Professor Lydia Loren Retires

After 30 years of dedicated teaching, mentorship, research and legal scholarship, Henry J. Casey Professor of Law Lydia Pallas Loren is retiring from Lewis & Clark Law School this Spring 2026.

We asked her to reflect on her amazing career:

What are you most proud of?

What I am most proud of is spending the vast majority of my professional career at a law school that always keeps students at the center of everything it does. From my first interaction at my initial interview with the school’s hiring committee in Washington D.C., I realized Lewis & Clark was special. The student member of the committee was not only there with the team in D.C., but was asking questions and participating as a full member of the committee. That was my first window into the amazing, student-centered Lewis & Clark Law School. The pride that comes from being a member of the faculty at Lewis & Clark was something I took with me wherever I went - whether it was to conferences at the “top ten” law schools, or in my work as an Associate Reporter for the first Restatement of Copyright.

Being at a school that focuses on students means that one’s teaching must be truly top tier. I feel I met that requirement throughout my entire teaching career. My records indicate that for every class I taught (except one) my “overall teaching effectiveness” score was well above 4.0 (on a 5 point scale). But I am particularly proud of the “perfect” score of a 5 that I received in my large 1L Property class in the spring 2023 semester. I had received scores of 5 in the past (at least three times, in fact) but they were all in smaller, upper division specialty classes or seminars. I started out my career teaching Civil Procedure and Federal Courts, in addition to courses in my core specialty of intellectual property. A decade ago I switched to teaching Property and discovered a love for the topics in that important 1L class. I guess that love showed through in the classroom!

What teaching moments were memorable, funny, insightful?

Often students would comment in the course evaluations that I was funny. I never went into a class with an aim of being funny, but sometimes it just happens. I learned many life lessons from my students throughout my career - words of wisdom that I took to heart (including one of my favorites: the grass is greener where you water it!).

What student interactions will you think of fondly?

Capstone papers! Over my career there have been so many great students with a passion for a particular subject. It was incredibly rewarding to work with these students as they dug into the research, refined their analysis, and honed their writing skills to craft outstanding papers, many of which were published and several of which won national writing awards.

What faculty interactions were memorable?

Grading at the beach. For at least two decades the women faculty would rent a house at the Oregon coast to grade our spring exams. Because students actually know that they graduated as they walk across the stage at commencement, the turn-around time from the end of spring exams to the grade submission deadline is often extremely tight (for example, this year it was just six days!). This means you have to be hyper-focused and task oriented to get all of their grading done. Grading with others at the beach not only kept us on task, but we would take scheduled breaks to walk on the beach and eat meals. It was such a pleasant way to do the most unpleasant part of the job!

 L-R: Professor Susan Mandiberg, Professor Michelle Travis, me, Professor Janet Neuman

And…

Dean’s Divas. Our performances began as entertainment for a PILP auction “Dean for the day” BBQ in the amphitheater. The Divas also performed for some of the school’s retirement parties, including those for Deans Jim Huffman, Bob Klonoff, and Jennifer Johnston, and long-time Dean’s secretary Pat Kraske.The Divas also took the stage at the combination retirement party for Amy Bushaw, Henry Drummonds and Doug Newell in 2024. Working with other Divas to craft the creative lyrics and settle on the intricate chorography, and then practice until we had it perfect, was always a hoot!

Professor Janet Steverson, Professor Lydia Loren, and Lisa Lesage ’85 Former Associate Dean Business Law in a past Diva’s performance

A recap of Professor Loren’s Career:

Professor Loren’s areas of expertise include intellectual property generally and copyright law in particular. Capping a stellar career as a professor and legal scholar, Professor Loren helped lead the first-ever Restatement of Copyright to completion as one of five Reporters appointed by the American Law Institute (ALI). Initiated in 2015, this ten-year endeavor culminated in the ALI’s unanimous approval of the final sections of this comprehensive document, which spans 11 chapters and 83 sections.

L to R: Professor Christopher Sprigman (NYU), Professor Lydia Loren, and Professor Tony Reese (UC Irvine)

Her popular casebook Copyright in a Global Information Economy (Aspen) (co-authored) was widely adopted at law schools across the nation. After authoring five editions, in 2024 Professor Loren and her co-authors declined the for-profit publisher’s request to update the book with a new edition. At a list price of $345, they did not want to contribute to the increasing costs of law school casebooks. After having worked together for over two decades, Professor Loren has remained good friends with her co-authors, depicted in the 2002 photo below.

L-R: Lydia Loren with her co-authors Julie Cohen (Georgetown), Maureen O’Rourke (Boston University), and Ruth Okediji (Harvard).

Her casebook Intellectual Property Law: Cases and Materials (9th ed. Semaphore Press forthcoming 2026) (co-authored), also widely adopted, is available digitally from a publishing company she co-founded, Semaphore Press, employing “pay-what-you-want” pricing, with a suggested price of just $30. The publishing model used by Semaphore Press is meant to facilitate widespread access to educational materials at reasonable prices. Professor Loren’s co-founder of Semaphore Press is former Lewis & Clark Professor Joseph S. Miller. While Professor Miller moved to the east coast to be closer to family, the two have continued operating Semaphore Press, which now offers five casebooks. Professor Miller and Loren also continuing working on their casebook together, with a new edition due out this summer

L-R: Professor Tomás Gómez-Arostegui, Professor Lydia Loren, Professor Joseph Miller

Professor Loren’s numerous law review articles address a broad range of copyright issues including whether fair use should be treated as an affirmative defense, the burdens of proof in copyright infringement litigation, how copyright law applies in the music industry, interpretations of Creative Commons contracts, approaches to statutory termination of transfer provisions, the evolution of criminal copyright infringement, and the market failure approach to fair use.

For most of her career, Professor Loren was active in the local Intellectual Property bar, serving for many years on the IP Section’s Executive Committee. She also was active in the group Northwest Lawyers and Artists founded by alum, Kohel Haver (’82). Along with several students including alum Sean Clancy (’14), she helped that organization transition to Oregon Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (OVLA) and establish a program of monthly pro bono legal clinics for local creatives. In 2013 Professor Loren was elected president of the board of OVLA. She served as president and then past president on the OVLA board until 2022.

During the 2006-2007 academic year Professor Loren served as interim dean of Lewis & Clark Law School, the first woman to hold that position at the Law School. In 2010 she was named the Kay Kitagawa & Andy Johnson-Laird IP Faculty Scholar in recognition of her exemplary teaching and scholarship in Intellectual Property law. In 2013 she was named the Robert E. Jones Professor of Advocacy & Ethics. In 2016 she was named the Henry J. Casey Professor of Law.

More details and links to many of Professor Loren’s law review articles can be found on her law school biography.