University of Minnesota Law School Professor James Coleman will deliver the 2024 Liskow Visiting Professor in Energy Law Lecture, “Permitting the Future of Energy Law,” in the Robinson Courtroom on Thursday, Nov. 21, from 5 to 6 p.m. with a reception to follow in the Student Union.
University of Minnesota Law School Professor James Coleman will deliver the 2024 Liskow Visiting Professor in Energy Law Lecture at LSU Law on Thursday, Nov. 21. Coleman specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade, and his lecture—“Permitting the Future of Energy Law”—will explore potential reforms to the permitting process for energy projects.
The lecture will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Robinson Courtroom at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, with a reception to follow in the Student Lounge until 7 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public, and attendees will have the opportunity to earn continuing legal education credit. Register to attend.
“Permitting delays and potential reforms of the permitting process are incredibly important issues. Permitting delays slow down big infrastructure projects, whether it be the construction of an offshore wind farm, new transmission lines to bring wind energy from the Great Plains to population centers, or to build facilities to export LNG to other countries,” said LSU Law Professor Keith Hall, who holds the Nesser Family Chair in Energy Law and serves as director of both the LSU John P. Laborde Energy Law Center and the Louisiana Mineral Law Institute. “Professor Coleman is a top scholar and thinker on these vital issues, and we are honored to bring him to LSU Law as our Liskow Visiting Professor in Energy Law.”
Coleman is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy. He often writes interdisciplinary papers focused on addressing crucial policy questions and his research is frequently presented before key legal decision-makers in Washington, D.C., and across North America. He has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits and has worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta’s Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province’s management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Prior to joining the University of Minnesota Law School faculty at the outset of the 2024-25 academic year, Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Hon. Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Coleman earned his B.A. in biology and J.D. from Harvard University. As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
The Liskow Visiting Professorship in Energy Law was established in 2013 with one of the largest gifts that LSU Law has ever received from a Louisiana law firm. The visiting professorship provides funds to bring distinguished scholars in energy law and closely related fields to LSU Law, and the multidisciplinary energy program helps prepare law students for the complex and highly specialized practice of energy law.
With offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette and Houston, Liskow is a full-service law firm providing regulatory advice, transactional counsel, and handling high-stakes litigation for regional and national companies. Its clients operate in the energy, environmental, and maritime sectors, as well as local and regional businesses in virtually all industries.
