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Lower enrollment has forced Lewis & Clark College Law School to cut costs.

(Steven Nehl)

Lewis & Clark Law School is closing its namesake legal clinic in downtown Portland that provides services to the poor, a high-profile victim of the school's budget constraints.

As Lewis & Clark and the state's two other law schools get their new years underway this month, they are dealing with 13 to 30 percent enrollment declines from the peak two to four years ago. Corresponding declines in revenue have forced the schools to cut costs, downsize staff and make other efficiency moves.

"What we have to do, like everybody else, is face budget realities," said Jennifer Johnson, the new dean at Lewis & Clark. The clinic "has largely been a tuition-driven enterprise that we can't afford. It's purely financial."

The clinic's pending closure -- the doors will close Dec. 31 -- has disturbed other public-interest lawyers in town who say the move will worsen an already significant shortage of legal services for the low-income.

"It's a tremendous loss," said Maureen McKnight, chief family court judge at Multnomah County Circuit Court. "The legal clinic was one of the only places the low-income could go for representation at no cost. They do tremendous work on domestic violence cases, challenges to restraining orders."

Enrollment at law schools across the country has fallen, due largely to a slowdown in demand for new lawyers and high tuition costs. As a generation of young lawyers across the country struggled to cope with big debt and a difficult job market, interest in law school declined.

Lewis & Clark's total enrollment, including part-time evening students, hit 609 this fall. That's down from a peak of 735 in 2010.

Enrollment of law students at the University of Oregon Law School fell to 376 this year, from a peak of 526 in 2010.

Willamette Law School enrollment hit 341 this year, down from a peak of 429.

Erica Daley, Oregon's associate dean of finance and operations, said staffing at the UO law school has been on the decline for two years as it has chosen not to replace retiring or departing staffers.

The downsizing has freed up faculty members to work on new business initiatives, including the establishment of a satellite law school campus at the UO's Portland base in Old Town. The school will offer about 30 spots in Portland to third-year students beginning in the fall of 2015, Daley said.

The Portland campus offers networking opportunities in the state's legal epicenter unavailable to Eugene residents, Daley said.

Johnson, Lewis & Clark's dean, said the legal job market is beginning to improve. With its location in Portland and its reputation as a leading center of environmental law, she said the school will survive and thrive, albeit with a significantly downsized student body.

"I don't think anybody thinks, we certainly don't, that we will go back to those big classes," Johnson said.

Meanwhile, some painful decisions have to be made, Johnson said, including closure of the legal clinic.

"Everybody is shocked by it," said Shelly Matthys, executive director of the St. Andrews Legal Clinic. "We're losing some really important, valuable representation. I know they will be sorely missed by the courthouse staff downtown."

The clinic provided debtor-creditor, landlord-tenant and family law services for low- or no cost. It offered to help people representing themselves to produce legal filings acceptable to court staff. And it offered law students, some of them from privileged backgrounds, hands-on experience in dealing with the plight of the poor.

"It was one of the most valuable and enriching experiences in my time at law school," said Ashlee Ablies, a 2005 graduate who practices in Portland.

The school sent out an email about nine months asking alums to support the clinic. But there was nothing in the note about a possible shutdown, said two alumni of Lewis and Clark and the clinic.

"Why take this off the table without reaching out to alums and the broader legal community?" she asked

Johnson informed the world of the clinic's closing in an email earlier this month. She noted the law school's six other clinics will remain open. The tax law service that worked out of the downtown clinic will continue on, but move into another office.

"Going forward, we must focus our in-house clinics on those with significant fund raising potential," Johnson said in the email. "We must be cognizant of the fact that without outside funding, student tuition dollars pay these expenses, and we are trying to keep tuition as low as possible for all students."

Lewis & Clark's 2014 tuition for full-time students is just over $40,000. Room and board, books and loan fees add another estimated $20,000 a year in costs, according to the college.

-- Jeff Manning