Lewis & Clark Law School

Introduction

Lewis & Clark Law School believes in a balanced approach to legal education that ensures a solid theoretical foundation along with hands-on experience in practice. Situated next to a state park, the campus is one of the most beautiful in the nation. Students are only a moment away from an extensive trail system used by joggers, walkers, and bicyclists.

Enrollment/Student Body

The approximately 750 students attending the Law School represent a spectrum of ages, experiences, and priorities. Business executives, scientists, students of politics, musicians, and school teachers—people from many disciplines—meet at the Law School in a common pursuit. The atmosphere is one of mutual support during a time of academic challenge. Students and faculty can often be found discussing questions long after class has ended.

Faculty

The full-time faculty were educated at the nation's most distinguished law schools. They reflect a breadth of experience and interests that give depth and creative energy to their teaching. A number of faculty members have spent sabbaticals in recent years teaching in other countries; several have been Fulbright professors in such places as China, Greece, Germany, and Venezuela.

Library and Physical Facilities

The resources and staff of the Paul L. Boley Law Library, the largest law library in the state and the second largest in the Northwest, well exceed the standards set by the Association of American Law Schools.

Our collection includes extensive materials in environmental law, federal legislative history, tax law, commercial law, intellectual property, and legal history. We are also the only academic law library in the country to be a Patent and Trademark Depository Library. Supporting our collection is a sophisticated computer infrastructure of instruction labs and local area networks.

The Law School library is an exquisite study space with computer labs equipped with the latest technology. Wireless access is available on the entire campus.

Framed by majestic fir trees, the campus is composed of contemporary buildings with classrooms and a large state park within a moment's walk from the library. Traditional student needs and those of individuals with disabilities are met through a variety of facilities.

Curriculum

The Law School confers the JD degree and specialized LLM degrees in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Animal Law. Students may also apply for a joint JD/LLM program in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. To earn a JD, a student must take a prescribed first-year set of courses. In the upper division, students must take a seminar, Constitutional Law II, and Professionalism, and fulfill two writing requirements. Students choose between a three-year day program and a four-year evening program. Admission criteria, faculty, academic opportunities, and graduation requirements are the same for each.

Because the Law School offers both a full-time and a part-time program, students have great flexibility in scheduling courses and in determining the pace at which they want to pursue law school. Classes are offered both during the day and in the evening. Many students transfer between divisions and use the summer school program to accelerate progress toward graduation. Regardless of the division in which a student is enrolled, students may select courses from either the day or evening schedule as they find appropriate.

Specific Special Programs

Certificates: By taking a group of upper-division courses approved by the faculty, and by maintaining a superior grade-point average in those courses, a student may earn a certificate showing a concentration in environmental and natural resources law, public interest law, global law, business law, tax law, intellectual property law, or criminal law.

The Law School has nationally recognized natural resources/environmental law and public interest law programs. The school is also home to an incredibly strong business and commercial law program. The intellectual property law program and global law program are particularly dynamic, and our criminal law program houses the first national organization in the United States to study and enhance the effectiveness of victim's rights law. Lewis & Clark is also a national leader of animal law programs and curriculums. All the traditional areas of legal study are fully covered. Students who do not wish to pursue a certificate may choose to study another area of particular interest.

Clinical Opportunities, Externships, and Simulations: A student may create a schedule with precisely the mix of practical skills courses that fit that student's interests and needs. Students may choose among live client clinical experience, externships and internships, or simulation courses. The legal clinic located in downtown Portland offers students the opportunity to interview and counsel real clients, prepare documents, conduct trials, negotiate settlements, and prepare appeals. Other established clinics at Lewis & Clark are the small business legal clinic, an environmental law clinic, an international environmental law clinic, a low-income taxpayer clinic, an animal law clinic, a crime victim advocacy clinic, and a business law practicum. Externships place a student in full-time work for a semester or for a summer. Requirements for an externship vary as students have part-time, full-time, and different credit externship options. Externs are placed throughout the United States and in foreign countries. Clinical internship seminars are similar to externships but the student works only part-time, attending other classes during the semester. Clinical internship seminars include placements with in-house counsel, government agencies, law firms, and public interest, nonprofit organizations. Other courses, such as moot courts, advanced advocacy, trial advocacy, criminal law seminar, estate planning seminar, corporate transactions seminar, and family mediation seminar, involve extensive simulations.

Admission

Lewis & Clark affirmatively seeks a diverse student body. The Admissions Committee makes a serious effort to consider each applicant as an individual. Factors such as college, program of study, length of time since the degree was obtained, experience, writing ability, and community activities are taken into consideration. Only those candidates with excellent professional promise are admitted. Academic attrition is low, averaging two to four percent.

Student Activities

Activities include three law reviews, Environmental Law, Animal Law, and Lewis & Clark Law Review; nine distinct moot court teams; numerous speakers on campus; programs that bring outstanding legal scholars to campus for lectures and seminars; and many student organizations reflecting the diverse makeup of the student body.

Expenses and Financial Aid

Approximately 40 percent of the students at Lewis & Clark receive some scholarship support during their law school career. The school annually awards renewable merit-based Dean's Scholarships to incoming students. In addition, loan money and work-study funds are available. There is no separate application procedure for scholarship funds. Scholarship consideration is part of the admission process. Students are reviewed on the basis of undergraduate record, LSAT score, writing ability, and activities.

Students interested in loans need to apply for financial aid as early as possible and should not wait for an admission decision to begin the financial aid application. Applicants should submit the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

Career Services

The Career Services Office maintains and runs an extraordinary number and variety of programs. In addition to posting clerk positions for law students and running the on-campus interviews, the office maintains an extensive mentoring program, runs dozens of panels each year on various areas of practice, and counsels individual students from the first year onward. The Career Services staff consists of experienced administrators, counselors, and professionals, including a full-time coordinator to assist public interest-minded students.

Applicant Profile

This grid includes only applicants who earned 120–180 LSAT scores under standard administrations.

LSAT Score	3.75+ Apps	3.75+ Adm	3.50–3.74 Apps	3.50–3.74 Adm	3.25–3.49 Apps	3.25–3.49 Adm	3.00–3.24 Apps	3.00–3.24 Adm	2.75–2.99 Apps	2.75–2.99 Adm	2.50–2.74 Apps	2.50–2.74 Adm	Below 2.50 Apps	Below 2.50 Adm	No GPA Apps	No GPA Adm	Total Apps	Total Adm
	GPA
LSAT score 170–180	34	31	21	21	21	18	13	13	3	3	5	4	8	3	1	1	106	94
LSAT score 165–169	59	55	90	79	71	63	50	34	36	25	15	7	13	4	3	2	337	269
LSAT score 160–164	155	124	215	144	183	107	143	68	57	23	23	8	19	2	9	3	804	479
LSAT score 155–159	107	47	225	80	202	41	128	19	70	8	42	5	23	2	17	9	814	211
LSAT score 150–154	42	6	89	12	114	21	111	16	69	4	29	1	13	0	13	4	480	64
LSAT score 145–149	6	0	40	10	58	5	39	5	38	0	16	0	11	1	5	0	213	21
LSAT score 140–144	5	0	14	0	9	0	19	0	19	0	16	0	12	0	2	0	96	0
LSAT score Below 140	2	0	5	0	6	0	9	0	8	0	9	0	4	0	4	0	47	0
Total	410	263	699	346	664	255	512	155	300	63	155	25	103	12	54	19	2897	1138

Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 100% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.