Steve LaPierre is a member of Leonard, Street and Deinard’s Energy, Environment and Transportation group, devoting substantial time to transportation, labor and employment, and business litigation matters.

Immediately prior to joining the firm, Steve served as an assistant attorney general at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in the Transportation and Consumer Enforcement Divisions. Steve also previously served as in-house counsel with NRG Energy, Inc., one of the world’s largest independent power producers, and practiced in the business litigation section of another Minneapolis law firm. Steve began his legal career as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Alan C. Page of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

In addition to his general background in business litigation, Steve has considerable eminent domain experience, having handled highway condemnation and inverse condemnation matters for the Minnesota Department of Transportation in some twenty counties around the state. Steve has also defended Minnesota state agencies in construction disputes involving state highway and bridge projects, numerous campuses in the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system, the Minnesota Sexual Offender Program facility in Moose Lake and the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee.

Steve has successfully appeared before the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court, and recently achieved victory in State of Minnesota, by its Commissioner of Transportation v. Kettleson, prevailing before the district court and both state appellate courts. That case, reported at 801 N.W.2d 160 (Minn. 2011), involved the interpretation of new definitions for public use and public purpose in the Minnesota Legislature’s 2006 amendments to the state’s eminent domain laws. Steve has been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers®-Rising Stars. From 2001-06, Steve was a board member of TCC, the Twin Cities Committee on Minority Lawyers in Large Law Firms.

Professional and Civic Activities

• American Bar Association
• Minnesota State Bar Association
• Ramsey County Bar Association

Education

J.D., magna cum laude, University of Minnesota Law School, 2000
             Order of the Coif
             Member and Director, National Moot Court

B.A., summa cum laude, University of St. Thomas, 1997
             Aquinas Scholar

Admissions

• State of Minnesota, 2000
• U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, 2001