Ryan J. Hagemann joined the University of Oregon’s Office of the General Counsel as Senior Associate General Counsel in December 2022.  Prior to the UO, Ryan served Western Oregon University’s first Vice President & General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees (2015-2022), held several positions with the Oregon University System, including Vice Chancellor and General Counsel (2004-2015), and worked for the Oregon Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General in both the Education and Labor & Employment Sections (2001-2004).

Ryan received his law degree from the University of Oregon in 2001 and his BA in Politics magna cum laude, with honors, from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 1994.  Ryan has worked in higher education for nearly thirty years.  He served Whitman as its Assistant Director of Speech and Debate and did two stints in the Office of Admission.  Between his time at the Whitman College Office of Admission, he worked for sociologist Dr. Amitai Etzioni at The George Washington University.  During law school, Ryan clerked for Melinda Grier, the UO General Counsel, served on the Oregon Law Review, where his note on race-conscious higher education decision-making was published in 2000, and worked in student conduct in the Office of Student Life as a Graduate Teaching Fellow (GTF).

Over the course of serving Oregon DOJ, OUS, and WOU, Ryan’s broad experience includes significant work in university governance, labor and employment, student affairs, intellectual property, complex business and real estate transactions, procurement, and policy development.  He was instrumental in drafting Senate Bill 242 in 2011, which successfully extended authority to the Oregon University System and member universities to hire their own legal counsel and create their own risk management enterprise separate from the state. 

Ryan’s volunteer activities include the High Desert Museum Board of Trustees in Bend, Oregon, including three years as Board Chair; the Whitman College Alumni Association Board of Directors, including time as its president; Basic Rights Oregon’s volunteer legal advisory team; and many opportunities with the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA).  Originally from eastern Oregon, he and his husband Roy live in Salem, Oregon.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Assistant:
Brad Lowary
541-346-3043