Last updated: October 6, 2026

Lewis & Clark Law School

Lewis & Clark Law School is a private law school in Portland, Oregon, that enrolled a first-year class of 176 students in Fall 2025 (156 full-time, 20 part-time) from 1,133 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 161 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.59. It is ranked #112 in the 2026 U.S. News rankings and #2 in the country for Environmental Law (tied with UC Berkeley School of Law), and 93% of its Class of 2025 graduates were employed or pursuing a graduate degree within ten months of graduation. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Lewis & Clark pairs a genuinely elite environmental and animal law program — and the only law school in Portland — with a sticker price of $63,890 for the day division, heavily discounted by a scholarship program that reaches 99% of the entering class, at a computed 2026–27 cost of attendance of approximately $97,965.

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Lewis & Clark Law at a Glance

Category	Latest information
Founded	1915 (as Northwestern College of Law)
Type	Private (Lewis & Clark College)
ABA approval or accreditation	ABA approved (1970)
Location	Portland, Oregon
Latest U.S. News rank	#112 (2026 edition); #2 in Environmental Law (tie)
Latest completed applications	1,133 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate	54.72% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median	161 (Fall 2025, 509 report); 162 (Fall 2026 entering class profile)
Latest GPA median	3.59 (Fall 2025, 509 report); 3.61 (Fall 2026 entering class profile)
Latest entering class	176 (Fall 2025; 156 full-time, 20 part-time)
Current tuition	$63,890 day division / $47,902 evening division (2026–27, annual)
Current estimated cost of attendance	≈ $97,965 day division (2026–27, computed from published line items)
Latest first-time bar passage	86.67% (2025 first-time takers); 86.99% on the Oregon Bar Exam vs. 76.26% statewide
Latest bar-required employment	90% of the Class of 2025 in bar-required or JD-advantaged positions (139 of 153 graduates)
Current dean	Alicia Ouellette, Jordan D. Schnitzer Dean (since January 2, 2025)

The admissions figures are drawn from Lewis & Clark's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (1,133 completed applications, 620 offers, 54.72% acceptance rate, 176 in the first-year class as of October 5, 2025, 519 total J.D. enrollment, 2 transfers in). The school's own Fall 2026 entering-class profile reports a class of 208 with a median LSAT of 162 and median GPA of 3.61, and percentiles of 159/162/166 and 3.32/3.61/3.83; the small differences from the 509 figures reflect different reporting dates and cohort years, and this profile cites both. Tuition and cost data are from Lewis & Clark's office of account services law-cost page for 2026–27. Alicia Ouellette, previously president and dean of Albany Law School for nine years, became the Jordan D. Schnitzer Dean on January 2, 2025, following a national search.

Historical name: the school was formed as Northwestern College of Law in 1915 and became the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College when the faculty and overseers of Northwestern College of Law joined with Lewis & Clark College in 1965. That legacy name is why some directories still index the school as "Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern)."

Introduction

Lewis & Clark Law School was established in 1915 and received American Bar Association approval in 1970. It is a private law school affiliated with Lewis & Clark College, located on a separate campus at 10101 S. Terwilliger Boulevard in the southwest quadrant of Portland, Oregon, roughly six miles south of downtown and nestled inside 645-acre Tryon Creek State Park. It is the only law school in Portland and the leading law school in the greater Northwest, with total J.D. enrollment of 519 and a student-faculty ratio of 7.3 to 1.

Lewis & Clark's identity rests on three pillars: a nationally elite environmental and natural resources law program, which has repeatedly held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the country; the world's first formal animal law program, which gave rise to the first Animal Law Clinic and now supports dedicated LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees; and an unusually generous, entirely unconditional scholarship program that reaches 99% of each entering class. Its graduates dominate Oregon's environmental, public-interest, and government legal communities and include a U.S. Senator, multiple U.S. Representatives, and two Oregon governors.

