Small Business Legal Clinic Update
Contracts for Service Provider Clients
Students worked closely with service provider clients, such as construction contractors and landscape maintenance businesses, learning their client’s business and crafting a contract that minimized and managed risk. Students also helped a gluten-free Mexican bakery and a culturally specific end-of-life care provider set up their businesses and work through their owners agreements, tackling issues such as how they will make decisions and what they want to happen if one of them leaves the business.
Patent Clinic: Going Strong for Five Years
The patent clinic celebrates its fifth anniversary this year and continues to offer excellent advice and work product. Not only do students prepare and draft patents, but they help clients strategize and determine what kind of intellectual property protection is best for them. They draft NDAs and licensing agreements, as well as perform prior art searches to help clients understand what obstacles might need to be navigated to obtain a patent.
In a patent clinic first, students submitted a successful petition to the technical director. The client had gone through the entire patent application examination process and paid all the necessary fees to have their patent issued, but due to a technical error, the clinic never received a vital communication from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the USPTO abandoned the application. Petitions are difficult to win, and they are notoriously difficult to put together within the pertinent time constraints. Students worked diligently to provide the required evidence to show the patent clinic had not received the communication; they argued succinctly, yet powerfully. The work was greeted with complete success, and it led to the issuance of the client’s patent.
Trademark Help
Students also were asked to tackle trademark matters, learning to research the feasibility of trademark registration and, sometimes, the art of delivering bad news and helping clients find alternative ways to meet their goals.
More Clinic Updates
Public Defense Practicum
Students provided comprehensive legal support—under the guidance of their supervisors—for over 250 individuals who had previously been on the unrepresented list.
National Crime Victims Litigation Institute
This year, students at the National Crime Victims Litigation Institute (NCVLI) tackled a wide range of cutting-edge legal issues impacting victims’ rights.
Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC)
As of summer 2025, the LITC has served 216 Oregonians in a variety of tax-related matters—a significant increase in case volume from prior years.
Green Energy Institute (GEI)
The Green Energy Institute continues to propel forward progress on Oregon’s climate policies despite national pressure to undermine momentum.
Earthrise
Earthrise’s work in 2024–25 spurred habitat improvements for endangered shortnose sturgeon in the Connecticut River.
Western Resources Legal Center (WRLC)
The Western Resources Legal Center (WRLC) offers a litigation practicum to L&C law students with hands-on legal training on behalf of natural resource users.
Farmed Animal Protection Project
The Farmed Animal Protection Project trains JD, LLM, and MSL students to use legal tools to advocate for farmed animals.
Farmed Animal Protection Project
The Farmed Animal Protection Project (FAPP) offers students a two-semester experiential learning opportunity focused on farmed animal protection.
Western Resources Legal Center (WRLC)
The Western Resources Legal Center (WRLC) offers a litigation practicum to L&C law students with hands-on legal training on behalf of natural resource users.
Green Energy Institute (GEI)
Thanks to donor support, the clinic employed several top-notch law clerks to assist us in advocacy efforts.
Crime Victim Litigation Clinic (CVLC)
Throughout the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, Crime Victim Litigation Clinic students engaged in significant legal work nationwide.
Earthrise
This year marked a bittersweet transition for Earthrise, as Earthrise Director and Clinical Professor Allison LaPlante ’02 left the law school after almost 20 years.
More Stories
From the Dean
Speaking with students is one of my favorite parts of being dean. At Lewis & Clark Law School, I’ve discovered a rare and powerful combination: students who pair fierce dedication to their mission with deep collaboration and a genuine commitment to each other’s success.
A Decade of Dedication:
Professor Lydia Pallas Loren’s Work on the Landmark Restatement of Copyright.
Legal Expertise Supports Migratory Species
Professors Chris Wold and Erica Lyman facilitated a workshop with CMS Parties to discuss the legal contours of some of the treaty’s most important provisions.
Beyond the Bar
Most graduates of law school go on to practice law, working in law firms or providing legal counsel to organizations and businesses. Yet, for some, the lessons of law apply more broadly, and the outcome of their law school education has been a surprising and successful career outside of law. Here are just a few of our alums who followed an alternative route.