Dear Friend,

What's special about Oregon now? The University of Oregon School of Law has equipped generations of lawyers with the best tools to succeed in a quickly changing world.

Oregon students learn. Oregon Law is part of a major research university and offers a serious, comprehensive legal education. Moreover, we are one of just a handful of law schools in the entire country (and the only one in the West) that can boast of having three programs ranked in the "top ten" by U.S. News and World Report. Our Appropriate Dispute Resolution Program, led by Associate Dean Jane Gordon and Professor Michael Moffitt, is lauded as the seventh best nationwide. The Environmental and Natural Resources Program, headed by alumna and Professor Adell Amos, is ranked ninth. And our Legal Research and Writing Program, directed by Professor Suzanne Rowe, is the tenth best program in the country. Moreover, Oregon Law’s "reputational" ranking -- that is, how we are viewed by legal professionals nationwide -- continues to place solidly in the top 50. That is because our faculty has "been there" - many of them practiced with major law firms, corporations, and government agencies and are known nationally for cutting edge legal scholarship. All of them are great teachers and fine scholars. For example,

• Professor Steven Bender, who is also the Director of Oregon Law’s Portland Program, recently published One Night in America: Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, and the Dream of Dignity. Professor Bender’s topical book chronicles Chavez and Kennedy’s friendship, and embraces their political vision for making the American dream a reality for all. A prolific scholar, Professor Bender also recently published a law review article on the topic of anti-immigrant sentiment, and co-authored a casebook on real estate law and a supplement to a two-volume treatise on real estate financing.
• Associate Professor Tom Lininger, the Director of Oregon Law’s Public Interest Public Service Program, is working on a book about the United States Supreme Court’s recent interpretation of the Confrontation Clause. In the last two years, he has published five law review articles and essays on topics ranging from legal ethics to the prosecutorial use of hearsay statements by children to the promise and limitations of forensic linguistics.
• Professor Svitlana Kravchenko, Ph.D., who directs Oregon Law’s LL.M. Program in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, was recently unanimously re-nominated to the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Affairs. Professor Kravchenko is the founder and president of Environment-People-Law, the first public interest environmental law firm in Ukraine. She is also co-founder and co-director of the Association of Environmental Law of Central and Eastern Europe. Professor Kravchenko and Professor John Bonine (together with a third author) are co-authors of the forthcoming book Human Rights and the Environment.

Because we are a small school, our students get to know their teachers, working and studying with them from their very first day of law school. Our students also, however, enjoy the breadth and depth of a major research university - a place where they can take classes in a number of disciplines and apply those credits to their law degrees.

Oregon students thrive. Our warm and collegial approach brings out the best in our students. Learning together in a beautiful and supportive - yet rigorous -- environment, they develop life-long friendships and make achievement a way of life. Our students' collegiality and professionalism are reflected in their generous public service. Upon graduation, Oregon students take those values with them to a wide variety of legal practices. Oregon is well known for having a public-minded spirit, and our students and graduates have established a tradition of leadership in the public interest:

• For seven years running, Oregon Law students have won the Oregon State Bar's pro bono challenge, donating a larger number of hours to public service than any law school in the state. During calendar year 2007, our students contributed 10,487 volunteer hours - nearly two-thirds of the state total.
• Oregon Law students created an online journal, theLegality.com, dedicated to providing accessible legal opinion on current events. Although it has only been in existence since February, theLegality.com has attracted both critical acclaim and a critical mass of readers.
• Regular academic conferences feed our students’ minds and introduce them to accomplished thinkers and practitioners from within, and outside of, our community. In early April, Oregon Law hosted a conference titled "Putting the Puzzle Together: Cooperation, Conflict and Collaboration Among Juvenile Courts and Child Welfare Agencies," organized by Professor Leslie Harris and the Oregon Child Advocacy Project. Speakers included four judges who regularly deal with child welfare issues, along with several practitioners in the field. Earlier this semester, the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics presented a heavily attended conference on the topic of "Immigration and Citizenship," one of the highlights of which was a spirited debate between Professor Garrett Epps and Chapman Law School Dean John Eastman on the constitutional basis for birthright citizenship.
• After graduation, Oregon Law students report bright prospects for their professional futures. The strength of our individual programs and our overall reputation, as well as the caliber of our students, are all reasons that the employment statistics for the Class of 2007 are so strong: Based on a survey to which 98 percent of that class responded, nearly 95 percent of them are employed. Approximately 43 percent are in private practice; an amazing 18 percent serve as judicial clerks; 16 percent are otherwise employed by the government; and 14 percent are in business and industry. Fifty-three percent of the Class of 2007 has remained in Oregon, with many of the rest working in California, Washington, or Nevada, and others on the east coast and elsewhere.

Oregon students do. Oregon Law’s centers and programs provide students with interdisciplinary and practical opportunities that get them out of the classroom and into real-world challenges:

• Our ADR (Appropriate Dispute Resolution) Center puts dispute resolution theory into practice, educating students in negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. Students can participate in a mediation clinic, take a hands-on class in negotiation, or earn an interdisciplinary master’s degree in conflict resolution concurrently with their law degrees.
• Our ENR (Environmental and Natural Resources) Center pioneered the nation’s first public interest environmental law clinic, where students work on cutting edge environmental issues. Students also produce an annual public interest environmental law conference -- the oldest and largest of its kind. Externships and fellowships get students working on current legal issues with faculty and with government and non-profit organizations.
• Oregon Law’s Center for Law and Entrepreneurship, founded with a generous donation from businesswoman Carolyn Chambers, affords students the opportunity to work in the Small Business Clinic helping start-up businesses organize and flourish. Students also take advantage of our "transactional lab" program to train with lawyers in major Portland law firms. Through our Portland Program, students extern at some of Oregon’s most innovative companies - Nike and Mentor Graphics among them. Students working with the Center also develop actual new products and businesses based on emerging technologies in the Technology and Entrepreneurship Program.
• Legal research and writing skills are critical to any lawyer’s arsenal. Our LRW program offers every first-year student the opportunity to do the hard work of writing - and, after intensive feedback, rewriting. And advanced writing courses give second- and third-year students a chance to draft contracts, wills, pleadings, and other legal documents.
• Our criminal prosecution and defense clinics get students into the courtroom as early as the summer after their second year. Other students represent clients in the domestic violence clinic.

In sum, Oregon Law is scholarly, international, interdisciplinary, and practical. Our diverse and highly accomplished students learn, thrive, and do. Join us. You'll love it here.