Alexandra Klass

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Alexandra Klass is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, University of Minnesota Law School.

Professor Klass teaches and writes in the areas of environmental law, tort law and property law, with a focus on the modern development of common law as a supplement to statutory and regulatory law to address current environmental protection issues.

Professor Klass has represented citizen groups, local governments, large corporations, small corporations, and individuals in litigated and regulatory matters relating to wetlands, cleanup of contaminated property, environmental review, eminent domain, land use, wind power, and flood impoundment projects, among others. She continues to advise and represent citizens groups and others in pro bono environmental matters. Professor Klass is currently on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and is on the Governing Council of the Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association. She served as co-chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Hennepin County Bar Association from 2000-2006.

Prior to her teaching career, Professor Klass was a Partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis, where she specialized in environmental law and land use cases. During her years in private practice from 1993-2004, she handled cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts in Minnesota and other states involving contaminated property, wetlands, environmental review law, environmental rights law, zoning, eminent domain, and environmental torts.

Professor Klass’s articles have appeared in the Minnesota Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review and Ecology Law Quarterly. Recent articles include Climate Change, Carbon Sequestration, and Property Rights, 2010 U. Ill. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2010) (with Elizabeth J. Wilson) (SSRN); Tort Experiments in the Laboratories of Democracy, 50 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1501 (2009) (SSRN); Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Identifying and Managing Risks, in Balancing the Risks: Managing Technology and Dangerous Climate Change, (Berkeley Electronic Press, Issues in Legal Scholarship 2009) (with Elizabeth J. Wilson), (View article); Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration: Assessing a Liability Regime for the Long-term Storage of Carbon Dioxide, 58 Emory L.J. 103 (2008) (with Elizabeth J. Wilson) (SSRN); Carbon Sequestration and Sustainability, 44 Tulsa L. Rev. 237 (2008) (with Sara E. Bergan); State Innovation and Preemption: Lessons from Environmental Law, 42 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1563 (2008) (SSRN); The Growing Influence of Tort and Property Law on Natural Resources Law: Studies of Coal Bed Methane Development and Geologic Carbon Sequestration, in Evolution of Natural Resources Law and Policy (2009); Climate Change and Reassessing the "Right" Level of Government: A Response to Bronin, 93 Minn. L. Rev. Headnotes 15 (2009) View article; The Frontier of Eminent Domain, 79 U. Colo. L. Rev. 651 (2008) (SSRN); Punitive Damages and Valuing Harm, 92 Minn. L. Rev. 83 (2007) (SSRN); Common Law and Federalism in the Age of the Regulatory State, 92 Iowa L. Rev. 545 (2007) (SSRN).

Professor Klass received her B.A. degree in political science and French with distinction from the University of Michigan in 1988, and her J.D. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1992, where she was an Articles Editor for the Wisconsin Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. She clerked for the Honorable Barbara B. Crabb, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin from 1992-1993.

Alexandra Klass
University of Minnesota Law School
Minneapolis, MN
612.625.0155
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