Appointments and Service

Elected to Board of Directors for Cat Adoption Team (CAT) on February 7, 2024.

Appointed as a member of the Expert Peer Review Group on the Race to Zero in 2022.

Appointed to the National Committee of the The Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces on April 21, 2022. 

Appointed to serve a two-year term as Co-Chair for the Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee of the ABA Tax Sectio (July 2020-July 2022).

Volunteer member of Ad Hoc group for the Chilean Constitutional Vote. Drafted white paper introducing the public trust doctrine to Chilean lawyers and academics. Participating in ongoing deliberations that hopefully will result in constitutional language that the Chilean electorate will adopt. May 1, 2020, through December 31, 2021. 

Elected Executive Committee Member for AALS Section on Animal Law on January 5, 2020, to serve a one-year term.

Volunteer Planning Committee Member for Animal Law Conference on December 3, 2019, until November 1, 2020. 

Oregon Supreme Court amicus brief in Chernaik v. Brown (Principal Author). In support of plaintiffs’ claim that the state of Oregon breached its public trust obligations by not developing a scientifically defensible plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions that are destabilizing the climate. Signed by 102 law teachers. July 31, 2019. 

Volunteer advisor on HB 2835, Oregon Waterway Access Bill. Made several comments on the contents of a waterway access bill, designed to improve public access from state lands to floatable (navigable) waters. 2019. 

Appointed to the Facilitative Branch of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Compliance Committee on March 1, 2019 to serve a 3-year term. 

Signer of comments on the U.S. Department of the Interior proposed rule that would scuttle regulations preventing the waste of methane gas from leases on federal lands. April 23, 2018.

Coordinator and editor for an amicus brief supporting a review of North Carolina v. Alcoa in the U.S. Supreme Court. November 6, 2017–December 8, 2017.

Drafter of the amicus brief for 35 law professors and several waterkeeper organizations in support of a request for review by the Oregon Supreme Court of a Court of Appeals decision that denied public access to a public lake from public parklands. June 1, 2017–June 20, 2017.

Moderator for Business of Food panel at the 2017 Food Law Symposium at Lewis and Clark Law School, March 2017.

Elected treasurer of the board of directors for the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. August 24, 2016.

Drafter of and coordinator for law professors’ comments on proposed U.S. Bureau of Land Management land planning rules, particularly those related to treatment of “areas of critical environmental concern.” June 5, 2015–May 24, 2016.

Member of the Federal Sentencing Commission’s Victim Advisory Group, which is charged with making recommendations regarding federal sentencing guidelines. Appointed August 18, 2014.

Cochair of the National Legal Writing Institute’s Biennial Conference Site Committee. Portland, Oregon. July 1, 2014-July 16, 2016.

Cochair of the American Society of International Law’s Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group. April 8, 2015-April 5, 2017.

Member of the planning team and speaker at the unveiling ceremony for the Oregon State Bar’s Diversity and Inclusion Story Wall. Oregon State Bar, Tigard, Oregon. November 2014.

Organizer for the 2015 Lewis & Clark Law School Forum: Secrets, Poaching, Loyalty, and Liberty. Lewis & Clark Law School. November 1, 2014, through September 12, 2015.

Member of the Oregon Law Commission’s Standing Modernization Work Group charged with making a recommendation on whether to propose legislation enabling judicial review of a citizen initiative in state and federal courts in instances when the Attorney General refuses to defend the initiative. Salem, Oregon. October 1, 2014, through March 11, 2015.

Cochair of the faculty mentoring committee of the Association for Law, Property, and Society. Fall 2014.

Consultant to deans, administration, faculty, and community members starting a small business legal clinic. La Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, sede Bucaramanga (The Law School of the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia in Bucarramanga, Colombia). August 2014.

Faculty peer reviewer of federalism scholarship proposed for Harvard Law Review. August 2014.

Organizer for the conference Bringing Outside In: Social Justice Collaborations in the Legal Writing Curriculum. Drexel University School of Law. June 2014.

Voting member of the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee. Appointed to second term May 2014.

Member of the Oregon State Bar’s Judicial Administration Committee. 

Member of the Multnomah Bar Association (MBA) Professionalism Committee subcommittee charged with modifying the MBA’s Statement of Professionalism to include references to honoring diversity and inclusion.

