group focused on investigating the safety, suitability, and environmental effects of nuclear power plants and informing the public and government agencies of the hazards and risks of nuclear power. While in Oregon, Margolis will continue to represent NEC, challenging Entergy’s application for a state certificate of public good for the Vermont Yankee plant.
Margolis spent this academic year at Oregon Law as a visiting professor. He will continue to teach Environmental and Hazardous Waste Law in the fall.
Oregon Law at 2013 SALC Race for Justice
Look for a sea of Oregon Law t-shirts at the 13th annual St. Andrew Legal Clinic Race for Justice on Saturday, June 22, at the Madeleine Parish, 3123 NE 24th Avenue in Portland. 
Spearheaded at the University of Oregon School of Law by Assistant Dean for the Career Center Rebekah Hanley and Associate Director for Development Jessica Merkner, Oregon Law is sending a corps of runners and post-race volunteers to participate in the yearly event that helps the clinic continue to provide legal services for low income individuals throughout Oregon.
St. Andrew Legal Clinic (SALC) has been providing legal services to low income people with family law needs since 1979. With three office locations, clinic attorneys help families in four Oregon counties. SALC has a staff of 16 full-time attorneys, and with the aid of more than 200 volunteers, has provided legal help to more than 48,000 people since its inception.
Learn more about the Race for Justice at http://salc.givezooks.com/.
Three Oregon Law alumni honored at LCBA Spring Bash
Three University of Oregon School of Law alumni were honored recently at the Lane County Bar Association's annual Spring Bash and Awards Presentation, held in Eugene at the Lane Community College Downtown Center for Meeting and Learning.
The Honorable Eveleen Henry '85 received the Distinguished Service Award. The award honors an individual who has provided extraordinary service to the legal profession and the people of Lane County. Judge Henry has served on the Lane County Circuit Court bench since 1995 and is currently the Juvenile Court Judge. Judge Henry worked at Oregon Law for several years before deciding to become a student. Following her matriculation at Oregon Law, she practiced workers' compensation law before being appointed to the bench. Judge Henry sits on the boards of directors for Food for Lane County and the Oregon Breast Cancer Coalition.
Frank C. Gibson '79 received the Joseph M. Kosydar Award for Professionalism. Established in memory of a long-time Lane County deputy district attorney who passed away in 1997, the award honors the professionalism and civility exemplified by Kosydar. Gibson is the president and managing shareholder for the Eugene law firm Hutchinson, Cox, Coons, Orr & Sherlock P.C.
Lynn Shepard '79 received the Andrew Clement Pro Bono Award. The award honors an individual who has provided exceptional service to persons of limited means. Shephard, of Shepard Law Offices in Eugene, is a member of the boards for numerous nonprofits, including: Lane County Law and Advocacy, Halfway House Services, Community Mediation Services, and the Advisory Board for Lane County Family Mediation.
Congratulations to these three very deserving Oregon Law alumni.
‘There’s no better feeling than winning the fight’
In March, Oregon Law 1L student Roma Pawelek acquired a pinched nerve on the right side of her neck that caused pain to shoot down her shoulder. The culprit? An illegal neck crank Pawelek received while training with a partner at a local gym. For Pawelek, injury is the price one pays for entering the physical world of MMA fighting.
"If you're not getting hurt, you're probably not training hard enough," Pawelek said. 
Mixed Martial Arts fighting, or MMA fighting, is a full-contact sport that incorporates grappling and striking techniques spanning multiple martial arts forms, including Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Muay Thai and amateur wrestling. Pawelek trains six days a week, in addition to being a full-time student. She was drawn to the sport because of the supportive community, the physical closeness of the sport and because MMA allows her to become a jack-of-all-trades rather than the master of a specific form.
"It's one of the most intimate sports," Pawelek said. "There's no ball you're going after—you're literally going after another person."
Even more unusual, Pawelek applied for and was accepted as a joint degree student with the Conflict and Dispute Resolution Master's program (CRES), focusing on environmental law. For Pawelek, MMA fighting and CRES go hand-in-hand. Both are about resolving conflict; it's just that one takes place at the negotiating table while the other takes place on a gym mat.
