Sarah Adams
Assistant Professor
Biography
Sarah Adams is a faculty member of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center. Her scholarship, applied research, and service focus on climate change law and policy, state and local government law, and land use, focusing on climate resilience in the coastal and inland floodplains and wildland urban interface.
Prof. Adams has been called on by state and national bar committees, private foundations, and government agencies including the Environmental Protection and Federal Emergency Management agencies to provide guidance related to coastal resilience. She was a Principal Investigator on a New York Sea Grant to increase coastal resilience and the principal on a grant to draft an annotated model zoning code to facilitate small- and medium-scale wind energy development. She presents frequently on climate change and local law, including recently presenting as a featured speaker at the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law Climate Change Symposium, the keynote speaker at a New York Department of State and United States Geologic Survey conference on water resource management, and a lecturer for the AALS Environmental Law Section.
She brings to her teaching a love of the theory and practice of law, grounded in more than a decade of law practice experience. Prior to embarking on her legal career, she received a Masters in Economics at the London School of Economics and worked as a senior policy analyst for Portland, Oregon’s Metro Regional Government. She received her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School.
She is admitted to the Oregon State Bar as a Pro Bono Member and to the Federal Bar for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. She serves on the editorial board of the Urban Lawyer. She is also the past chair of OGALLA: The LGBT Bar Association of Oregon.
Publications:
Articles
Land Law Localism and the Climate Resilience Paradox, 36 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 1 (2025).
Federal Flood Policy and Maladaptation: A Story of Collective Forgetting, 34 S. Cal. J. Interdisciplinary L. 1 (2025).
The White Supremacist Structure of American Zoning Law, 88 Brooklyn L. Rev. 1225 (2023).
Middle Housing by Right: Lessons from an Early Adopter, 37 J. of Land Use & Env’t L. 189 (2022), with Edward J. Sullivan, reprinted with substantial updates in Reforming Restrictive Residential Zoning: Lessons from an Early Adopter, 30 J. Affordable Housing & Comm. Dev. L. 161 (2021), with Edward J. Sullivan.
Beyond Localism: Harnessing State Adaptation Lawmaking to Facilitate Local Climate Resilience, 8 Mich. J. Envtl. & Admin. L. 185 (2018).
Sink or Swim: In Search of a Model for Coastal City Climate Change Resilience, 40 Columbia J. Envtl. L. 433 (2015).
A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment, 45 Envt’l L. Rep. 10027 (2015), with Deepa Badrinarayana, Cinnamon Carlarne, Robin Kundis Craig, John C. Dernbach, Keith H. Hirokawa, Alexandra B. Klass, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Stephen R. Miller, Jessica Owley, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Inara Scott, and David Takacs.
A Three-Legged Stool on Two Legs: Recent Federal Law Related to Local Climate Resilience Planning And Zoning, 47 Urb. Law. 525 (2015), with Edward Thomas.
On the Waterfront: New York City's Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Challenge(Part 2 of 2), 25 Envtl. L. in N.Y. 101 (May 2014).
On the Waterfront: New York City's Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Challenge (Part 1 of 2), 25 Envtl. L. in N.Y. 81 (April 2014).
Of Old Dogs and New Tricks—Can Law Schools Really Fix Students' Fixed Mindsets?, 19 J. Legal Writing 3 (2014).
Books & Book Chapters
Ocean and Coastal Law: Cases and Materials (West, 6th ed. 2024), with Alison Rieser, Donna Christie & Annie Brett.
Land Use Law and Climate Change, in Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Sixth Oregon Climate Assessment (Erica Fleishman ed., 2023), with Michelle Smith.
Planning and Zoning Within the Coastal Zone, in Patricia Salkin, American Law of Zoning, 6th edition (West, ed. Patricia Salkin) (2017 & updated 2020).
Climate Change and Sustainable Development, in John J. Delaney, Stanley D. Abrams, Frank Schnidman, Patricia E. Salkin and Julie A. Tappendorf, Handling the Land Use Case: Land Use Law, Practice & Forms (3d ed. 2020).
Taming the Super-Wicked Problem of Waterfront Hazard Mitigation Planning: The Role of Municipal Communication Strategies, in Contemporary Issues In Climate Change Law And Policy: Essays Inspired By The IPCC (Environmental Law Institute, eds. Robin Kundis Craig & Stephen Miller) (2016).
