Professor of Legal Analysis and Writing

• Legal Analysis and Writing
• Advanced Legal Writing Seminar
• Advanced Writing Seminar: Interpretation and Application of Statutes and Rules
• Wills & Trusts.

B.A. cum laude 1982 Washington State University.
J.D. cum laude 1998 Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College.

Before attending law school, Professor Villella and her husband owned two retail businesses in Everett, Washington. After selling the businessess in the early 1990s, Villella and her family moved to Portland, where she earned her J.D. as an evening student at Lewis & Clark Law School.

While attending law school, Villella served as a clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. While there, she participated in the court's FRE 104 hearings relating to scientific evidence admissible in breast implant litigation under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993). After graduating, Villella clerked for the Honorable Rick T. Haselton of the Oregon Court of Appeals. Following her two year clerkship, she practiced law in Portland, focusing on business transactions, probate and estate planning, and state and federal taxation. In 2003, she joined the Lewis & Clark faculty.

Villella has been active in the Legal Writing Institute and the Oregon State Bar, and enjoys her free time with her family and volunteering for local non-profit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, a local church, and the Gardner School, a private independent school in Vancouver, Washington. Villella's writing interests include taxation and statutory interpretation.