Q&A with Professor Greg Ogden
Professor Greg Ogden was recently honored with the
Howard A. White Award for
Teaching Excellence last fall during the University Faculty Conference. The
award, named in honor of Pepperdine's fifth president who served the University
as teacher and administrator for almost 30 years, is given to ten full-time
faculty members each year in recognition of their distinguished record of
teaching excellence.
Professor Ogden's teaching career spans three decades. Beginning in 1976, he worked as a law and humanities teaching fellow at Temple University School of Law. He later joined the Pepperdine law faculty in 1978. He was awarded the Chambership Fellowship in Legislation at Columbia School of Law and received an LLM with a concentration in administrative law from Columbia in 1981.
Professor Ogden has edited treatises on California administrative law, authored a number of law review articles on administrative law subjects, and has been a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States and the California Law Revision Commission. He has also been appointed reporter for the revised Model State Administrative Procedure Act project of the national conference of commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) 2006-2008. He teaches administrative law, civil procedure, professional responsibility, and remedies.
Congratulations on your Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence. You have been teaching for 31 years. Did it always come naturally to you?
I come from a long line of teachers in my mother’s family, several generations, and my mother was a life long high school teacher. Both of my brothers are teachers in K to 12 systems in California, and so is my cousin, who is my mother’s niece. Teaching is in our family heritage. Nonetheless, teaching with excellence is not easy, and in my case, it took years of experience to refine my craft, to learn the subjects that I teach, to learn what students have difficulty with, and to develop the materials that my students use to learn.
What prompted you to leave civil and criminal litigation and join the academic world in 1976?
I had just completed a major trial (for me), and I was looking for the next opportunity to open up when I received a letter from one of my former professors inviting me to apply to a 2 year LLM program in legal education. I received a fellowship, and Daryl and I moved to the east coast to start the program. That LLM program was instrumental in giving me a head start in teaching law students. I interviewed with Pepperdine at the end of that program, and started teaching here in 1978.
You teach Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Professional Responsibility, and Remedies. What course is your favorite to teach? Why?
That is a tough question to answer, because I really love all of the courses I teach, and I try to convey a sense of excitement about the subject matter of each of these courses. However, if I had to pick my favorite would be civil procedure, because I really enjoy teaching first year law students. They are at the beginning of their legal education, and there is an opportunity to mentor and influence them in year long course, opportunities that we do not otherwise have with second and third year students.
What is you preferred area of scholarship?
Administrative law, partly because that is the subject of my second LLM degree, from Columbia Law School, partly because I practiced administrative law before starting teaching, and mainly because the subject is interesting to me, and important to understanding how the government operates.
What makes a good teacher of the law?
Many things contribute to good teaching, including a love of the subject matter, basic ability to teach, a desire to improve your teaching and to spend time on your teaching, caring about your students and letting them know that you care about them, and determining what they need to know to succeed in your class and responding to those needs. There may be lots of other things as well, but these have been the touchstones for my teaching.
In your view how do scholarship and teaching interact?
Scholars advance the understanding of the world about their subject, as they address contemporary problems, and that understanding can be brought into the classroom to inform the teaching process. Both scholarship and teaching take lots of time and effort and most law faculty scholars concentrate their scholarly work in one of the subjects that they teach, so that subject may benefit more from the new understanding developed in their writing.
Out of all your career highlights, of which are you most proud?
Other than receiving the Helen Pepperdine Award for Outstanding Service (2001-2002), my proudest moment was receiving the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence this year. Teaching is my calling, and I believe that I have influenced many students over the years that I have taught at Pepperdine. That award recognizes what has been my highest priority in my work life for many years.
What advice do you have for the next generation of law professors?
Give equal time to teaching and your students as there are many rewards from mastering your subjects and from influencing the next generation of lawyers.
