The University of Oregon School of Law is a public law school in the U.S. state of Oregon. Housed in the Knight Law Center, it is Oregon's only state funded law school. The school, founded in 1884 in Portland, Oregon, is located on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, on the corner of 15th and Agate streets, overlooking Hayward Field.
Oregon Law was founded in 1884 in Portland, Oregon.[5] Richard R. Thornton organized the department that began as a two-year program with three classes per week.[6] In 1906, the course of study was expanded to three years, and in April 1915, the school's board of regents ordered that the program be moved to Eugene as part of a consolidation program within the university.[6] Though the school moved, some of the faculty remained in Portland and started the Northwest College of Law, now the Lewis & Clark Law School.[6] In 1923, the school was approved by the American Bar Association (ABA), one of the first 39 schools to earn that distinction in the initial year of the ABA approval of law schools.[7]
In 1931, Wayne Morse became dean.[8] Three years later, the law school organized a chapter of the national law school honor society, the Order of the Coif.[8] In 1938, the law school moved to Fenton Hall.[8] In 1939, the law school graduated Minoru Yasui, who later took his challenge to the military curfew on Japanese Americans during World War II all the way to the United States Supreme Court.[8]
In 1941, Orlando John Hollis became acting dean.[8] His appointment became permanent in 1945 when Morse resigned to run for the U.S. Senate.[8] During the years of World War II, many law students were called to service.[8] In 1944, there were no graduating students; in 1945, only one student graduated.[8] After the war's conclusion, the school admitted every returning veteran who sought a legal education: out of 26 students who graduated in 1948, 25 had served in World War II.[8]
The post-war era was marked by the Oregon legislature's adoption of law professor Kenneth O'Connell's Oregon Revised Statutes.[8] Professor O'Connell was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court in 1958, and later became its chief justice.[8]
During the 1960s, Professor (and later dean) Chapin Clark offered the school's first courses in environmental and natural resources law.[8] Later that decade, Professor Jon Jacobson founded the school's Ocean and Coastal Law Center.[8] In 1968, Eugene Scoles became dean.[8]
In 1970, the law school moved into a new building, the Law Center.[8] In 1974, the Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics was established as a "living memorial" to former dean and U.S. senator Wayne Morse.[8]:19 In 1977, Professor Hans A. Linde was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court.[8] In 1978, the school established the first-in-the-world Environmental Law Clinic.[8]
In the new century, the school opened the Appropriate Dispute Resolution Program.[8] In 2003, the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program opened a fully staffed office.[8] In 2004, the Center for Law and Entrepreneurship opened a Small Business Clinic to assist small and micro-businesses.[8] The school also has started a program in Portland, which moved into Portland's White Stag Building in 2008.[8] The Portland Program focuses on business law and related externships.[8]
Rankings
In the 2025 national report of best law schools released by US News & World Report, the University of Oregon School of Law is the only law school in the Pacific Northwest to boast four top-ranked specialty law rankings and is ranked #94 among the 195 Best Law Schools.[10][11]
#1 Oregon Law’s Legal Research and Writing Program remained the top program in the country and is the only top-15 legal writing program in the Big Ten.
#7 Oregon Law’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center which focuses on interdisciplinary research projects.
#11 Oregon Law debuts in new national ranking: graduates in public interest jobs.
#12 Oregon Law’s Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center provides students with an education with emphasis on skillful management of disputes, deals, and decision-making.
Best programs: Oregon Law named top in the state of Oregon for business/corporate law, contracts/commercial law, criminal law, dispute resolution, international law, legal writing, and tax law.
The program includes a master's of law degree (LL.M.) option.[12]
Programs
The University of Oregon School of Law is known for possessing the nation's first public law school to establish an environmental law program.[8]
The law school also houses a prominent Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center, ranked 7th in the country in the 2025 U.S. News & World Report.[10]
The law school's Legal Research and Writing (LRW) Program[13] also is well regarded and has been top ranked for over 15 years.
Law publications
The School of Law is home to several legal journals.
The Oregon Law Review is the flagship law review of the University of Oregon School of Law. It was founded in 1921[15] and originally run by the school faculty. From 1925–1938 the Law Review served as the journal for the Oregon Bar Association.[16] By 1967, the Law Review had been turned over to a student board of editors. Published on a biannual basis, it is the oldest continually published law journal in the Pacific Northwest.[17]
The Oregon Review of International Law is a student-run journal founded in 1999 and published continually since.[18] It specializes in topics pertaining to international law and policy.[19]
Employment
More than 93% of Oregon Law's 2022 class is employed as of 10 months after graduation.[20]
Costs
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Oregon for the 2023–2024 academic year was $81,582 for non-residents and $68,706 for Oregon residents.[21] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $199,048 for non-residents and $170,167 for Oregon residents.[22]
Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
The Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) is a conference held annually on the first weekend in March at the University of Oregon School of Law in Eugene, Oregon, United States. The conference is a gathering of environmental activists, advocates, and students from across the United States and the world.[23]
PIELC is organized and hosted by the students involved in the environmental law society "Land Air Water" (LAW). Land Air Water is a student group at the University of Oregon School of Law. It is co-sponsored by Friends of Land Air Water, a University of Oregon/Land Air Water alumni group that helps advise the student organizers.
The conference has been held since 1983 and celebrated its 42nd anniversary in 2024.[27]
The conference is held on the first weekend in March. Early panels start Thursday afternoon, and the official opening is Thursday evening. It closes with a final address Sunday at noon. Typically, the conference has around 5,000 attendees.[citation needed]
The conference is also of interest to students of environmental law and environmental studies, and each year it hosts groups from around a dozen different schools.
The conference is unapologetically pro-public interest and pro-environment. It is a forum for the people who are actively enforcing environmental law and promoting environmental values to share experiences, strategies, and news.[citation needed]
↑ University of Oregon; School of Law; Oregon Bar Association; Oregon State Bar (1921). "Oregon law review". Oregon Law Review. ISSN0196-2043. OCLC1761423.
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