ALI Council
Elected Member

Professor Robert H. Klonoff

Portland, OR
Lewis & Clark Law School
Education
Univ of Calif/Berkeley
Yale Law School

Robert Klonoff is the Jordan D. Schnitzer Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. He served as Dean of the Law School from 2007-2014. He is a co-author of the Wright & Miller treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure (with sole responsibility for the three class action volumes), and is the author of numerous textbooks and articles on class actions and federal multidistrict litigation.

Professor Klonoff served as an Associate Reporter for the ALI’s project, Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and an elected member of the International Association of Procedural Law. From 2011-2017, he served as the academic member of the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Professor Klonoff clerked for the Chief Judge John R. Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C. and as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. He was also a partner at Jones Day for more than a decade and served as firmwide chair of the pro bono program. He has taught at Georgetown University Law Center, the University of San Diego Law School, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. In addition, he has lectured on class actions and other topics at dozens of universities throughout the world.

Professor Klonoff has extensive litigation experience. He has argued eight cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has argued many cases in other federal and state appellate courts throughout the country. He has served as counsel in more than 100 class action cases. In addition, he has served as a class action and attorneys’ fees expert in numerous high-profile cases, including the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill litigation, the National Football League Concussion litigation, the Parkland Shooting Federal Tort Claims Act litigation, and the Equifax Data Breach litigation. His pro bono cases have included death penalty, civil rights, and veterans’ rights cases.

Professor Robert H. Klonoff Image
Areas of Expertise
Appellate Practice & Procedure (Litigation)
Complex Litigation
Class Actions (Complex Litigation)