Ann Eisenberg

Ann Eisenberg joined the faculty at West Virginia University College of Law as a Professor of Law and Research Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development. Her research examines questions of law and sustainability, with particular emphases on rural development, property, energy law, and local government. Her scholarship has appeared in the Washington Univeristy Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Harvard Law and Policy Review, and elsewhere. Her book, Reviving Rural America: Toward Policies for Resilience, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in 2024. 

Before joining the WVU faculty, Professor Eisenberg was on the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Law from 2016 to 2023, where she created and ran the transactional Environmental Law Clinic. During that time, she also held a seven-month residency as a Fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, where she conducted original archival research on the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. Eisenberg was also selected through a competitive process to give a TEDx talk, “Reviving Rural America.” Professor Eisenberg is actively engaged in interdisciplinary work, and is currently part of two research teams of law professors and geographers funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study justice in energy transitions.

Eisenberg holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School, cum laude, an LL.M in Energy and Sustainable Development from WVU Law, and a B.A. in Linguistics and French Cultural Studies from Cornell University. She is a member of the New York Bar. Her website can be found at www.anneisenberg.com.

Her book is available for pre-order here.

Education

LL.M, West Virginia University College of Law, 2014 (funded through fellowship position)

J.D., Cornell Law School, 2012 

B.A., Cornell University, 2006

Courses Taught

Publications, Research, and Intellectual Contributions

• South Carolina Residential Real Property Law and Practice (LexisNexis 2023)

• The Geography of Unfreedom, 12 Mich. L. Rev. 1049 (2023) (invited book review)

• Rural America as a Commons, 57 U. Rich. L. Rev. 769 (2023) (invited symposium keynote)

• Navigating Legal Geographies, 50 Fordham Urb. L. J. 243 (2023)

• Securitization of Coal Plant Retirements: Implications for Just Energy Transitions, 33 Colo. Envtl. L. J. 317 (2022) (invited) (with Emily Winston)

• Power and Powerlessness in Local Government: A Response to Professor Swan, 135 Harv. L. Rev. F. 173 (2022) (invited)

• Advisor, Environmental Law Society (student group), 2023-present

• Member of Executive Leadership, AALS Section on Community Economic Development, 2019-present

• WVU Law Representative to the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation, 2023-present

• New York State Bar, 2014-present