Rankings and Reputation

Lewis & Clark Law School is ranked #112 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings and #2 in the country in Environmental Law, tied with UC Berkeley School of Law. Its reputation rests overwhelmingly on its specialty programs rather than its overall rank position: the environmental law program is the school's flagship and has been nationally top-ranked for decades, and the animal law program was the first of its kind in the world.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition	Lewis & Clark rank
2026	112
Prior reported editions	#82 overall (third-party report, 2024–2025 cycle)

The school's prior-year overall ranks are reported inconsistently across third-party trackers: one 2026 dataset places the school at #99 on applicant-preference metrics, and a circulated summary of the 2024–2025 edition lists #82 overall with a #3 national environmental law placement, while the current U.S. News edition places the school at #112. Because these trackers use different methodologies and cycle labels, mid-band movement in either direction should be treated as immaterial to Lewis & Clark's practical career outcomes, which are driven by its environmental and animal law programs, its monopoly on the Portland market, and its bar and employment results rather than overall rank position.

Specialty rankings

Environmental Law: #2 in the country (tie with UC Berkeley School of Law) — 2026 U.S. News. The program has repeatedly held the No. 1 national ranking, including for 2022, and was ranked #3 in an earlier cycle.
Animal Law: home of the Center for Animal Law Studies (founded 2008), the first formal animal law program in the world and the origin of the first Animal Law Clinic; the school offers dedicated LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees in Animal Law.
Employment placement in environmental/public-interest work: the school has ranked as high as #3 in the nation for graduates employed in public-interest and environmental positions, and reports over 14,000 law alumni.
Certificate programs (school-reported): animal law, business and commercial law, criminal law, environmental and natural resources law, energy innovation and sustainability law, federal taxation law, international law, intellectual property law, litigation and advocacy skills, and public interest law.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric	Fall 2025
Completed applications	1,133
Offers of admission	620
Acceptance rate	54.72%
Enrollees from applicant pool	176
Total in first-year class	176 (156 full-time, 20 part-time)
Total J.D. enrollment	519
Transfers in	2
Yield (enrollees / offers)	28.4%

The school's Fall 2026 entering-class profile, current as of Orientation Day in August 2026, reports a first-year class of 208 students with an average age of 27 and an age range of 19 to 75. The class is 58% women; 31% are self-identified students of color; 62% come from out of state; 7% were born outside the United States; 10% hold advanced degrees; and 6 are veterans. The class represents more than 50 undergraduate majors, 106 undergraduate institutions, and 32 states and provinces including the District of Columbia.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
LSAT (Fall 2025 entering class, 509 report)	158	161	166
Undergraduate GPA (Fall 2025 entering class, 509 report)	3.24	3.59	3.79
LSAT (Fall 2026 entering class profile)	159	162	166
Undergraduate GPA (Fall 2026 entering class profile)	3.32	3.61	3.83

The LSAT and UGPA percentiles are calculated by the Law School Admission Council based on matriculant lists provided by Lewis & Clark to the ABA. The school reports that 22 students in a recent entering class scored above 170 on the LSAT.

Interpreting the numbers

Lewis & Clark's admissions profile sits in the upper-middle of the accredited-school distribution and has firmed noticeably: a 161 median LSAT and 3.59 median GPA on the 509 report, improving to 162 and 3.61 with the Fall 2026 class. The 54.72% acceptance rate reflects a self-selecting applicant pool drawn heavily to the school's environmental and animal law specializations, and it places the school in the more accessible half of ABA-approved schools. The 25th-percentile figures — an LSAT of 158–159 and a GPA of 3.24–3.32 — mean a meaningful share of the class enters below the median. No LSAT or GPA guarantees admission given holistic review.

Application timing

The application fee is $0. The application deadline is March 15 and the financial aid deadline is February 15. Admitted J.D. students receive automatic consideration for all incoming-student merit scholarships, with no separate application required; any incoming student receiving a scholarship is notified at the time of admission. The J.D. is offered in both day (full-time) and evening (part-time) divisions, and a summer school term allows students to accelerate graduation or to take part-time semesters while still finishing within three years.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Item	2026–27
Day division (full-time) tuition, per semester	$31,945
Day division (full-time) tuition, annual	$63,890
Evening division (part-time) tuition, per semester	$23,951
Evening division (part-time) tuition, annual	$47,902
ABA 509 tuition and fees, 2025–26 (full-time)	$61,434 + $50 fee
ABA 509 tuition and fees, 2025–26 (part-time)	$46,060 + $50 fee

Day division students typically take 13 to 15 credit hours per semester; evening division students typically take 8 to 11. Day upper-division students enrolled in 16 or 17 credit hours pay an additional $2,359 per credit per semester, and evening upper-division students enrolled in 12 credit hours pay an additional $2,359 per semester. Summer school is billed at $2,359 per credit. The mandated $50 annual fee is the Loan Repayment Assistance Program fee, charged at $25 per semester.

