James W. Coleman

James W. Coleman is a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His work focuses on energy infrastructure, transportation, and trade. He has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits.
Before joining Minnesota, Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University, the University of Calgary, and Harvard Law School. He previously practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. 
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.