Pawelek, originally from Highland Park, Illinois, first encountered fighting six years ago while she was an undergraduate studying English at Carleton College. She had been training for a body building competition when she met a professor who engaged her in a philosophical conversation about the art of boxing. The conversation stayed with her, and she later learned boxing from that coach who also became her mentor. One year later she founded the Carleton Boxing Club. She also picked up parkour, and from there developed her fighting nickname: "Panther."
It took several years for Pawelek to work up to MMA fighting because she had to learn and draw on a variety of martial arts and wrestling techniques. After graduating from Carleton College with a bachelor's degree in English, Pawelek lived in Costa Rica for almost a year. There she started an outdoor martial arts gym near the ocean with a Serbian kickboxer. After she returned to the U.S., she journeyed to Montana, where she began training for MMA fights out of the Dog Pound, a local warehouse-turned-gym that was started by University of Oregon graduate Matt Powers.
Pawelek describes the gym as something out of the movie Fight Club.
"You would just show up and fight," she said. "Our coach, Matt, spent a lot of time developing the fighters on the team into top competitors. It was like a family."
Pawelek chose to attend Oregon Law to open up further career opportunities. Specifically, she wanted to study environmental law and knew the school had a strong environmental program. Pawelek had an interest in outdoor activities like hiking and fly fishing, making Oregon Law, nestled in scenic Eugene, an ideal choice. In 2012 she enrolled in the school.
Assistant Professor Jen Reynolds, who is also associate director for the Appropriate Dispute Resolution Program, recently hired Pawelek to help her create an "orientation boot camp" that combines physical and mental training for incoming 1Ls. Through the boot camp, Reynolds wants to prepare first-year students for the level of physical and mental acuity law school demands.
"Law school does require a certain level of mental fitness and discipline, not to mention physical stamina, and matching good study habits with physical exercise seemed like a great idea for our students," said Reynolds. "Not only does [Pawelek] train people (many of them lawyers) at the gym, she understands how law school works and how important the mind-body connection is."
Reynolds was the force that encouraged Pawelek to train for an upcoming MMA fight in the summer rather than apply for externships. With MMA fighting, a fighter's body can withstand physical impact only so long before it succumbs to injury and develops long-term health problems. Reynolds knew that Pawelek only had a small window of time to compete in MMA fights, and encouraged her to take a summer to pursue her passion while her schedule was still flexible.
Pawelek won two fights this past spring—a Jiu-Jitsu tournament, and an MMA match. She says that training and fighting helps her focus on schoolwork.
"Hobbies refresh you and make your study time more productive," said Pawelek.
When summer ends, Pawelek will trade in MMA for her true love: Jiu-Jitsu. For a little over a year she's trained in Jiu-Jitsu at Northwest Martial Arts in Eugene, Oregon. Pawelek says that in Jiu-Jitsu, it's easier for smaller fighters like her to beat larger fighters based on technique. In addition, while MMA can be hard on a fighter's body, Jiu-Jitsu is gentler and a therefore a better long-term option.
"In the professional world you can't come to work with black eyes and scratches," Pawelek said.
In her spare time, Pawelek works as a part-time personal trainer at the Downtown Athletic Club, and spends time with her boyfriend, another Jiu-Jitsu fighter whom she met in Montana. "Some of my classmates make fun of me," Pawelek said. "I come to class and when it's over I teleport out." Despite her busy schedule, she manages to successfully juggle training, fights, schoolwork, her job and her personal life.
"School is the best time to practice a hobby because you have a flexible schedule," said Pawelek.
Upon graduating from Oregon Law, Pawelek would like to apply her degree to resolving environmental conflicts. But until then, she'll balance her studies in conflict resolution with time in the ring.
"There's no better feeling than winning the fight," she said.
Mary Thompson ’02 to release second young adult science fiction novel
After practicing law for seven years, Oregon Law alumna and Eugene native Mary Thompson decided to take the writing skills she developed at law school and in the courtroom to New York, where she now dedicates herself to writing full-time and copyediting. In 2012, Clarion Books published Thompson's first novel, Wuftoom, a Young Adult (YA) horror-fantasy novel about a sickly teenager visited by a wormlike creature that tells him he is becoming one of them. Publisher’s Weekly praised the book, calling it "dark and unsettling," and "a break from the same old same old by creating something utterly new and weird." Mary Thompson ’02
Her latest novel, Escape from the Pipe Men!, will be out in stores on June 11, 2013. The YA science fiction novel tells the story of Ryan Hawthorn, an adolescent on display as a human exhibit in an intergalactic zoo who must search the universe for an antidote when his father is poisoned. Both of her books are available on Amazon, McNally Jackson, Mysterious Galaxy, IndieBound, Barnes and Noble and Powell's Books.
