Professor Klass Tapped by Biden-Harris Administration 

Professor Alexandra Klass has been appointed to serve as Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, Regulation, and Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Klass, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at Minnesota Law, teaches and writes in the fields of energy law, environmental law, and natural resources law. Her scholarly work has addressed regulatory challenges to integrating more renewable energy into the nation’s electric transmission grid, eminent domain issues surrounding interstate electric transmission lines and oil and gas pipelines, and applications of the public trust doctrine to modern environmental law challenges. She is a co-author of Energy Law: Concepts and Insights Series, Energy Law and Policy, Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases, and The Practice and Policy of Environmental Law.

Klass joined the Law School in 2006, served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2010-2012, and was honored as the Stanley V. Kinyon Teacher of the Year in 2010 and 2020. Prior to her teaching career, Klass was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis, where she specialized in environmental law and land use litigation, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Barbara B. Crabb on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

Klass has also served in leadership positions in state and national bar organizations and nonprofits. She was the President of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, was a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, and was a Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. In 2020, Governor Tim Walz appointed her to the Governor's Advisory Council on Climate Change.

Klass will depart the Law School to start her new position with the DOE as of April 25, 2022.