Judge Lenor Scheffler Blaeser ’88

Lenor Scheffler Blaeser continues to serve as the Chief Judge of the Upper Sioux Community Tribal Court. A position she has held for more than 19 years. Blaeser also served as Associate Judge II for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate for four years starting in 2013 and also served two years starting in 2014 as an administrative law judge for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate. Blaeser now serves the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate as an Associate Justice of the Oyate’s Supreme Court. Blaeser continues to serve as an Appellate Justice/Judge to the White Earth Nation and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Appellate Courts. Blaeser has served as in house counsel for multiple tribes including her own tribe the Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota as General Counsel. Blaeser was a partner at Best & Flanagan, LLP and a staff attorney at Dorsey & Whitney, LLP. Blaeser serves as a Trustee for the American Swedish Institute. She previously served as a board member for Minnesota Private Colleges Council, the Division of Indian Work, and the Mitchell Hamline School of Law Board of Trustees, among other non-profit organizations. Blaeser served on the Minnesota Commission on Judicial Selection as an at-large member, a co-chair of the Tribal Court State Court Forum, and co-lead the Minnesota Tribal Court Judges in Minnesota. Blaeser received her B.A. from St. Olaf College (’79) and J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law (’88). In 1997, she was named one of The BusinessJournal’s “Forty Under Forty” business leaders. She is also a past recipient of the Minnesota American Indian Chamber of Commerce Turtle Award for her support of the Chamber and its members.