Law professor Bill Williamson retires
That exuberance is characteristic of Williamson, whose contributions have helped the law school achieve its current success.
Lewis & Clark Law School now stands among the top quarter of law schools in the nation and has an environmental law program that is consistently ranked one of the best.
“Bill is an idea man,” says Ron Lansing, professor of law. “At an early stage in the law school’s growth, he was responsible for laying the foundation for Environmental Law, the legal clinic, the Cornelius Honor Society and other programs that are so essential to the law school.”
With 31 years of teaching under his belt, Williamson retired recently after a stroke left him partially blind. The spring issue of Lewis & Clark’s student-edited law review, Environmental Law, was dedicated to Williamson in honor of his contributions.
Williamson came to Lewis & Clark in 1969 after serving as chief appellate counsel for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office under George Van Hoomissen. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Oregon and a juris doctor degree from Harvard University. He helped to write the Citizen’s Handbook on Environmental Legislation(Platt and Perrin, 1972). He is past president of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, served as executive secretary of the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness from 1976 to 1981 and was a member of the Oregon Council on Court Procedures from 1982 to 1984.
“Billy is an academic at heart: inquisitive, skeptical, creative, well-read and very smart,” says Dean James Huffman, Erskine Wood, Sr., Professor of Law. “Our law school will miss Billy. Every student who took time to visit his office and to engage him in serious conversation feels indebted to this wonderful and caring man.”