Cost of attendance

Expense	Day division (per year)	Evening division (per year)
Tuition	$63,890	$47,902
Health insurance (waivable if covered)	$5,655	$5,655
Loan Repayment Assistance Program fee	$50	$50
Food and housing (estimated)	$19,170	$19,170
Books and supplies (estimated)	$1,600	$1,600
Transportation (estimated)	$2,700	$2,700
Personal expenses (estimated)	$3,600	$3,600
Federal student loan fees (estimated)	$1,300	$1,300
Professional licensing expenses (final year only, J.D.)	$910	$910
Computed total (first and second years)	≈ $97,965	≈ $81,977

The individual line items are published by Lewis & Clark's office of account services at per-semester rates ($9,585 for food and housing, $800 for books and supplies, $1,350 for transportation, $1,800 for personal expenses, and $650 for federal loan fees) and doubled above to produce annual figures; the totals shown are computed from those published components rather than quoted as a single official number. The school reserves the right to change charges at any time at the discretion of its Board of Trustees. Health insurance is $2,827.50 per semester and is waived for students already covered.

Financial aid

Lewis & Clark's scholarship program is among the broadest and most straightforward in American legal education. Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 484 students received grants, with a median grant of $26,000, a 25th percentile of $19,000, and a 75th percentile of $36,000. The school reports that 99% of Fall 2026 incoming students received scholarships or grants, with a median 1L merit scholarship of $30,000, and states that over 98% of all incoming students typically receive a scholarship or grant.

Critically, all scholarships for incoming students are unconditional: students need not maintain a specified GPA or class rank for their merit scholarship to renew annually. The school accordingly states that it does not award scholarships reducible or eliminable on the basis of law school academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing, and therefore does not complete the ABA conditional-scholarship retention chart.

All J.D. applicants — including international and undocumented individuals — are eligible for Lewis & Clark merit scholarships, and admitted students receive automatic consideration for all incoming-student merit scholarships, including the Dean's Scholarship for Excellence. Donor-supported scholarships typically fund all or part of an existing merit award and often pair the recipient with the sponsoring donor. Recipients of outside scholarships must report them to the Office of Financial Aid, and awards may be revised as a result. Veterans education benefits are coordinated through the Registrar.

Debt perspective

Average indebtedness of 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt: not available in the sources reviewed.
Proportion who borrowed: not available in the sources reviewed.
Loan repayment assistance program (LRAP): offered. The school maintains a Loan Repayment Assistance Program and charges a $25-per-semester LRAP fee ($50 per year) to fund it; program terms and income thresholds were not published in machine-readable form on the pages reviewed.
Approximate three-year full-price cost (day division, tuition plus the line items above): ≈ $293,895 before scholarship. Applying a $30,000 median scholarship across three years gives ≈ $203,895.

The combination of a high sticker price and an unusually broad, unconditional award program means that net cost for the median student is substantially below list price, and that students do not face the risk of losing an award for academic underperformance — a genuine differentiator against schools whose scholarship programs are conditional. Prospective students should confirm their individual award and the current LRAP terms directly with the school.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Lewis & Clark's Career Services Office reported that, as of the ABA's March reporting deadline, 93% (142 of 153) of 2025 graduates were employed or pursuing a graduate degree within ten months of graduation. Of the employed graduates, 90% were in bar-required or JD-advantaged positions, which the school describes as the most coveted positions for a law degree; 138 of those were full-time, long-term positions.

Employment metric	Class of 2025
Total graduates	153
Employed or pursuing a graduate degree within 10 months	142 (93%)
Bar-required or JD-advantaged positions	139 (90%)
Full-time, long-term bar-required or JD-advantaged	138
Judicial clerkships	20 (14.4%)
Law firms	69 (49.6%)
Public interest legal positions	26 (18.9%)
Government / public service	12
Business and industry	10
Academia	1
Unknown employment type	1
Not seeking employment	1
Still seeking employment as of March 15	10

Because a majority of the class entered private practice, the school also publishes NALP summary reports for the Classes of 2024 and 2023, which contain firm-size distributions and salary percentiles; the ABA Employment Summaries for the Classes of 2025, 2024, and 2023 are published on the school's Career Services statistics page. The detailed ABA firm-size categories, school-funded position counts, and salary percentiles for the Class of 2025 were not machine-readable in the sources reviewed and should be taken from those reports directly.

