John and Susan Bates Family Endowed Scholarship for Business Law

John E. Bates, former chair of the Lewis & Clark College Board of Trustees, and his wife, Susan, established this scholarship to encourage and support 1L law students who are planning to pursue a career in business law.

About the Bates Family

John and Susan Bates have been an integral part of Lewis & Clark College for over thirty years. John was a professor of finance and investments in the College of Arts & Sciences. When John was teaching, his wife Susan and son Christopher led twenty-four students to the Benelux countries on a Lewis & Clark program. The Bates family is still close to most of those students, helping to keep the family in touch with the College. John is a Lifetime Trustee of the College, recently having served as Board Chair. John has been an investment banker in New York, an advisor in Abu Dhabi, UAE and with his son, Christopher, the founder of Bates Private Capital, Inc. The firm, that furnishes forensic accounting services and expert witnessing, was recently sold. Prior to the sale, John and Chris had testified over two hundred times throughout the United States and consulted in England, Germany and Switzerland. Susan has been an educator, teaching in the Beaverton, Oregon school district. Among other topics, Susan taught accounting and computers. Both John and Susan are active in a broad range of community activities in Portland.

John is a member of the Law School’s Board of Visitors and in 2008, received an Honorary Alumni Award from the law school.

Read his biography at the Board of Visitors.