Lisa A. Kloppenberg
- Location: 332 Keller Hall
- Phone: 937-229-4595
- Email: Contact
Profile
Lisa Kloppenberg served as dean of the University of Dayton School of Law from 2001 to 2011. Kloppenberg is a widely published expert in constitutional law and an advocate of Appropriate Dispute Resolution.
As the dean of Dayton Law, she championed curricular reform, bringing national recognition for the way the School rethought legal education; led successful efforts to diversify the faculty; re-ignited a greater spirit of service in students; and established the first accelerated five-semester law degree in the nation. She also created the position of Dean of Students, putting an emphasis on student services. In addition, the School of Law established graduate degree programs in Intellectual Property and Technology Law.
In 2006, Dayton Law was recognized by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution for its emphasis on appropriate dispute resolution, and in 2007, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching invited Dayton Law and a handful of other universities — including Harvard, Stanford and Georgetown — to examine how American law schools prepare lawyers and make reform recommendations.
A First Amendment class at the University of Southern California, where she was an undergraduate journalism major, first attracted 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, Kloppenberg clerked for Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A mentor to 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. Kloppenberg is currently working on a biography of Judge Nelson.
Before teaching, 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 also 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.
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 10 years, 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, Kloppenberg was actively 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. Kloppenberg has continued her involvement in children’s issues since coming to Dayton, and she is currently on the Hospice of Dayton board.
Courses Taught
LAW 6200 ADR for the Litigator
LAW 6803 Constitutional Law
LAW 6829 Professional Responsibility
Degrees
J.D., University of Southern California, 1987
B.A., University of Southern California, 1984
Areas of Law
Constitutional Law
Appropriate Dispute Resolution
Selected Publications
Resolving Disputes, Theory, Practice, and Law, 2nd Edition, co-authored with Jay Folberg, Dwight Golann, and Thomas Stipanowich, Aspen Publishers (2010)
Pro Bono: Assessing Aims and Achievement, co-authored with Lori Shaw, 40 U. of Toledo L. Rev. 2 (Winter 2009)
The Rise of Two-Year Programs?: Transcript of Proceedings, 38 Southwestern L. Rev. 4 (2009)
Educating Problem Solving Lawyers for our Profession and Communities, Rutgers U. L. Rev. (2009)
Remarks Regarding Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson, Clinical L. Rev. (Fall 2009)
Does Avoiding Constitutional Questions Promote Judicial Independence?, 56 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 4 (2006)
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)