What these numbers mean

The results are strong and consistent for a school in this ranking band: a 93% employment-plus-graduate-study rate, a 90% bar-required-or-JD-advantaged rate, and 138 full-time long-term positions from a class of 153. The two features that distinguish the class from most peer schools are the judicial clerkship share — 20 clerks, or 14.4% of the class — and the public-interest share of 18.9%, both well above national medians and consistent with the school's environmental and public-service orientation. Only 10 graduates (6.5%) were still seeking employment at the reporting date. The honest caveat is that the school's placement footprint is concentrated in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest: Lewis & Clark dominates Portland's environmental, public-interest, and government bar, but graduates targeting large-firm practice in major markets compete without a national brand.

Bar passage

Bar statistic	Value
First-time bar passage, 2025	86.67% (school-reported)
Oregon Bar Exam, first-time	86.99% — versus an Oregon statewide pass rate of 76.26% (+10.73 points)
ABA ultimate bar passage (all graduates sitting within two years)	88.48% (school-reported)
First-time bar passage (U.S. News profile)	85%
Average first-time passage among U.S. states (U.S. News profile)	75.6%
Ultimate bar passage, two-year average (U.S. News profile)	88.1%
Bar pass rate (ABA profile, as cited by Wikipedia)	87%

The measures are consistent and point the same direction. Lewis & Clark's 2025 first-time rate of 86.67% and its Oregon first-time rate of 86.99% both substantially exceed the Oregon statewide pass rate of 76.26%, a differential of nearly 11 points; the U.S. News composite first-time figure of 85% sits against a 75.6% average across U.S. states; and the ultimate two-year rate of 88.1–88.48% is solid. The variation between 85%, 86.67%, and 87% reflects differing methodologies rather than substantive disagreement.

Where graduates go

Lewis & Clark graduates practice predominantly in Oregon, with Portland the dominant destination, followed by Washington State, California, and other Western states; the school reports over 14,000 law alumni. The class distribution above — 69 in law firms, 26 in public interest, 20 in judicial clerkships, and 12 in government or public service — reflects the school's environmental and public-service orientation, and the school has ranked as high as #3 nationally for graduates employed in public-interest positions. Salary statistics by sector are published in the school's NALP summaries and were not machine-readable in the sources reviewed.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. is offered in day (full-time) and evening (part-time) divisions, with certificates available in ten specialty areas and graduate or joint degrees available in environmental law and animal law. The school's stated mission is to educate exceptional lawyers, drive legal innovation, and train advocates for a better world, with a curriculum explicitly built around doctrine, practice skills, and professional-identity formation.

Curriculum and special strengths

Environmental and natural resources law is the school's flagship program and one of the strongest in the world, ranked #2 nationally in the 2026 U.S. News edition and repeatedly ranked No. 1. It is supported by the Environmental Law Review, a joint J.D./LL.M. degree in Environmental Law, and online and on-campus LL.M. and Master of Studies (M.S.L.) degrees in Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law, plus a certificate in energy, innovation, and sustainability law.

Animal law is the school's other globally distinctive program. The Center for Animal Law Studies was founded at the school in 2008 and became the first formal animal law program in the world, giving rise to the first Animal Law Clinic; the school now offers dedicated online and on-campus LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees in Animal Law.

The school offers certificates in animal law, business and commercial law, criminal law, environmental and natural resources law, energy innovation and sustainability law, federal taxation law, international law, intellectual property law, litigation and advocacy skills, and public interest law. It operates a joint J.D./M.B.A. with Portland State University and a joint J.D./LL.M. in Environmental Law, along with LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees in environmental and animal law available both on campus and online.

Student scholarship is published in three student-edited journals: the Environmental Law Review, the Animal Law Review, and the Lewis & Clark Law Review. The litigation and advocacy program is housed in a dedicated center, and the school maintains a structured lawyering program covering legal analysis, research, writing, and professional skills.

Clinics and experiential learning

Experiential training is anchored by the Animal Law Clinic — the first of its kind in the world — and by the environmental and natural resources program's field and advocacy work. Additional clinical, skills-focused courses, externships, and other field placements form the school's core experiential offering. Detailed clinic rosters, credit hours, and enrollment caps were not retrievable in machine-readable form from the pages reviewed; prospective students should request the current clinical course list from the school.

