Sarah Adams-Schoen

Title: Assistant Professor
Email: saschoen@uoregon.edu
Phone: 541-346-0071
Departments: Law, Law-JD

Academic Interests

Land Use Law, Climate Change Law and Policy, Coastal Resilience, Planning and Zoning in the Coastal Zone, Climate Hazard Mitigation, Ocean and Coastal Law, Wildfire Planning, Sustainable Development, State and Local Government Law

Biography

Sarah Adams-Schoen 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-Schoen 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, and as the Chair of the Land Use Committee of the ABA State and Local Government Law Section and as the Section’s liaison to the ABA’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. She is also the past chair of OGALLA: The LGBT Bar Association of Oregon

Publications

Articles

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. Article

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.

Of Old Dogs and New Tricks—Can Law Schools Really Fix Students' Fixed Mindsets?, 19 J. Legal Writing 3 (2014). Additional

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).

Book Chapters

Planning and Zoning Within the Coastal Zone, in American Law Of Zoning, 6th edition (West, ed. Patricia Salkin) (2017).

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).

Essays

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). https://works.bepress.com/sarah_adams-schoen/14/

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).