Planning and Zoning Within New York's Coastal Zone, in Patricia Salkin, New York Zoning Law & Practice (5th ed. 2016).
Essays
Juliana v. United States, in The Oregon Encyclopedia, The Oregon Historical Society and Portland State University (Sept. 2022, updated Sept. 2023 & May 2025).
Dismantling Segregationist Land Use Controls, 43 Zoning & Planning L. Reps., Sept. 2020, at 1.
Two Steps Forward: Promoting Inclusive Infill Development with Middle Housing by Right and Increased Protections for Tenants, 28 J. Affordable Housing & Comm. Dev. L. 363 (2019).
The WUI, the Waterfront, and the Wicked Problem of Planning and Zoning for Climate Resilience, 41 Zoning & Planning Law Reports 1 (Oct. 2018).
Reed as Applied: The Sign Apocalypse or a Bump in the Road, 39 Zoning & Planning Law Reports 1 (July/Aug. 2016).
Land Use Law Update: Is the Tide Turning Toward Municipal Liability for Failure to Adapt to Climate Change?, 30 Municipal Lawyer 25 (Winter/Spring 2016).
Land Use Law Update: Reed v. Town of Gilbert Redux, 29 Municipal Lawyer 39 (Fall 2015).
Land Use Law Update: The 2015 Mid-Year Roundup, 29 Municipal Lawyer 27 (Spring/Summer 2015).
Land Use Law Update: Will Reed v. Town of Gilbert Require Municipalities Throughout the Country to Rewrite Their Sign Codes?, 29 Municipal Lawyer 16 (Winter 2015).
Municipal Liability for Failure to Adapt to Climate Change? Not Yet, The Suffolk Lawyer (Suffolk Co. Bar Ass’n newsletter), at 17, 31 (Nov. 2015), reprinted with revisions as Land Use Law Update: Is the Tide Turning Toward Municipal Liability for Failure to Adapt to Climate Change?, 30 Municipal Lawyer 25 (Winter 2016).
Land Use Law Update: New York’s New Climate Change Resiliency Law, 28 Municipal Lawyer 4 (Fall 2015).
Land Use Law Update: Land Use Law Update: The Court of Appeals Issues a Victory for Home Rule in Wallach v. Town of Dryden and Cooperstown Holstein Corp. v. Town of Middlefield, 28 Municipal Lawyer 43 (Summer 2014), with Maureen Liccione.
Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: A Local Solution to a Global Problem, 28 Municipal Lawyer 4 (Winter 2014).
Media
Expert commentary, Ivan Pereira, How Texas' land rules allowed camps to operate in flood-prone areas, ABC News, July 11, 2025.
Expert commentary, Alexis Weisend, City of Eugene Ignores State Law on Camping, Eugene Weekly, June 15, 2023.
Featured discussant, American Zoning Law and the Endurance of Jim Crow, American Bar Association Civil Rights and Social Justice Section Chair Chat, June 14, 2023.
A Step Toward Justice, Eugene Weekly, Mar. 31, 2022.
Podcast interview, Climate Change Adaptation: Accepting Retreat, Oregon Law Lab, Jan. 9, 2021.
Podcast interview, The Forest Fires in Oregon, Oregon Law Lab, Sept. 26, 2020.
4 lawsuits that challenge Trump's federal agents in Portland test issues other cities will likely face, The Conversation, July 27, 2020.
Interview, President Trump using federal officers for performative gain, UO professor says, NBC KMTR virtual channel 16, July 23, 2020.
Expert commentary, Francisca Benitez, Impasse: DLCD decision puts Jordan Cove on pause, Herald & News, Feb. 21, 2020.
Podcast interview, Local Governments and Climate Resilience featuring Sarah Adams, Conversations with the Legal Academy (July 9, 2018).
Other
Policy paper, Middle Housing Misconceptions (2022), with Univ. of Oregon Sch. of Law Environmental & Natural Resources Law Center student fellows.
Model code and policy paper, Exploring Options for Wind Energy Development and Wildfire Hazard Mitigation: Draft Ordinances with Commentary (Sustainable Cities Institute, 2021), with Michelle Smith & Univ. of Oregon Sch. of Law Environmental & Natural Resources Law Center student fellows.
Annotated model code, Model Zoning Code, Small- and Medium-Wind Energy Model Code (Annotated), funded by the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (2016).
Annotated bibliography, Essential Readings in United States Environmental Criminal Law, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Essential Readings (2014).