Faculty

Metric	Value
Full-time faculty	43
Non-full-time faculty	100
Librarians	6 (all full-time)
Student-faculty ratio	7.3:1 (school-reported)

The 7.3:1 student-faculty ratio is strong nationally and is consistent with the school's self-description as student-centered. The high ratio of non-full-time to full-time faculty (100 to 43) is typical of schools in a substantial legal market that can draw practicing attorneys and judges as adjunct professors.

Student Life and Location

Living in Portland

Lewis & Clark Law School occupies its own campus at 10101 S. Terwilliger Boulevard in the southwest quadrant of Portland, Oregon, about six miles south of downtown and 10 to 12 minutes away by the school's free campus shuttle, the Otterbus. The law school campus is adjacent to Lewis & Clark College and sits inside 645-acre Tryon Creek State Park, giving students immediate access to forest trails and a materially greener setting than an urban law school. Portland is a metropolitan area of roughly 2.5 million residents with a well-established environmental, land-use, and public-interest legal community, and both the Oregon state courts and the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon are within a short drive. The school's published indirect budget reflects Portland's cost of living: $9,585 per semester for food and housing, about $19,170 per year, plus $1,350 per semester for transportation and $1,800 per semester in personal expenses. The trade-offs are the high cost of housing relative to other Western markets, wet and overcast winters, and a local legal market that is small enough that graduates targeting large-firm practice elsewhere must look to Seattle, the Bay Area, or beyond.

Student body

Total J.D. enrollment is 519, with a first-year class of 176 in Fall 2025 (156 day, 20 evening) growing to 208 for Fall 2026. The Fall 2026 entering class is 58% women, with an average age of 27 and an age range of 19 to 75; 31% are self-identified students of color; 62% are from out of state; 7% were born outside the United States; 10% hold advanced degrees; and 6 are veterans. The class represents more than 50 undergraduate majors, 106 undergraduate institutions, and 32 states and provinces including the District of Columbia. Wikipedia lists total enrollment at 719, which appears to include non-J.D. graduate programs (LL.M. and M.S.L. students); the Fall 2025 ABA 509 report states 519 J.D. students, and that figure is used here.

How Lewis & Clark Compares

Choose Lewis & Clark if

You want environmental or natural resources law: the program is ranked #2 in the country (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News edition and has repeatedly been ranked No. 1, with a dedicated law review, a joint J.D./LL.M., and online and on-campus LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees.
You want animal law — the school created the field's first formal program (Center for Animal Law Studies, 2008) and its first clinic, and offers a dedicated LL.M. and M.S.L. in Animal Law.
You want to practice in Portland or the Pacific Northwest, where Lewis & Clark is the only law school in the city and the region's dominant source of environmental, public-interest, and government lawyers.
Scholarship certainty matters: 99% of Fall 2026 incoming students received a scholarship or grant, the median 1L merit award is $30,000, and every incoming scholarship is unconditional — no GPA or class-rank requirement to renew.
You want judicial clerkships or public-interest work: 14.4% of the Class of 2025 entered clerkships and 18.9% entered public-interest legal positions.
You need a part-time or evening J.D., or you want to accelerate through summer school; both divisions are offered, with the evening program at $47,902 per year.

Consider alternatives if

You want large-firm practice in a major national market — the University of Washington School of Law, Berkeley Law, and Stanford Law School place far more graduates into large firms, and none of the Pacific Northwest schools outside Washington has a strong national BigLaw pipeline.
You want a lower sticker price without relying on scholarship: the University of Oregon School of Law, the state's public option, charges residents materially less at list price.
You are targeting federal clerkships at the highest level or a research-intensive academic career.
You need published average-debt and borrowing figures before committing; neither could be verified for Lewis & Clark in the sources reviewed.
You want a large national alumni network or coast-to-coast portability — Lewis & Clark's network is concentrated in Oregon and the West.
You are deterred by Portland's housing costs or by wet, overcast winters.

