Wyatt Sassman

Wyatt Sassman's teaching and research focus on the public's role in environmental and natural resources law, with a focus on the role of local communities in the energy transition. His recent research has appeared or will appear in the UCLA Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, Washington Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, and Environmental Law, as well as other journals. Professor Sassman is also a co-author of the forthcoming edition of the Natural Resources Law casebook published by West Academic. 

Professor Sassman teaches the Environmental Law Clinic, where he supervises students representing local communities and citizen advocacy groups in a wide range of environmental matters. Professor Sassman and his students represent communities before administrative agencies and federal and state courts, including Colorado's water courts. Professor Sassman also teaches courses on Natural Resources Law and Environmental Justice.

Professor Sassman's research and advocacy focuses on building democracy through the energy transition. His research develops policy frameworks that enable communities to lead the transition away from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy. His scholarship has received several honors and recognitions. His 2024 article published in the UCLA Law Review on how oil & gas developers exercise power over communities was highlighted as one of the best new articles in law and political economy. His 2023 article in the Connecticut Law Review developing a policy framework for how to phase-out oil & gas drilling was honored by the Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review as a top twenty article on environmental issues for policymakers. And his 2021 article in the Washington Law Review on how to reform federal environmental permitting regulations to empower communities in the process of building clean energy infrastructure was selected through a peer-review process as one of four top environmental law articles that year and was reprinted in the Land Use & Environmental Law Review (2022-2023).

Before joining the University of Denver faculty, Professor Sassman taught for two years as a fellow with the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center, working with students on public-interest litigation in the federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. He also worked as an associate attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center and clerked for Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

View CV

• LL.M. (Clinical Advocacy), Georgetown University Law Center, 2018
• J.D., Vanderbilt University Law School, 2013
• B.A. (Political Science), Vanderbilt University, 2010