Lewis and Clark Law School

Lewis & Clark College, Lewis and Clark Law School History

Lewis and Clark Law School was established in 1884 and is a private institution. The 31-acre campus is in a suburban area within Portland. The primary mission of the law school is to train and educate students about the law and about being ethical, well-rounded professionals. The school also strives to advance the knowledge, skills, and professionalism of legal practitioners. Students have access to federal, state, county, city, and local agencies, courts, correctional facilities, law firms, and legal aid organizations in the Portland area. The American Inns of Court; clinical internship seminars; externships, and the Oregon student appearance rule, which allows students to appear in court, are available to students. Facilities of special interest to law students include a 640-acre wilderness park bordering the campus and the undergraduate school, which has indoor and outdoor pools, a gymnasium, and tennis and racquetball courts. Housing for students consists of a wide variety of off-campus apartments and houses that students share at reasonable rents. Campus-owned houses are available for law students to rent. All law school facilities are accessible to the physically disabled.

Lewis & Clark College, Lewis and Clark Law School Academics

In addition to the J.D., the law school offers the LL.M.

The Lewis and Clark Law School offers concentrations in corporate law, criminal law, environmental law, family law, labor law, litigation, securities law, tax law, torts and insurance, intellectual property, and employment law. In addition, the law school operates a clinic in downtown Portland. The clinic serves indigent clients and performs civil work in the areas of consumer, landlord-tenant, employment law, and tax law. It is available to all upper-division students for 4 credits. Students interested in environmental law may participate in the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, the International Environmental Law Project, and clinical internship seminars. Seminars are available for 2 to 3 credits in a variety of subjects. Seminars are limited to 20 students and usually require a paper. Each upper-division student must take 1 seminar to graduate. A 3-hour seminar is offered in conjunction with a 10-hour per week placement in areas including criminal law, natural resources and, intellectual property. The school also offers full semester or summer externships, which require a substantial paper in addition to working full time in an approved placement with significant faculty supervision. Students may work as research assistants to faculty members, write for law reviews, and perform independent research projects for credit with faculty. Special lecture series include the Higgins Visit and the distinguished visitors series. There are also faculty colloquia and speakers invited by various student groups. Students participate in study abroad at ABA law schools and apply these credits at Lewis and Clark. An academic support program that focuses on study skills and group support is available to students. The school actively recruits ethnic minority candidates. Students may participate in a wide variety of student organizations including, but not limited to the Business Law Society, Environmental Law Caucus, Minority Law Student Association, and the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. The most widely taken electives are Business/Corporate Law, Environmental, and Intellectual Property.

To earn the J.D., candidates must complete 86 total credits, of which 28-35 are for required courses. They must maintain a minimum GPA of 1.7 in the required courses. The following first-year courses are required of all students: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law I (full-time students), Contracts, Criminal Law (full-time students), Legal Analysis and Writing, Property, and Torts. Required upper-level courses consist of Constitutional Law I (part-time students), Constitutional Law II, Criminal Law (part-time students), Professionalism, and Seminar. The required orientation program for first-year students is a 2-day program consisting of student registration and introduction to legal analysis.

In order to graduate, candidates must have a GPA of 2.0 and have completed the upper-division writing requirement.

Lewis & Clark College, Lewis and Clark Law School Unique Programs

Library

The law library contains 199,342 hard-copy volumes and 277,946 microform volume equivalents, and subscribes to 1575 serial publications. Such on-line databases and networks as CALI, CIS Universe, Legal-Trac, LEXIS, LOIS, NEXIS, OCLC First Search, WESTLAW, UN Treaty Collections, HeinOnline, JSTOR, and OED Online are available to law students for research. Special library collections include the Milton Pearl Environmental Law Collection, Tax/Estate Planning Collection, the Federal Patent and Trademark Depository Library, and Samuel Johnson Public Land Law papers. Recently, the library was completely remodeled to add 17,200 square-feet of space, increased the number of group study rooms, networked all library seats (375), and added wireless capability. The ratio of library volumes to faculty is 4530 to 1 and to students is 399 to 1. The ratio of seats in the library to students is 1 to 2.

Special Consideration

The law school recruits minority and disadvantaged students by having law school representatives visit undergraduate institutions with significant ethnic enrollment; by inviting prelaw advisers from undergraduate schools with large ethnic minority populations to visit the campus; by partnering with the Oregon State Bar to attract and retain ethnic minority students in Oregon; and by contacting ethnic minority candidates who take the LSAT. Requirements are not different for out-of-state students. Transfer students must have one year of credit, have attended an ABA-approved law school, and achieved strong academic standing at the school from which the student is transferring, and present a compelling reason for wishing to transfer to Lewis and Clark.

Lewis & Clark College, Lewis and Clark Law School Admissions

In the fall 2007 first-year class, 2394 applied, 909 were accepted, and 232 enrolled. Thirty-six transfers enrolled. The median GPA of the most recent first-year class was 3.37. The lowest LSAT percentile accepted was 14; the highest was 99.

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and take the LSAT. The most important admission factors include LSAT results, GPA, and writing ability. No specific undergraduate courses are required. Candidates are not interviewed.

The application deadline for fall entry is March 1. Applicants should submit an application form, LSAT results, transcripts, a nonrefundable application fee of $50, 2 letters of recommendation, an essay, resume, LSDAS report of undergraduate work, and optional statements on extracurricular activities or special circumstances. Notification of the admissions decision is on a rolling basis. The latest acceptable LSAT test date for fall entry is February. The law school uses the LSDAS.

Lewis & Clark College, Lewis and Clark Law School Financial Aid

About 97% of current law students receive some form of aid. The average annual amount of aid from all sources combined, including scholarships, loans, and work contracts, is $34,329; maximum, $39,734. Awards are based on need and merit. Required financial statement is the FAFSA. The aid application deadline for fall entry is March 1. Special funds for minority or disadvantaged students consist of scholarship funds from the college, Oregon State Bar funds, and a special Native American Scholarship. First-year students are notified about their financial aid application at time of acceptance.

Lewis & Clark College, Lewis and Clark Law School Students

About 53% of the student body are women; 18%, minorities; 2%, African American; 9%, Asian American; 5%, Hispanic; 2%, Native American; and 2% international students (all); 9% race/ethnicity unknown. The majority of students come from Oregon (37%). The average age of entering students is 27; age range is 21 to 58. About 11% drop out after the first year for academic or personal reasons; 90% remain to receive a law degree.

The primary law review is the Environmental Law Review. Other student-edited publications include Lewis and Clark Law Review. Moot court competitions consist of a negotiation competition, environmental law, Moot court and tax law. A writing competition for the best paper in the area of international law is sponsored by the law firm of Ragen, Davis, and Wright. Law student organizations, local chapters of national associations, and campus organizations include Student Bar Association, Public Interest Law Project, National Lawyers Guild, the Minority Law Students Association, Phi Delta Phi, the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Intellectual Property Society.

The law school operates on a traditional semester basis. Courses for full-time students are offered both day and evening and must be completed within 5 years. For part-time students, courses are offered both day and evening and must be completed within 6 years. New full- and part-time students are admitted in the fall. There is a 2 5-week summer session. Transferable summer courses are not offered.