Provider of legal and technical support through the International Environmental Law Project to the Alliance of Small Island Developing States during the climate change negotiations in Warsaw, Poland. With seven students, whom he supervised.

Coach for the Wood Middle School “We the People” Constitution Team, which placed second in the national middle school competition in Washington, D.C

Editor of International Administrative Law (weekly e-journal), Social Sciences Research Network.

Peer reviewer for Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy, Oxford University Press.

Member of the board of directors for the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.

Committee Member for Local Screening Committee for Recruitment of Federal Public Defender from August 2nd to November 30th 2022.

Elected as Vice Chair of the UNFCCC Compliance Committee (Facilitative Branch) in 2022. 

Appointed to the Advisory Board on Cohabitation by the Scottish Law Commission in 2021.

Principal U.S. drafter of a report on the potential adoption of the public trust doctrine in the new Chilean Constitution, which will be voted on by the Chilean public in 2022. The report will be published in both Spanish and English under the auspices of Universidad Diego Portales and the Chile California Conservation Exchange. for Chile California Council. From July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022.

Volunteer Student Scholarship Selection Committee Member for Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Convention on January 29, 2020 until November 1, 2020.

Elected Executive Committee Member for AALS Section on Agricultural & Food Law on January 5, 2020 to serve a one-year term.

Appointed to serve two three-year terms (max. period) as the academic member of the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee.

Appointed Advisory Board Member of Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance on Jun 19, 2019. 

Drafted and circulated an amicus brief, in which 69 law professors signed, urging the Oregon Supreme Court to accept review of Chernaik v. Oregon, which alleged that the state of Oregon breached its public trust duties by failing to attempt to control greenhouse gas emissions. March 22, 2019. 

Legal Hackathon (Participant). Multnomah Bar Association. Portland, OR. May 17, 2018. 

Appointed Vice Chair of the American Bar Association Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee from July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019. 

Organizer of the Lewis & Clark Law Review’s 2017 Paper Symposium, Law and Religion in an Increasingly Polarized America.

Drafter of and coordinator for law professors’ comments to the Secretary of the Interior on the proclamation of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. June 1, 2017–June 12, 2017.

Provider of comments to Crook County Court on a proposed natural resources management plan that would have attempted to put in place provisions against the federal government. August 29, 2016.

Member of the Practitioners’ Reading Group for the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary evaluation of the professional qualifications of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland. 2016.

Judge for the final rounds of the Classroom Law Project’s We the People competition. Portland, Oregon. January 16, 2016.

Cochair of the National Legal Writing Institute’s Biennial Conference Site Committee. Portland, Oregon. July 1, 2014-July 16, 2016.

Organizer for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child Implementation Project Colloquium: Doing the “Best” for Children and Young People? Best Interests, Welfare, and Well-Being. Edinburgh, Scotland. June 9-10, 2015

Appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a six-year term on the board of trustees for the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. Tucson, Arizona. February 1, 2015.

Member of the committee for editing and revising the American Society of International Law’s Benchbook on International Law. Chicago, Illinois. November 7-8, 2014.

Vice-chair of the younger comparativists committee (YCC) of the American Society of Comparative Law. October 2014.

Newsletter editor for the American Society of International Law’s Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group. September 2, 2014, through May 31, 2015.

Faculty peer reviewer of federalism scholarship proposed for Yale Law Journal. August 2014.

Member of the 2015 Transactional Clinical Conference Planning Committee. June 1, 2014, through April 24, 2015.

Cofounder of the Oregon Innocence Project (OIP), which launched in April 2014 and began accepting cases in June 2014.

Organizer for the National Innocence Network Conference. Portland, Oregon. April 2014.

Member of the Oregon State Bar’s House of Delegates. 

Chair of an Oregon State Bar task force examining whether the state should provide for the limited licensing of legal technicians to provide certain defined legal services to the public. 

Judicially appointed expert witness in a federal district court case in Ohio involving the City of Akron’s combined-sewer overflows.

Member of the board of directors for the Classroom Law Project.

Editor of Administrative Law (weekly e-journal), Social Sciences Research Network.

Member of the Oregon State Bar House of Delegates.

Advisory member to the Oregon Law Commission Judicial Selection Work Group.