Paul Diller

Paul Diller is currently a visiting professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. He holds a tenured appointment as a professor of law at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. His professional work has focused on state and local government law, state constitutional law, and public health law. He has written extensively about local authority and state limitations thereon, as well as how federalism affects the state-local balance of power. Diller has also written and consulted on local strategies to improve public health, such as promoting nutritious food and reducing tobacco use. More recently, Diller has focused on the constitutional issues raised by states’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 he designed a new course focusing on the legal implications of the pandemic that he has now taught three times at two law schools, continuing to update it along the way. Diller was a participant in the National League of Cities’ Home Rule for the 21st Century Project in 2019-20.

Diller graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan Law School, both magna cum laude. After law school, he clerked for Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he litigated constitutional, employment discrimination and Freedom-of-Information-Act cases, among others. Diller has previously been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

[The background profile photo of Mt. Hood, Oregon, uses a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0) license. Photo is by Lisa Norwood.]