Faculty Awards and Honors

Distinguished Faculty Award |  Fund for Faculty ExcellenceSustainability Awards  | Hollis Award Meritorious Service Award | Pillar Award 

The Oregon Law faculty are known for their diverse legal backgrounds and expertise. The law faculty maintains a consistently high reputation for scholarship and teaching among judges, attorneys and other law school professors throughout the Unites States.   

Oregon Law’s faculty have been recognized for several University of Oregon honors and awards. These programs recognize their skills as teachers and innovations in scholarship and research. 


AnchorUniversity of Oregon Distinguished Faculty Award

Each year, the university selects 10 faculty members for the prestigious Distinguished Teaching Awards (Thomas F. Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy and the Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching), the UO’s highest teaching honor. These outstanding faculty members, nominated by students, faculty, and staff, each represent what it means to practice inclusive, engaged, and research-led teaching in their classrooms and alongside their colleagues.  

 

 

Michelle McKinley

2019 UO Distinguished Teaching Awards

Sharing a common goal.

"It makes a difference that we are committed to establishing a common goal of reading and understanding a text, discerning where those ideas came from, what work they do for the reader’s understanding of the world, and what the reader will do with those ideas long after they leave my classes or the university."

Michelle McKinley, Thomas F. Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy in Undergraduate Legal Studies and Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law

 

Learn more about McKinley


 

Thomas F. Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy  

YEAR RECIPIENT
2019 Michelle McKinley, Undergraduate Legal Studies
2016 Elizabeth Ruiz Frost, Legal Research and Writing
2014 Suzanne Rowe, Legal Writing and Research

 

Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching

year recipient
1992 Dominick Vetri 
1990 James Mooney

 

The Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching

 

YEAR RECIPIENT(S)
2012 Jennifer W. Reynolds
2006 Tom Lininger 
2004 Michael L. Moffitt
1994 Mary C. Wood 

 

 


AnchorFund for Faculty Excellence 

The fund is designed to support the university’s strategic commitment to improve its overall academic quality and reputation by rewarding, recognizing, and retaining nationally competitive faculty who have a record of distinction in their quality of scholarship and creative accomplishment, contribution to their respective field, and contribution to the university. 

2021 Fund for Faculty Excellence Awardee

Jennifer W. Reynolds
Professor; Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Programs; Faculty Director, ADR Center

Professor Jen W. Reynolds

Reynolds teaches civil procedure, conflict of laws, negotiation, and dispute systems design. Her research interests include media and social media impacts on public disputes, problem-solving in multiparty scenarios, plea bargaining and specialty courts, and cultural influences and implications of alternative processes. She is the Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Programs for the law school and also the Faculty Director of the nationally ranked Oregon ADR Center. She has served in numerous national roles with the ADR Section of the Association of American Law Schools and the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section.

 

Year Recipient(s)
2019 Erik Girvan, Elizabeth “Liz” Tippett
2016 Stuart Chinn
2014 Adell Amos
2013 Michelle McKinley
2008 Tom Lininger
2007 Michael Moffitt

 

 


AnchorUniversity of Oregon Sustainability Awards 

The sustainability award program& recognizes individuals whose contributions deepen our culture of sustainability across a range of institutional activities.  

2019 Innovation Award Recipient

 

Mary Wood 
Philip H. Knight Professor
Faculty Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center

Wood was selected for developing a legal pathway called Atmospheric Legal Trust Litigation. This new legal theory applies the public trust principal to the current climate emergency – and also makes way for a litigation pathway where citizens can sue their government to force the protection of the vital climate system that supports survival.

“We’re not focused on one small thing here or another small thing there. We’ve got ​​the complete global vision of what scientists say is necessary to save our climate system.”

Watch Wood's interview on Atmospheric Litigation

 

Mary Wood

 

YEAR RECIPIENT(S)
2019 Mary Wood, Innovation Award

 

 


Faculty Excellence in Universal Design Award 

Excellence in Universal Design involves the development of flexible curriculum and instruction to ensure equity and access for all learners.

