Robert T. Anderson

Robert Anderson is the Oneida Nation Visiting Professor of Law and will teach a course in American Indian law on annual basis, along with a course in water law or natural resources law. He was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate as Solicitor of the Department of the Interior in 2021 and served until January 2025. The Solicitor is the chief legal officer for the Department and oversees a staff of over 400 lawyers with roughly half based in D.C., and the remainder in fourteen regional and field offices. The Interior Department manages federal lands and related resourcs through the National Park Service, the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, the Brueau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, and the Bureau of Land Management. The Department also manages oil, gas and renewable energy leasing on federal lands and the outer continental shelf; administers the Endangered Species Act; and carries out federal treaty and trust responsibilities to the Nation’s 529 recognized Indian tribes.

Bob is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Law where he taught courses in American Indian law, public lands, water, and property. For over a decade, he annually served as the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He will return to Harvard in January 2026. He served as an Associate Solicitor and Counselor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in the Clinton Administration. Bob started his career with the Native American Rights Fund and handled significant Indian water rights litigation and Alaska and western United States.. He is a member of the Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.