January 2025
Dear Friends,
I hope you all are enjoying the start of a new year. The start of a new year and a new semester always bring energy and excitement to the law school.
We were pleased to receive word recently that our first graduates have successfully completed the new Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE) and been admitted to the Oregon State Bar. These graduates completed 675 hours of work under the supervision of a licensed attorney and submitted a portfolio of work to be submitted for grading to the Oregon State Bar. With this first group of SPPE candidates fully licensed, we are grateful to have their experiences and the involvement of our alumni community in helping to support future candidates and current law students. We are proud to be a leader in the early implementation of SPPE, showing first hand how important our role has been as a leader in experiential learning. If you are interested in supporting future SPPE candidates as a supervising attorney, please feel free to get in touch.
In addition to our progress with the SPPE, our faculty have been hard at work researching and writing. The faculty of Willamette Law have long played an important role in the legal academy, and the broader legal landscape, and in recent years we have only enhanced our visibility among scholars, practitioners, judges, and legislators. Our internationally recognized faculty continue to publish influential works across single-author journal articles, book chapters, and prominent legal fillings - among other examples. To note just a few of the many accomplishments amongst our faculty:
- Professor Laura I Appleman was elected to the American Law Institute earlier this year in recognition of her cutting-edge research.
- Professor Andrew Gilden’s new article Patenting the Taboo: Sex, Drugs, and Abortion is forthcoming in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology.
- Dean Emeritus and Professor Symeon C Symeonides was honored with a symposium, 50 Years in the Conflicts Vineyard, in May for his decades of contributions to the field of conflicts of law. A number of alumni attended and spoke at the symposium.
- Professor Robin Maril’s new article Originalism and Democratic Decline will be published this spring by the University of Maryland Law Review. She also hosts a popular podcast, “The Future is Queer: A Guide to Saving Democracy.”
- Professors Steve Green and Norman Williams have both recently published new books; Professor Green’s The Grand Collaboration: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Invention of American Religious Freedom was published by the University of Virginia Press, while Oregon State Press published Professor Williams’ book, Constructing a Democracy: The History, Law, and Politics of Redistricting in Oregon.
In November, we published the 2024 edition of the Lawyer magazine digitally. The magazine contains numerous stories about what our alumni, students, and faculty have accomplished over the last year. I hope that you will enjoy reading more about our community.
As always, thank you for your continued support for Willamette Law. I am constantly reminded of what a dedicated community we have here at the law school. Thank you for all of your continued work to help us educate the next generation of problem-solving lawyers and leaders.
Sincerely,
Jeff Dobbins
