Willamette University

Faculty

W. Warren H. Binford

W. Warren H. Binford

Associate Professor of Law; Director of the Clinical Law Program

  • J.D. Harvard University
  • Ed.M. Boston University
  • B.A. Boston University, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with distinction

Professor Binford was appointed to the Willamette University College of Law faculty and became director of Willamette's Clinical Law Program in 2005. Since her arrival, she has expanded the law school's clinical offerings from one clinic to six, including the International Human Rights Clinic, the Child and Family Advocacy Clinic, the Trusts and Estates Clinic, the Business Law Clinic, the Law and Government Clinic and the Sustainability Law Clinic.

Most recently, Professor Binford was selected as a 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar and spent six months in South Africa lecturing and researching children's issues and the advancement of children's rights in Africa.  She was appointed Visiting Professor of Law at the University of the Western Cape where she co-taught an LLM course on children and the law and collaborated with numerous children's right scholars, advocates and NGOs including the Children's Rights Project, Save the Children, and UNICEF.

After returning from South Africa, Professor Binford resumed teaching the Child and Family Advocacy Clinic and the Business Law Clinic.  Professor Binford also teaches courses on international children's rights and deposition skills. She also has taught in Willamette's Study Abroad Program in Shanghai, China. Further, she reinvigorated the law school's Externship Program by expanding placements, adding an academic component, and increasing supervision and support. She remains the faculty advisor to the program.  Professor Binford also teaches negotiation and conflict management in the Certificate Program in Public Management at Willamette's Atkinson School of Management, and previously taught civil rights and the law in education at Willamette's Graduate School of Education.

Prior to joining Willamette, Professor Binford spent eight years with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where she specialized in corporate litigation and transactions. Her clients included a variety of Fortune 500 companies, as well as nationally prominent colleges and universities.

In addition to her expertise in corporate law, Professor Binford has actively worked throughout her career as a child advocate.  Prior to law school, Professor Binford was a licensed teacher with experience teaching in the inner cities of South Central Los Angeles, Boston and London.  She has served as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused and neglected children in the United States and on the boards of numerous non-profits. She is also a former foster parent. Internationally, Professor Binford has worked with the International Red Cross in Switzerland, the Croatian Red Cross and the Japan Red Cross on issues relating to child soldiers and other child victims of war.  Most recently, she has provided training through Save the Children in Southern Africa on NGO reporting to treaty bodies.  She currently is collaborating with the Children's Rights Project at the University of the Western Cape on UNICEF law reform projects in several African countries.

She has lectured on five continents, in nine different countries, and across the U.S. on topics primarily related to children's rights and legal education.  In addition to touring Southern Africa in 2012 to research children's issues there, she previously toured Asia to research the role of child labor in the development of the Pacific Rim.  In all, she has visited more than sixty countries and every continent except Antarctica.  

Professor Binford is a member of the Oregon and California state bars and is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court, Eastern and Northern Districts of California, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Oregon from 2006-2011.

In 2006, Binford was a member of a small group of appellate court judges, law school faculty and students in Oregon who endeavored to research whether there were identifiable "best practices" among intermediate courts of appeal. For more information on the study, see the Willamette Court Study.

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