Law School Dean Jennifer Johnson to step down August 2024

Dear Staff and Faculty,

Jennifer Johnson, Dean of the Lewis & Clark Law School and Erskine Wood Sr. Professor of Law, has announced her plans to step down from the dean position in August 2024.

During Dean Johnson’s ten-year tenure she has been an esteemed colleague and transformed the law school. Her leadership and vision have made the law school a national leader in public service employment. Its Environmental Law Program is consistently ranked one of the top in the nation and it has the most robust Animal Law Program in the world. The law school’s innovative Business Law Programs are highly regarded. Its entrepreneurial clinics engage in cutting edge work with environmental, natural resources, and energy law cases; wildlife and farmed animal protection; criminal justice reform; and small business transactions and tax issues for low-income individuals. The law school attracts top students with high LSAT scores and GPAs. Graduates enjoy high bar pass rates and the graduate employment rate is more than 90 percent.

Under Dean Johnson’s leadership, the law school has raised over $57 million, increasing the law school endowment by 52.7 percent, and providing 64 new scholarships for incoming and upper-division law students.

I am deeply grateful for Jennifer’s decade of service as dean and on the Executive Council, and will miss having her as part of my leadership team.

Thankfully, she has given us plenty of time to conduct a full search process for a new dean. She has also promised to assist with the transition during a much deserved sabbatical year, starting September 1, 2024, and to remain engaged with Lewis & Clark.

Please join me in thanking Jennifer for her years of exemplary leadership and service and, as we get closer to August 2024, in wishing her well in all future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Robin H. Holmes-Sullivan

President