Professor of Law; Senior Fellow, Dispute Resolution Institute
About Professor Hilbert
Jim Hilbert is currently professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law where he has taught full-time since 2010. He is the former interim president and dean (2023–24) and former vice dean (2020-2023) at the law school and currently also serves as senior fellow at the Dispute Resolution Institute. He teaches Civil Rights, the Civil Right Litigation and Policy Externship course, Education Law, Expert Witness Advocacy, and Transactions and Settlements: Drafting Agreements and Making Deals.
He is a long-time executive committee member of the St. Paul NAACP and serves as ad hoc counsel for the State NAACP. In addition, Professor Hilbert is a board member of Parents in Community Action, the Head Start provider in Hennepin County. He also serves as the co-director of the Expert Witness Training Academy, which was originally funded by the National Science Foundation and provides training to climatologists on communicating in courtrooms and legislative hearings.
Professor Hilbert’s scholarship covers police reform, state constitutional law, school desegregation, expert witness testimony, and negotiation. Before joining the academy, Professor Hilbert was a civil rights attorney for over ten years and a former legal fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Education
J.D., University of Minnesota
B.A., Carleton College
Experience
Mitchell Hamline School of Law: professor of law, 2019–; interim president and dean, 2023–24; vice dean, academic and faculty affairs, 2020–23; associate professor of law, 2015–19; co-director, expert witness training academy, 2012–
William Mitchell College of Law: associate professor, 2015; executive director, center for negotiation and justice, 2007–15
Alignor: vice president, professional services, 2001–15
University of St. Thomas Center for Business Excellence: instructor, 2007–10
Shulman Law Firm: attorney, 1997–2007
Jujitsu Films: producer, 2003–04
University of Minnesota Carlson School: guest lecturer, 2003
Institute on Race and Poverty: legal fellow, 1996–97
NAACP, Minneapolis branch: research associate, 1995–96
Hennepin County Public Defender: law clerk, 1995
