Alexandra B. Klass

Associate Professor

Alexandra B. Klass

448 Mondale Hall
229–19th Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

612-625-0155

aklass@umn.edu

University of Michigan, B.A.
University of Wisconsin, J.D.

Professor Alexandra B. Klass teaches and writes in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, tort law and property law. Her articles have appeared in Iowa Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, Emory Law Journal, and William & Mary Law Review, among others.

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. She continues to represent clients pro bono in cases involving environmental law and land use matters. She was an Associate Professor of Law at William Mitchell College of Law from 2004-2006.

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.

Professor Klass has served in leadership positions in state and national bar organizations. She 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 and Natural Resources 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. She is a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, http://www.progressivereform.org/.

For further information on Professor Klass, please see her curriculum vitae.

PUBLICATIONS

Representative Publications

Tort Experiments in the Laboratories of Democracy, 50 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. (forthcoming 2009) View the article on SSRN

Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration: Assessing a Liability Regime for the Long-term Storage of Carbon Dioxide, 58 Emory L.J. (forthcoming 2008) (with Elizabeth J. Wilson) View article on SSRN

State Innovation and Preemption: Lessons from Environmental Law, Loy. L.A. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2008) (symposium) View article on 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 (forthcoming 2008)

The Frontier of Eminent Domain, 79 U. Colo. L. Rev. 651 (2008) View article on SSRN

Punitive Damages and Valuing Harm, 92 Minn. L. Rev. 83 (2007) View article on SSRN

Common Law and Federalism in the Age of the Regulatory State, 92 Iowa L. Rev. 545 (2007) View article on SSRN

Modern Public Trust Principles: Recognizing Rights and Integrating Standards, 82 Notre Dame L. Rev. 699 (2006) View article on SSRN

Adverse Possession and Conservation: Expanding Traditional Notions of Use and Possession, 77 U. Colo. L. Rev. 283 (2006) (lead article) View article on SSRN

Pesticides, Children's Health Policy, and Common Law Tort Claims, 7 Minn. J. Law, Sci. & Tech. 89 (2005) View article on SSRN

Bees, Trees, Preemption and Nuisance: Resolving Pesticide Land Use Disputes through FIFRA, 32 Ecology L.Q. 763 (2005) (lead article) View article on SSRN

From Reservoirs to Remediation: The Impact of CERCLA on Common Law Strict Liability Environmental Claims, 39 Wake Forest L. Rev. 903 (2004) View article on SSRN

The Expansion of Punitive Damages in Minnesota: Environmental Litigation after Jensen v. Walsh, 30 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 177 (2003)

COURSES

Courses

Property
Environmental Remediation and Redevelopment
Environmetal Law
Torts
Natural Resources Law

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Professor Klass presented her article, "State Innovation and Preemption: Lessons from State Climate Change Efforts" at workshops at University of Florida Levin College of Law (March 2008) and at Georgetown University Law Center (October 2008). The article will appear as part of a symposium on tort law in Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. In June 2008, Professor Klass presented her article entitled "Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration: Assessing a Liability Regime for Long-term Storage of Carbon Dioxide" (co-authored with Professor Elizabeth Wilson of the Humphrey Center) at a property law conference at the University of Colorado Law School. She presented her article entitled "Tort Experiments in the Laboratories of Democracy" in at a faculty workshop at Emory University School of Law and at the University of Minnesota’s Constitution Day event. That article is forthcoming in William & Mary Law Review. In November 2008, Professor Klass presented her paper "The Frontier of Eminent Domain" at conference jointly sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center and Stanford Law School entitled "Litigating Takings and Other Legal Challenges to Land Use and Environmental Regulation." The article was published this fall in the University of Colorado Law Review.