Professor John Parry Serves as Interim Dean

Distinguished faculty member and former Associate Dean of Faculty John Parry is serving as Interim Dean from August through December 2024. In January 2025, Alicia Ouellette will begin her new deanship.

“I am so pleased that John Parry has agreed to serve as interim dean,” added Holmes-Sullivan. “Parry has ably served the law school faculty for eight years and will provide the essential leadership needed during this crucial transition period.”

In his role as Associate Dean of Faculty, Parry has led the Lewis & Clark Law School faculty for the past eight years, guiding the school’s faculty governance with essential oversight of everything from the budget to academic standards, curriculum, and teaching protocols. He has been the Law School’s representative to the Oregon Law Commission and the Oregon State Bar’s Licensing Pathways Development Committee, which developed the current alternative pathway to licensure with the Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE).

“It’s a great honor to serve the law school as Interim Dean,” said Parry. “We are in fantastic shape after Dean Johnson’s tenure, and I look forward to continuing our progress and ensuring a smooth transition for Dean Ouelette in January.”

Named the Edward Brunet Professor of Law in 2013, Parry is widely recognized for his expertise in civil litigation and his pioneering scholarship on international extradition and torture law. More broadly, his scholarly work assesses the legal structures that restrain or permit the exercise of state power on individuals, with a particular emphasis on civil rights law, foreign relations and international law, and criminal justice.

Parry is the author of “Understanding Torture: Law, Violence, and Political Identity” (Michigan 2010). He has written a casebook on civil rights litigation, co-authored the leading treatise on federal summary judgment, and co-authored a casebook on criminal law. He has also edited three collections of scholarly essays, and his articles have appeared in a number of law reviews and edited collections.

Parry was elected to the prestigious American Law Institute in 2010.

Prior to joining Lewis & Clark, Parry served as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and practiced law with Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. He earned his JD from Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude, and attended Princeton University for his undergraduate studies, earning an AB, summa cum laude.