The TLS Verdict

Lewis & Clark Law School is the strongest specialty-program school in the Pacific Northwest and one of the best values in legal education once scholarship is applied. Its environmental law program is ranked #2 in the country (tied with Berkeley) and has repeatedly held the No. 1 spot; its animal law program invented the field, created the first Animal Law Clinic, and now supports dedicated LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees; it is the only law school in Portland; and its Class of 2025 outcomes — 93% employed or in graduate study, 90% in bar-required or JD-advantaged positions, 20 judicial clerks (14.4%), and 26 public-interest placements — are strong and consistent. Bar passage is genuinely solid: 86.67% first-time, with Oregon first-timers passing at 86.99% against a 76.26% statewide rate, a differential of nearly 11 points.

The scholarship structure is the school's most underappreciated feature. With 99% of the Fall 2026 entering class receiving aid, a $30,000 median 1L merit award, and all incoming scholarships unconditional — no GPA or class-rank renewal threshold — Lewis & Clark removes the attrition risk that makes conditional-scholarship programs so dangerous at peer schools. That is unusual, and it materially changes the risk calculus of paying $63,890 in annual day-division tuition.

The trade-offs are real. The sticker price is high, and the computed cost of attendance approaches $98,000 per year for the day division, so the school is a value only with a substantial award. Placement is concentrated in Oregon and the West; the school is not a national BigLaw pipeline, and its 2026 U.S. News overall rank of #112 sits well below where its specialty programs sit. Average debt and borrowing rates could not be verified. And the local market, while deep in environmental and public-interest work, is small in absolute terms.

Target applicant: a student committed to environmental, natural resources, energy, or animal law, or to a Portland or Pacific Northwest practice, who values a rigorous specialty curriculum and the certainty of an unconditional scholarship over national reach and large-firm volume.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Lewis & Clark Law?

Moderately selective: for Fall 2025, Lewis & Clark admitted 54.72% of applicants (620 offers from 1,133 completed applications), with 176 enrolling for a 28.4% yield. The application fee is $0.

What LSAT score is competitive for Lewis & Clark Law?

The median LSAT was 161 for the Fall 2025 entering class (25th percentile 158, 75th percentile 166) and 162 for the Fall 2026 class (159 to 166). Scores at or above 161 are competitive; no score guarantees admission given holistic review.

What GPA do Lewis & Clark applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA was 3.59 for Fall 2025 (25th percentile 3.24, 75th percentile 3.79) and 3.61 for Fall 2026 (3.32 to 3.83).

Does Lewis & Clark give scholarships?

Yes, and at an unusually broad and safe level. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 484 students received grants with a median of $26,000 (25th percentile $19,000, 75th percentile $36,000). The school reports that 99% of Fall 2026 incoming students received a scholarship or grant, with a median 1L merit scholarship of $30,000, and that all incoming scholarships are unconditional — no GPA or class-rank requirement to renew. It therefore files no conditional-scholarship retention chart.

What is Lewis & Clark's bar passage rate?

The 2025 first-time rate was 86.67%, and Oregon first-time takers passed at 86.99% against a 76.26% statewide rate — a differential of nearly 11 points. The ABA ultimate bar passage rate is 88.48%. The U.S. News profile reports 85% first-time against a 75.6% average among U.S. states, with an 88.1% two-year ultimate rate.

Is Lewis & Clark good for BigLaw?

Not as a pipeline. The Class of 2025 placement split was 69 in law firms (49.6%), 26 in public interest, 20 in judicial clerkships, 12 in government or public service, and 10 in business and industry, with the majority of private-practice placements in small and mid-sized Oregon and Western firms. Graduates targeting large firms do so through individual effort and typically in Seattle, the Bay Area, or beyond.

Does Lewis & Clark offer a part-time J.D.?

Yes. The evening division enrolled 20 students in the Fall 2025 first-year class and costs $23,951 per semester, or $47,902 per year. The day division costs $31,945 per semester, or $63,890 per year. Summer school is available at $2,359 per credit and can be used to accelerate graduation.

What is Lewis & Clark Law best known for?

Environmental and natural resources law (ranked #2 in the country in 2026 and repeatedly No. 1), animal law (the world's first formal animal law program and first Animal Law Clinic, with dedicated LL.M. and M.S.L. degrees), its position as Portland's only law school, and an unusually broad program of unconditional scholarships reaching 99% of entering students.

Contact and Key Links

Lewis & Clark Law School
10101 S. Terwilliger Boulevard
Portland, OR 97219-7799

Admissions Phone: 503-768-6613

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Main Switchboard: (503) 768-6600

ABA Accreditation Contact: Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654 — 312-988-6738

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

Northwestern Law

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