Oregon Records Transparency Practicum

Oregon Records Transparency Practicum - Professors Jon Bial and Nora Broker

• Course Number: LAW-773
• Course Type: Highly Specialized and Experiential
• Credits: 3
• Enrollment Limit: Determined by the Registrar
• Description:  This course will provide hands-on practicum experience for students adjudicating disputes under the Oregon Public Records Law, representing media and members of the public who request records or information from local governments and face obstacles to transparency. Under the supervision of volunteer attorneys experienced in the field, this practicum will prepare students for administrative advocacy within the unique context of the Oregon Public Records Law (OPRL). The practicum will be organized in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting, and lead by in-house attorneys from OPB, whose legal department is unique among media in the region for its deep engagement in public records law, practice, and policy. Students completing this course will obtain an understanding of the OPRL as a tool for obtaining public documents, and students will engage from start to finish in the OPRL’s unique sub-judicial review, gaining valuable perspective on dispute resolution with state and local governments processes that many lawyers encounter routinely. While other flagship law school courses tend to center broader, academic approaches to law, this practicum is designed to focus on the kinds of real-world local law, practice, and institutions that they will face in practice. Additionally, students will have direct contact with media reporter clients (via their supervising attorney). At the end of the class, students will have an excellent writing sample that is freely shareable (the filing itself is a public record) and hopefully one that made a real impact towards government transparency.

Course is graded credit/no credit only.

• Prerequisite: none
• Evaluation Method: In-class participation, timely completion of course assignments, and a final “portfolio” of written work consisting of revised and compiled written petitions, briefs and/or memoranda created by the students over the course of the term
• Capstone: no
• WIE: no