Governor Mark Dayton announced Tuesday that he has appointed Minneapolis attorney David Lillehaug, a shareholder at Minneapolis-based law firm Fredrikson & Byron, to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Lillehaug will replace Justice Paul Anderson, who will reach his mandatory retirement age at the end of May. Lillehaug is expected to take his role on the bench at the end of May or early June. 
 
Lillehaug is a long-time DFL attorney. Early in his career, he was a speechwriter for Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign. More recently, he represented Senator Al Franken in 2008 and Dayton in 2010 during their election recounts. He also worked on the Senate campaigns of Amy Klobuchar and the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone.
 
He continued to work closely with Dayton in 2011, serving as special counsel for the constitutional litigation that came out of the state government shutdown.
 
“Mr. Lillehaug will bring a perspective to the court, which I believe will carry forward the high standards established by Justice Paul Anderson, who has served our state with the greatest distinction,” Dayton said in a statement.
 
Lillehaug will join a Republican-appointed majority court. This is likely Dayton’s last opportunity to structure the court, as no other justices will reach retirement age during the governor’s current term.
 
Lillehaug is a former U.S. attorney for Minnesota. He was appointed under President Clinton in 1994 and served in that role until 1998. More recently, he has worked on complex litigation at Fredickson & Byron and has represented the Minnesota House of Representatives, tribal governments, the University of Minnesota, as well as Fortune 100 corporations.
 
He is also the founding chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s construction law section and has a long-established construction law practice, representing owners, contractors, and design professionals.
 
“David Lillehaug is an excellent choice for the Minnesota Supreme Court,” said Senator Klobuchar in a statement. “The Governor is putting someone on the Court who cares about the law, justice and the people of our state.”
 
Raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota Lillehaug graduated summa cum laude from Augustana College in Sioux Falls and cum laude from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  
 
Lillehaug was chosen over two other candidates on the governor’s short list, Judge Edward Cleary and Judge Natalie Hudson, both of whom sit on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.