Milestones

Since he joined the Seattle University community in 1985, Craig Birklid has held nearly every position in the Department of Public Safety and Transportation. He was appointed the Executive Director of the department in 2016. Craig has been integral in spearheading numerous innovations in the university’s public safety infrastructure. He is a past recipient of the Excellence in Staff Leadership Award and is widely respected for his integrity, deep institutional knowledge and dedicated professionalism. ~ Tim Leary

Professor Sidney DeLong grew up in Kentucky, graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1969 with a BA in philosophy and obtained a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974, after two years in the U.S. Army. He then practiced in Denver, Colorado for 11 years as a civil litigator, doing trial and appellate work in complex cases involving construction claims, employment, antitrust, class actions, breach of contract, fraud, and insurance insolvency.

Professor DeLong is an outstanding classroom teacher frequently recognized by our students as Professor of the Year and is a former holder of the Law School’s William Oltman Chair in Teaching Excellence. He has taught a wide variety of courses in Contracts, Sales, Secured Transactions, Payment Systems, Remedies, Jurisprudence, The Jurisprudence of Social Justice, Law and Interpretation, Professional Responsibility, and Legal Writing, and has co-taught Complex Civil Litigation, Language and the Law, and Business Transactions.

Professor DeLong is a well-known voice in the national contracts and remedies communities, recognized equally for his sharp analysis and his quick wit. He has published important articles in a variety of prestigious journals including the University of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana Law Reviews.

Professor Laurel Oates graduated from Western Washington University and from the University of Puget Sound Law School. After clerking for the Washington Court of Appeals, she returned to the Law School of develop and lead our pathbreaking legal writing program, with whose development she had already been involved as a law student. Under the leadership of Professor Oates—who directed the program from 1982 to 2012—the law school played a central role in developing the modern discipline of legal writing.

Throughout her tenure, Seattle University’s legal writing program was frequently recognized as the top program in the country by both US News and various professional organizations. Professor Oates is a co-founder of the Legal Writing Institute, an international organization of over 2400 teachers of legal writing, and the author or co-author of several of the major legal writing textbooks.

In recognition of her many contributions to the Law School and the discipline of legal writing, Professor Oates is the recipient of many honors and awards including the Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education, the Marjorie Rombauer Award for Contributions to the Teaching of Legal Writing, and the Tom Holdych Award for Meritorious and Transformational Service.

Over the last two decades, Professor Oates has been deeply involved in the development of international programs to teach legal writing effectively across cultures and continents and has personally taught or consulted in Afghanistan, Botswana, China, Ethiopia, India, Liberia, South Africa, and Uganda. 

Kate Reynolds came to Seattle U in 1985 and first worked in Admissions as a data entry operator. She moved to the College of Arts and Sciences in 1990 to work as an administrative assistant for the Philosophy Department (this is her 30th year with the Philosophy Department). During this time she has also worked with Criminal Justice, Environmental Studies, Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies, Global African Studies, Catholic Studies, University Core, and most recently the A and S Associate Deans.

She has won numerous awards for her outstanding contributions including awards from our students as well as the Arts and Sciences Outstanding Administrative Staff award in 2002 and 2008.

Kate also completed two degrees here at SU: Computer Science in 1992 and History in 1997. Kate says that the best part of her job is working with our students. ~ Maria Carl

“Over the years, I’ve been very fortunate to work with great people, gotten to know wonderful students, and attend and be involved in thought provoking events.  I’m so thankful for all.”  ~ Kate Reynolds

John A. Strait, Emeritus Professor of Law, Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, and Professional Ethics Counsel grew up in San Francisco, attended the University of California-Davis and Yale Law School, and joined the University of Puget Sound Law School forty-five years ago after building a distinguished record as a criminal defense lawyer, law reform litigator, and civic advocate.

In his time at our Law School, he has become one of Washington’s leading experts on Professional Responsibility and Bar admissions, teaching courses on the subject, providing training and advice to lawyers throughout the state, and helping shepherd our lawyers and graduates through the bar admissions process.

Professor Strait has served on the Washington Supreme Court's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, the King County Bar Association Campaign Ethics Committee, the WSBA Rules of Professional Conduct Committee, the board of the Washington Chapter of the American Judicature Society, the board of the WSBA Criminal Law Section, the Seattle Port Authority Ethics Advisory Commission and as a governor's appointee to the Statute Law Commission.

The law school received the E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association for Professor Strait’s innovative Professional Responsibility Clinic.

Professor Strait has also been a major force in faculty governance at Seattle University, serving for many years in leadership positions in the Faculty Assembly and on numerous University committees.