James W Coleman

SMU Dedman School of Law

James 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). Upon graduation from law school he served as clerk for Eighth Circuit Judge Steve Colloton, and then practiced energy, environmental, and appellate law as an associate in the Washington, D.C., firm of Sidley Austin LLP for three years. 

Prior to joining SMU, he was on the faculty at the University of Calgary, where he taught at both the law school and the business school. Before Calgary, he served on the faculty at Harvard Law School as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law. 

Coleman’s scholarship addresses regulation of North American energy companies, focusing on how countries account for and influence regulation of fuel and electricity in their trading partners and how global energy companies respond to competing pressures from investors and regulators in multiple jurisdictions. He publishes the Energy Law Professor blog and you can follow him on Twitter at @energylawprof. This fall he will teach Oil & Gas Law.