He formerly served as dean of the University of Oregon School of Law, as Oregon’s Attorney General, as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, and as a law professor and legal counsel to the president of the University of Oregon. As attorney general, he argued and won six of seven cases before the United States Supreme Court, the most cases and best record of any contemporary state attorney general.

During his service as president, the university increased its enrollment from 16,700 to a record 21,000 students and finished two fund-raising campaigns raising more than $1.1 billion. The university became a founding member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities; hosted the annual meeting of the Association of American Universities; and completed or began construction projects totaling more than $650 million. 

The University also added a host of new centers and institutes, more than doubled the federal grants awarded annually, and added nineteen new degree programs, including bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and ethnic studies and a master of fine arts degree in dance.

Frohnmayer was the first native Oregonian to be president of any large research university in the state. He and his wife Lynn are founders of the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc. He is one of the founding directors of the National Marrow Donor Program, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a national prize-winning author on the United States Constitution, a magna cum laude graduate from Harvard College and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Frohnmayer continues as a member of the law faculty and the Clark Honors College, and teaches a highly popular freshman seminar, “Theories of Leadership.”