Nils Olsen

R. Nils Olsen, Jr., a professor of law, was named dean of the University at Buffalo School of Law, effective August 1, 1998 and stepped down in December 2007. He previously served as vice dean for academic affairs in the UB law school. Olsen succeeded Barry B. Boyer, who served as the school's chief academic and administrative officer since 1992. Olsen joined the UB law faculty as an associate professor in 1978 after serving as a lecturer of law and clinical fellow at the University of Chicago School of Law. Prior to that, he was judicial law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas E. Fairchild of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago. As vice dean since 1994, Olsen has overseen the implementation of the school's new curriculum, designed to help bridge the gap that has existed historically between law school and practice. In addition to his duties as vice dean, Olsen has served as director of clinical education for the law school, maintaining administrative responsibility for the in-house clinical program comprised of nine clinical instructors who provide closely supervised, legal experience in diverse areas of practice to about 100 students each year. He also has continued his research in the areas of federal post-conviction remedies and environmental policy. In his clinical teaching in the law school, Olsen represented the plaintiffs in Smith v. Coughlin, a federal habeas corpus class-action lawsuit filed in the Western District of New York that challenged the significant delays that were prevalent on direct appeals of state criminal convictions. The case led to substantial changes in the oversight of such appeals in the Appellate Division and increased county funding of indigent appeals. He also has represented numerous community-based, citizen environmental groups and several local municipalities in on-going environmental disputes, ranging from the proposed siting of hazardous-waste incinerators in Niagara County to assisting in the drafting of local land-use planning legislation. He was instrumental in the negotiation and drafting of a comprehensive agreement between a national hazardous-waste disposal corporation and Niagara County municipalities that resulted in a 15-year ban on applications for approval of hazardous-waste incinerators. A 1974 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, Olsen received a bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin. He is a member of the Lewiston-Porter school board, and has served as a member of the boards of directors of New York State Environmental Advocates, the Youngstown Free Library and Great Lakes United.