After a career supporting emerging businesses abroad, Lewis & Clark College grad Lyndsey Romick has returned to her home state and alma mater to lead the Center for Business Law and Leadership (CBLL) at the law school. As director, Romick will continue strengthening connections between the law school and the business community to create opportunities for law students, with mentorship, practical skill development and career networking.
Located off-campus in the heart of downtown Portland, the Center builds connections between the law school and the business community, with a goal of preparing students to become the region’s next generation of trusted advisors and decision makers thus supporting overall economic development. The CBLL houses both the Small Business Legal Clinic and the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic
A native of Grants Pass, Oregon, Lyndsey Romick’s career took a circuitous route back to Portland after graduating from Lewis & Clark College with a bachelor’s in international affairs. Work on a successful congressional campaign in Florida led to a move to Washington, D.C., where she also earned a master’s in international affairs from American University. Eventually she landed at Chemonics International, a private firm that administered U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs. There she worked with projects in several African nations, and then later in Ukraine.
Romick’s Ukraine portfolio initially included programs in judicial reform, including legal education, and small business competitiveness. After the war with Russia intensified, that work escalated and expanded to address supply chain disruptions and diversify export markets for local firms. In 2021 she and her husband returned to Portland, where she continued to work remotely in support of USAID programs up until the USAID agency was eliminated by the Trump administration in 2025. Meanwhile, she met Prof. Susan Felstiner through her collaboration with Romick’s Ukrainian legal colleagues on a series of online workshops for Ukrainian law students, which led to participation at a legal education conference in San Francisco, ongoing conversations, and an eventual job opportunity.
“There’s so much to love about Portland,” Romick says. To her, the key is to get more people involved via the right connections and opportunities. For the CBLL, her goal is to further opportunities for Lewis & Clark Law students, build on faculty expertise and leverage the alumni network. She sees room to tackle emerging trends, provide guidance on key issues facing the business community, and more.
Another area of focus will be increased support for the legal clinics. “They do great work, but they’re limited in the number of people served because there’s not enough money to support them. We have to turn off the intake form [for new clients] every month.”
She also hopes to build awareness among students of business law and different career paths that are possible: There is so much crossover with fields like green technology or outdoor recreation that students interested in all types of law specializations can explore. The center has built up connections with companies like Nike, Intel and ZoomInfo—work that contributed to recent national recognition.
“Our programs, like Intel Deal-Making Workshop, Nike Mentorship and Speaker Series and ZoomInfo Legal Counsel workshop, offer valuable experiences for students, because the focus is on the practical skills of lawyering: It’s a window into what being a lawyer in a business looks like,” she noted.
Romick credits her undergraduate education at Lewis & Clark College for the career she has enjoyed thus far. “It gave me the ability to think and write, solve problems and become a flexible, critical thinker.” The smaller campus community means that “opportunities happen—you have a chance to do work that’s meaningful and that gave me the skills and confidence to take on big projects like leading the Center.”
