$2M gift to expand Willamette Law’s experiential learning Marty Wolf’s latest gift emphasizes hands-on experience and practice at Willamette Law By Sarah Bello
In 1959, Marty Wolf ’57, LLB’60 helped catapult Willamette Law into the national spotlight when he and his team won the National Moot Court Competition. Following his most recent $2 million estate gift, making him the law school’s largest individual donor, he hopes to support students with the resources needed to expand experiential learning in the Pacific Northwest, again increasing Willamette’s presence on a national scale. Winning the moot court competition opened doors for Wolf following his law school graduation. He clerked for a California Supreme Court justice, then joined a law firm in Portland. Eventually, he discovered a love for business, and in 1970, took over the family enterprise. His legal education complemented what he learned in the business world. With his now-$5 million pledge to Willamette Law, he wants to help students recognize the potential and benefit in graduating law school with knowledge and experience in transactional lawyering, business acumen, leadership and transferable skills.
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Being a lawyer doesn’t necessarily mean a person has to work at a law firm, he explains. He knows firsthand how a legal degree can allow someone entry into other fields — and help them be successful. “When students start law school, they may be thinking about private practice, environmental law, social justice law,” Wolf says. “They don’t necessarily think as much about business applications. But, in my career, I used my law degree so much. I want to see Willamette Law’s experiential learning expand and legal education become broader-based, so it’s not just about the practice of law.”
Experiential learning at Willamette Prior to 2010, U.S. law schools did not mandate experiential learning and instead focused their education on casework. The American Bar Association began requiring that each student earn at least one credit in experiential learning in 2010, growing the requirement to at least six credit hours in 2015. Simulation courses, law clinics or field placements, such as externships, satisfy the rule. At Willamette Law in Salem, with the Signature Strengths Initiative and heavy emphasis on the Business Lawyering Institute, centers of excellence and certificate programs, students have encountered growing opportunities for experiential learning over the past several years. Courses with hands-on work in clinics, business lawyering simulations, and practice for trials and arbitration are offered each semester. More experience can be gained while earning certificates, participating in competitions and working part-time in externships.
