October 2024
Dear Friends,
As many of you have already heard, I have the pleasure of serving as Willamette Law’s Interim Dean as the University begins its search for a permanent Law Dean. This is, quite remarkably in my mind, my 18th year with the law school and my fifth year in administration; I have been honored to serve as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the past four years. Throughout my time here, I have continually been impressed by our committed and dedicated community, and I am humbled to be able to help guide the school through what is certain to be another year of great accomplishments.
Already this year, we have launched a new clinic focused solely on Criminal Defense. Many of you are likely aware of Oregon’s ongoing public defense crisis defined by the increasingly large gap between the need for and the availability of public defenders. In partnership with the Oregon Legislature, we are helping to bridge this gap and prepare more new attorneys for practice in criminal defense. In cooperation with our local Public Defenders’ office, our new Clinical Professor, Kurt Wohlers, will help give students valuable experience with clients while also providing them with a first-hand look at the court system, up to and potentially including representing clients as a “second chair” at trial along with an experienced attorney.
In addition to our new clinical law offering, we are continuing to enhance our ever-growing experiential learning opportunities. This will be a significant part of supporting our students interested in pursuing Oregon’s new pathway to attorney licensure, the Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE). As you may remember, the SPPE was unanimously approved by the Oregon Supreme Court last year, and we are pleased to have our first group of Willamette Law graduates currently pursuing this new licensure pathway. With the support of their supervising attorneys – many of whom are Willamette Law alums – these graduates are already making an impact on our community.
This fall, we also welcomed our first cohort of students in our Immigrant Justice Scholars program. The program includes an immigration-specific curriculum, experiential learning opportunities, and a final immersive semester of clinical work in Portland, Oregon. Building upon our already robust immigration law offerings, this new program helps students benefit from a strong foundation in immigration law while gaining hands-on experience with experts in the field.
I am appreciative of your continued engagement with the law school and hope to see you all at an upcoming event. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing more from all of you about how we can work together to support the work of Willamette Law. Thank you for your continued work to help us educate the next generation of problem-solving lawyers and leaders.
Sincerely,
Jeff Dobbins
Interim Dean & Professor of Law
