L&C Welcomes New Visiting Professor of Lawyering, Erin Severe

Erin J. Severe ’09 joins Lewis & Clark as a Visiting Assistant Professor starting fall 2025. She is returning to her alma mater to teach first year law students in the nationally ranked Lawyering program, sharing her scholarship on public defense policy and her experience as an appellate litigator.

She is currently taking a sabbatical from the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon, which provides defense services in federal criminal cases and other covered matters to individuals who are financially unable to obtain representation. Prior to that, she worked for over a decade as an appellate lawyer and deputy general counsel at the Oregon Public Defense Commission. She has substantial experience litigating cases in the state appellate courts and federal courts.

Severe holds a master’s degree in public administration and is pursuing a PhD in public affairs and policy, both of which focus on centering client perspectives in public defense policy and systems.

She is a longtime member of the Oregon State Bar’s Constitutional Law Section education committee, former chair of the section’s Executive Committee, and served as a board member and President of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon from 2012 to 2018. She graduated magna cum laude from Lewis & Clark Law School’s Evening Program in 2009, and clerked for Hon. Rick T. Haselton at the Oregon Court of Appeals.

As a lifelong Oregonian, Severe aims to inspire the next generation of attorneys in Oregon and beyond.