YEAR RECIPIENT(S)
2019 Megan Austin

 


AnchorOregon Law Orlando John Hollis Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award  

This award is given to the School of Law’s outstanding teacher to reward excellence in classroom instruction.

year recipient(s)
2022

Stuart Chinn

2021 Elizabeth Frost
2020 Rebekah Hanley
2019 Susan Gary
2018  Megan McAlpin
2017 Michelle McKinley
2016 Erik Girvan and Dave Frohnmayer (honorary; awarded posthumously) 
2015 Joan Rocklin 
2014 Michael Fakhri
2013 Mohsen Manesh
2012 Jennifer Reynolds
2011 Tom Lininger 
2010 Suzanne Rowe 
2009 Adell Amos 
2008 Andrea Coles-Bjerre 
2007 Robert Tsai 
2006 Joseph C. Metcalfe 
2005 Carl S. Bjerre  
2004 Michael Moffitt 
2003 Garrett Epps  
2002 Mary C. Wood 
2001 Steve Bender 
2000 Nancy Shurtz 
1999 R. James Mooney  
1998 Robin Morris Collin 
1997 Dominick Vetri 
1996 Margaret Paris
1995 Caroline Forell
1994 Lisa Kloppenberg
1993 David Schuman
1992 Fred Merrill
1991 Leslie Harris
1990 Mary Lawrence

 


AnchorOregon Law Meritorious Service Award 

This award is given each year at commencement to both faculty and non-faculty members who have made extraordinary contributions to legal education or to the legal profession.  

year recipient(s)
2022 Megan McAlpin
2021 Lauren Elizabeth-Barthé Charles, JD ’11, and Ibrahim Gassama
2019 Caroline Forell
2018 Margie Paris
2017 Leslie Harris 
2016 Howard Arnett 
2015 Dominick Vetri 
2014 The Hon. John Acosta and Dean Emeritus Eugene Scoles 
2013 The Hon. David Schuman
2012 The Hon. Procter Hug, Jr. 
2011 James O’Fallon and The Hon. Martha Walters 
2010 Carolyn S. Chambers and Mary S. Lawrence 
2009 Merv Loya 
2008 Rennard Strickland 
2007 The Hon. Dorothy W. Nelson 
2006 The Hon. Wallace P. Carson, Jr. and Phyllis Barkhurst 
2005 Alice Plymell 
2004 The Hon. Ronald L. Wyden and The Hon. Stephen Reinhardt 
2003 The Hon. Ellen Rosenblum 
2002 Norman J. Wiener and Minoru Yasui 
2001 Ray and Lois Ackerman 
2000 The Hon. Helen J. Frye 
1999 The Hon. Sandra Day O’Connor and Frank Lacy 
1998 Hardy Myers
1997 Wendell Wyatt 
1996 Noreen K. Saltveit and Otto Frohnmayer 
1995 Anthony Yturri and Oglesby Young 
1994 Arthur C. Johnson and Sidney I. Lezak
1993 Jeannette C. Hayner, John L. Luvaas, Eugene F. Scoles
1992 John E. Jaqua and Frank E. Nash 
1991 Chapin D. Clark 
1990 John H. Van Landingham 
1989 The Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin and The Hon. Edwin J. Peterson
1988 The Hon. Roland K. Rodman, The Hon. Richard L. Unis  
1987 Hans A. Linde
1986 Richard W. Nahstoll 
1985 Kenneth J. O’Connell and Lois I. Baker 
1984 Orlando John Hollis and William G. East  

 

AnchorPillar of the Community Award

Awarded by students, this recognizes faculty who make a positive impact on the Oregon Law community through their leadership, service, example, support of others, and overall contributions that enhance the law school.  

YEAR RECIPIENT(S)
2018-19 Roberta Mann
2017-18 Joan Rocklin
2016-17 Tom Lininger
2015-16 Mary Wood
2014-15 Margie Paris