After receiving her undergraduate degree from Boston University, Thompson returned to Eugene, where she grew up. She was drawn to the intellectual side of law school, and knew Oregon Law had a good reputation. Applying to Oregon Law became in her words "a no brainer."
While in law school, Thompson transitioned from writing poetry to novel writing. Her classes pushed her to become interested in creating longer, more coherent works.
"Law school teaches you how to analyze information and create art out of it," said Thompson.
When she was in her second year at Oregon Law, she joined the Navy, and upon graduating from Oregon with her J.D. in 2002 she became a "lawyer in uniform," doing prosecution and defense work for the military. She enjoyed the job because it gave her the opportunity to work on cases immediately. After five years working as a military attorney, Thompson moved to San Diego and began practicing civil litigation at a small consumer firm. The job gave her time to work on her "after hours" writing, but after two years she knew she wanted to pursue writing full-time. She moved to New York and enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts writing program at the The New School. In 2012, she received her MFA, with a focus on writing for children.
"When you want to write, all of a sudden you desperately need to do it," said Thompson. "The more I wrote, the more important it became to me."
Thompson approaches her novels by starting with a broad idea – she then thinks ahead by a couple of chapters as she writes. She values the way law school and legal work have shaped her thought processes and writing, and advises students interested in pursuing a writing career to find the time to write, even if they feel too busy.
"It seems hard, but if you really want to you can," Thompson said.
Professor Suzanne Rowe tackles “T” words in Oregon State Bar Bulletin
Professor Suzanne Rowe tackles "T" words in Oregon State Bar Bulletin
Students KaLynn Alley and Lara Smith featured in ABA Student Lawyer magazine
Students KaLynn Alley and Lara Smith featured in ABA Student Lawyer magazine
Commencement exercises are May 18
The University of Oregon School of Law will hold 2013 commencement exercises at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Eugene. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony at the Knight Law Center, 1515 Agate St.
The School of Law will welcome Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson as the 2013 keynote speaker. Abrahamson was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1976, and was the only woman to serve on the court. Prior to serving the Wisconsin court system, she was a professor at the University of Washington School of Law and worked in private practice for 14 years. 
Adam Schulz, who will serve as the 2013 J.D. class speaker, is a Eugene native and graduate of South Eugene High School. He is a member of the Oregon Law Review's managing board and served as symposium editor for the recently completed and successful "A Step Forward: Creating a Just Drug Policy for the United States." Shulz plans to pursue a career in tax, estate planning and family law, and in the future, may run for office in Oregon.
The Honorable David Schuman '84, of the Oregon Court of Appeals, will receive the law school's 2013 Meritorious Service Award, an honor bestowed annually "to a person or persons who have made extraordinary contributions to legal education and the law." Schuman’s influence has made a salient impact on Oregon Law. Prior to attending Oregon Law in 1981, Schuman had a background in education, teaching college English for 13 years. Upon graduating from Oregon Law in 1984, Schuman clerked for now-retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans Linde for a year before practicing law as assistant attorney general in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice, and later as deputy attorney general within the same division. In 2001, Schuman became an appeals judge for the state, a position he has occupied for 12 years.
Professor Mohsen Manesh, an Oregon Law assistant professor teaching contracts, business association and corporate governance, is the recipient of the 2013 Orlando J. Hollis Teaching Award during commencement exercises. The Hollis Award is the law school's highest teaching honor.
This year's commencement marshal is James Mooney, the Wallace & Ellen Kaapcke Professor Emeritus of Business Law. Mooney is an authority on and has written extensively about American legal history and contract law. Professor Mooney is also a beloved teacher with a loyal following among current and former students.
Oregon Law will also welcome dignitaries from across the country who will join in the commencement festivities including Oregon Court of Appeals Judge Darleen Ortega, Representative Gail Whitsett, Senator Doug Whitsett and Representative Phil Barnhart.
For additional information on the University of Oregon School of Law commencement ceremony, visit law.uoregon.edu/studentaffairs/studentlife/commencement/.
