Lewis & Clark Law School
Notes from the Dean: The Inside Story
April 9, 2020
Dear Friends,

I hope this email finds you well. Like all of us, I imagine you have been tossed onto the roller coaster of the Coronavirus crisis. I hope you are staying healthy and are able to manage the countless challenges that continue to come our way.

In these trying times, we need each other more than ever. It is important to stay connected. In that spirit, I am reaching out to you with the first of a weekly message series titled “Notes from the Dean: The Inside Story.”

Today, I am sharing with awe and gratitude the remarkable story of how our faculty, staff and students made the shift from in-person to remote online education in record time. Human beings – especially law school professors – are not known for their ability to change ingrained behavior quickly. But motivated by a deep caring for their students, our faculty and staff rose to the occasion. Here’s how our “roller coaster” progressed:

In mid-February , our Director of Computing Services, Ryan Montgomery, reached out to me and to the Associate Dean of Faculty, John Parry, with a warning: If the Coronavirus ramps up, we may be faced with the prospect of moving all of our classes online. He encouraged us to develop a “plan B,” for what we thought then was a remote possibility. Little did we know how prescient Ryan’s suggestions would be.

As luck would have it, some members of our community were well positioned for this change to remote education. Last year, we experienced the learning curve of putting our entire environmental law LLM degree program online. Lessons learned from that endeavor formed the basis for our recent school-wide shift to online classes.

In late February, we began promoting policies for good health: no hand shaking, frequent hand washing, wiping down surfaces, and asking ill faculty, staff and students to stay home.

By early March, each day brought news that the Coronavirus was spreading, and seemingly every other day required a new decision. The Oregon Health Authority and CDC webpages were tops on my viewing list as we sought to navigate through the uncharted territory of the Coronavirus pandemic.

On March 2 , I sent an email to the faculty titled, “Plans Just in Case,” outlining the contingency plan to teach the vast majority of our classes online via Zoom or other electronic means. I closed that email with, “Hopefully, we will not need to close the school but better to be prepared!”

The data at the time suggested that we could still hold group functions, if we adhered to social distancing protocols. On March 7 we held the Distinguished Honors Dinner. Photos from the event, showing us exhibiting our best “elbow bumps,” seem like ancient history now. On March 9 , we went ahead with the Oregon Supreme Court hearings on campus, with the justices seated a few feet apart.

On March 12 , just ten days after our “contingency plans” were shared with faculty, I announced to faculty, staff and students that, “Beginning Monday, March 16, just one week before spring break, all spring-term law school courses will be delivered remotely, with some exceptions for clinics.”

On March 13 , Associate Dean of Faculty John Parry sent instructions to faculty about teaching online, which at that time included the option of going to their empty classroom to teach, with students able to watch and participate remotely. He also described how exams would need to be administered online.

That same day, we announced that the Boley Law Library would remain open, with social distancing protocols in place. Study rooms would be limited to one student at a time. Meanwhile, I was issuing instructions for employees who inquired about working from home as the fear of the virus grew. Working from home was optional for our faculty and staff that day, but that would soon change.

On March 16 , the first day of online instruction, I sent faculty a message titled “Day 1” thanking everyone for the smooth transition to online classes.

On March 17 , President Wim Wiewel sent a message that all Lewis & Clark employees who could telecommute must do so. Faculty who were teaching from their classrooms had to teach from home instead. (For more on how this has affected all three schools, you can read the president's latest letter here .)

On March 18 , I shared new rules in accordance with the Executive Order issued by Governor Kate Brown '84 that beginning March 23 , no in-person instruction could take place until April 28 at the earliest. This was the final sign that ALL of our instruction must be online including clinic instruction and that faculty could no longer deliver remote instruction from their offices or empty classrooms.

On March 20 , we closed the Boley Law Library, but staff continued to deliver online research tools and assistance (thank you to our committed library staff for their Herculean efforts). By that time, we had already closed the rest of the campus buildings to the public.

On March 28 , after careful consideration of input from students and one another, as well as with an eye to what schools across the country were doing, faculty instituted a pass/fail grading system for the spring semester, to lower stress on students who were experiencing difficult situations.

Throughout all of this upheaval and disruption, faculty have stayed focused on delivering high-quality legal instruction and doing their best to ensure that law students did not suffer as a result of the transition to an online format. Faculty members continue to be there for one another, sharing best practices for how to engage students from afar, how to troubleshoot pesky Zoom and Panopto issues, and getting together for virtual meetings and happy hours.

Faculty have also kept close ties with their now-dispersed students, offering virtual office hours and hangouts, and brainstorming ways to employ students as Research Assistants if their summer work offers are rescinded. That faculty have been able to pivot with so little preparation is a testament to their commitment, and a living example of the student-centered mission of Lewis & Clark Law School.

Next week: How we converted our Admissions Preview Day to an online preview week for prospective students.

Take care and stay well,
Jennifer Johnson
Dean, Lewis & Clark Law School
Your questions answered
Do you have a question for the Dean or for faculty members? Reply to this email; we’ll do our best to answer it in the next message.
Stepping Up!
How have you helped during the coronavirus crisis? Did you shop for a senior, deliver a meal, help a business wade through the new stimulus package to apply for funds? Please reply to this email and share your stories – we will pass them on in this section. Let's inspire one another.

Here are a few stories we've collected from our faculty and staff heroes:

Professor Bob Klonoff and his wife, Heidi, gave a generous donation which will allow faculty to employ more students this summer as Research Assistants. " We wanted to help, in a small way, to ensure that our students receive excellent work experience over the summer despite the upheaval caused by the virus."

The Small Business Legal Clinic and professor Susan Felstiner are supporting small businesses in Oregon with Small Business Legal Resources for Pandemic Related Issues.

The Boley Law Library team secured " t hrough a series of trials, short-term contracts, and the grace of many publishers" free online access to most course casebooks, plus many free e-book resources for law students.