Upon Retirement: Bon Voyage to Steve Johansen

A Commitment to Lawyering

Steve came to the law school as a student in the late 80’s, attending law school at night while teaching in the Beaverton School District. During his law school career, he was hired to be a teaching assistant in the legal writing program and saw its limitations first hand. “It was not the perfect model,” Steve said. “Hiring students to teach other students, grading their papers, etc., with just one professor overseeing the work, was just not effective.”

After Steve graduated, he practiced law for nine months before the law school asked Steve to return as a Legal Writing Instructor, replacing Judith Miller. In 1990, Steve became the first director of the Legal Writing Program, where he began the work towards creating the nationally recognized Lawyering Program at Lewis & Clark Law.

“It was critical to have full time professors teach Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research, now known as Lawyering,” Steve recalls. “We were one of the first law schools to make that leap.”

Since the 90’s, Steve has led national and international efforts to promote the discipline of legal writing, serving as president of the Legal Writing Institute in 2002-2004. Then, he turned his focus to legal storytelling, “A few of us started the conference on Applied Legal Storytelling some 18 years ago. We just finished our tenth conference, held every other year.” In 2009, the Legal Writing Institute and Association of Legal Writing Directors awarded Steve the Thomas Blackwell Memorial Award, recognized as the highest honor in the Legal Writing academy.

Leading Admissions

During his many years as a faculty member, Steve served on the Admissions Committee, reviewing applications and helping to make the decisions on who to admit. When the law school was searching for a new Admissions Director in 2022-23, Steve offered to step in and assume that role.

Since the summer of 2023, Steve has hired a new team of admissions officers, orchestrated a return to robust participation in law fairs all over the country (after COVID), and welcomed increasingly talented incoming classes.

Steve’s quiet and humble leadership and his loyal friendship and support of Lewis & Clark will be sorely missed. He tells us he’s still doing “some traveling” for the law school this fall, but mostly he’s embracing new adventures in travel and life.

Bon Voyage Steve and thank you for your service!