Lisa Kloppenberg came to the School of Law as dean in 2001. Previously a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, she is a widely published expert in constitutional law and an advocate of Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR). As dean she constantly looks toward the future of the School of Law. “We need to continue to build and foster an already strong community,” she says.

A First Amendment class at the University of Southern California, where she was an undergraduate journalism major, first attracted Dean Kloppenberg to study law. She saw the important role lawyers have in protecting freedom. She also found law to be intellectually challenging and was drawn to its wide variety of career paths.

After graduating from the University of Southern California Law Center, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Southern California Law Review, Dean Kloppenberg clerked for Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A mentor to Dean Kloppenberg, Judge Nelson was one of the first females on the U.S. Court of Appeals, one of the first female deans in legal education, and a trailblazer in the ADR field. “We have similar values,” Dean Kloppenberg says. “She found decanal work fulfilling and saw the qualities of a successful law dean in me.” Dean Kloppenberg is currently working on a biography of Judge Nelson.

Before teaching, Dean Kloppenberg was an attorney with Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler in Washington, D.C., for four years. She was involved with litigation, arbitration, and mediation of a variety of domestic and international disputes. She served as a pro bono mediator for a federal court and performed pro bono work for a number of public interest organizations including the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, USA.

Dean Kloppenberg then returned to the West Coast to teach at the University of Oregon School of Law. Her interest in constitutional law, which began in her undergraduate years, evolved as a teacher. As she taught classes on civil procedures and federal courts, “constitutional issues kept coming up.” She is particularly interested in how courts decide which constitutional issues to address and how they handle those issues.

As a faculty member at the University of Oregon for nearly ten years, Dean Kloppenberg also founded and directed the school’s Appropriate Dispute Resolution Program. In 1994 she was awarded the Orlando J. Hollis Distinguished Teaching Award. She has been a visiting professor at the University of San Diego, Magdalen College in Oxford, England, and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

While in Oregon, Dean Kloppenberg was heavily involved in service organizations. She served on the board of directors of the Relief Nursery, which coordinates services for abused and neglected children. She provided pro bono legal assistance to an organization that aids torture victims, and to a foundation that awards fellowships to needy students. Dean Kloppenberg has continued her involvement in children’s issues since coming to Dayton, and she is currently on the Hospice of Dayton board.

Now at UDSL, Dean Kloppenberg focuses on plans for the school's future. She has already created the position of Dean of Students and will continue to put an emphasis on student services. The school has placed more emphasis on bar passage, and new faculty member were hired for the Program in Law & Technology, with an advanced degree program in the works. Dean Kloppenberg has encouraged greater visibility for faculty through scholarship, presentations, and in the media.

Additionally, Dean Kloppenberg teaches regularly, engages in scholarly work, develops and maintains relations with alumni, and raises funds for the school. Many would be overwhelmed by her responsibilities, but Dean Kloppenberg says it’s a team effort, and she feels she has a talent for energizing people. “It’s more of an attitude,” she says. “I focus on our priorities and encourage everyone to work together for the betterment of the school.”

Courses
LAW 6200 ADR for the Litigator
LAW 6803 Constitutional Law
LAW 6829 Professional Responsibility

Selected Publications

• Reforming Chinese Arbitration Law and Practices in the Global Economy, University of Dayton Law Review (with Zhao Xiuwen, 2006)
• Telling a Constitutional Story: Examples of Constitutional Dialogue, Saint Louis University Law Journal (2005)
• Resolving Disputes: Theory, Practice and Law (with Jay Folberg, Dwight Golann and Tom Stipanowich, Aspen Books 2004)
• The Balancing Act: Leadership in Strategic Planning, Toledo Law Review (2004)
• Court-Annexed Environmental Mediation: The District of Oregon Pilot Project, chapter in The Promise and Performance of Environmental Conflict Resolution (RFF Press 2003)
• Implementation of Court-Annexed Environmental Mediation: The District of Oregon Pilot Project, 17 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 2 (2002)
• Playing it Safe: How the Supreme Court Dodges Hard Cases and Stunts the Development of the Law (New York University Press 2001)
• A Mentor of Her Own, 22 The University of Toledo Law Review 1 (2001)
• The Avoidance Doctrine, Supplement to Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (2000)
• Avoiding Serious Constitutional Doubts: The Supreme Court’s Construction of Statutes Raising Free Speech Concerns, 30 U.C. Davis Law Review 1 (1996)
• The Public Interest in the Work of the Courts: Opinions and Beyond, 75 Oregon Law Review 249 (1996)
• Measured Constitutional Steps, 71 Indiana Law Journal 297 (1996)
• Avoiding Constitutional Questions, 35 Boston College Law Review 1003 (1994)