Professor Adell Amos '98, Nationally Known, Locally Grown
She's an Oregonian, a law professor, a Duck, and a graduate of the nationally ranked Top 10 program she was asked to lead. She's currently in Washington, D.C., helping to set policy at the national level. For the past two years, Professor Amos has been on leave from the law school, serving as the Deputy Solicitor for Land and Water in the Department of the Interior. In that capacity, she has counseled the Secretary of the Interior and the Solicitor on a wide range of natural resource, water law, renewable energy, and administrative law issues.
Professor Amos is a national expert focusing on holding the triple bottom line. "Here, I can help set policies that protect our resources while encouraging positive, sustainable business practices," she said.
That's good for sustainability, for business, and for the students who'll take her courses when she returns to the faculty of Oregon Law's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Oregon School of Law. Prior to her appointment to the Department of the Interior, Professor Amos served as the Faculty Director for the law school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Center. An award-winning teacher and an accomplished water law scholar, Professor Amos will be teaching Water Law and Administrative Law during the coming academic year.
Professor Adell Amos will be returning to the law school later this Spring and will serve as our next Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Professor Amos joined the law school faculty after practicing environmental and natural resources law with the Solicitor's Office, Division of Parks and Wildlife at the United States Department of the Interior. She represented and advised the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service on state and federal water rights issues including work involving the Klamath, Snake, Columbia, Middle Rio Grande, and Gunnison River Basins. She provided legal advice on the interaction of water law with other environmental statutes including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Federal Power Act and National Environmental Policy Act.
Professor Amos teaches Water Resources Law, Wildlife Law, Oregon Water Law and Policy, Environment and Energy, Environmental Conflict Resolution, and Civil Procedure. Her scholarship addresses citizen participation in water rights adjudications, the relationship between federal and state governments on water resource management, and the role of administrative agencies in setting national and local water policy. She has published broadly in the field of water law including, "The Use of State Instream Flow Laws for Federal Lands: Respecting State Control While Meeting Federal Purposes" in Environmental Law; "Hydropower Reform and the Impact of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 on the Klamath Basin" in the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation; and "The Importance of Freshwater Conservation in the Context of Energy and Climate Policy" in the Denver Water Law Review. She frequently speaks on water, energy, and climate topics, and just finished a grant funded project with The Nature Conservancy on freshwater conservation in Oregon.
Professor Amos earned her B.A. in 1995 from Drury College and her J.D. in 1998 from the University of Oregon (Coif). After law school, Amos clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for Judge Proctor Hug Jr. She is a member of the Missouri bar, admitted 1999.