The Taproot: Perspectives on the Pipeline in Alaska Legal History

The Taproot: Perspectives on the Pipeline in Alaska Legal History
Co-sponsored with AK Bar Historians Committee

2.0 General CLE Credits 
CLE# 2025023
Registration fee: Free 

The Historian Committee presents The Taproot: Perspectives on the Pipeline in Alaska Legal History, a CLE exploring the profound legal, cultural, and historical impacts of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Featuring distinguished panelists Willie Iggiagruk Hensley, Warren Matthews, James Reeves, and Philip Wight, the program will provide unique insights into the legal challenges, policy decisions, and societal changes shaped by one of Alaska’s most defining developments.
 
Warren Matthews
Born in 1939, Warren Matthews grew up in Hollister, California, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University in 1961 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1964. He came to Alaska in 1964 and first worked as an attorney at the law firm of Burr, Boney, and Pease in Anchorage. In 1969, he formed the law firm of Matthews and Dunn, later Matthews, Dunn and Bailey. In 1977, he was appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court and twice served as Chief Justice during his thirty-two years on the bench. Justice Matthews retired in 2009 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Because of a love of the law and his job, he has continued to serve as judge pro tem in every level of court 

Willie Iggiagruk Hensley
William L. Iggiagruk Hensley was an instrumental figure in the formation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, which restored 44 million acres of land to Alaska Natives, the largest such conveyance in the history of the United States. 

James (Jim) Reeves
Jim Reeves is a lawyer in private practice in Anchorage, of counsel to the firm of Holmes, Weddle & Barcott P.C.  He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967 and the University of Minnesota Law School in 1970.  After a judicial clerkship, he came to Juneau in the summer of 1971 to begin his Alaska career with the Department of Law.  He has been in private practice since 1978, with a short break in 2006-2009 to serve as the Anchorage Municipal Attorney.

Jim describes himself as just one of the many foot soldiers in the legal struggles involving the Trans Alaska Pipeline and Alaska North Slope oil development.  He worked on the TAPS right-of-way litigation with the State’s outside law firm in D.C., and later as a member of the State’s team defending the 1972 Alaska Right-of-Way Leasing Act.   In private practice, Jim worked on oil and gas tax litigation, leasing disputes and some of the initial battles in the Exxon Valdez war.   He is not an oil and gas lawyer.     

Philip Wight
Philip Wight is an associate professor of History and Arctic & Northern Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is an energy and environmental historian, with a focus on infrastructure, mobility, and climate. He teaches classes in Alaska history, the contemporary history of the circumpolar north as well as energy and climate history. 

Wight wrote his doctoral dissertation on the history of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. His research demonstrates how transportation infrastructures have enormous capacity to influence Alaska’s development, environment as well as lifeways, or ways of life. He is currently finalizing a book manuscript, Arctic Artery: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the World it Made, based on his doctoral research. 

Wight's more recent research examines the historical electrification of Alaska, including studies which examine generation and transmission on the Railbelt, as well as technological and energy policy innovation throughout the state. 

When not in the archives, Wight could be found cycling, pack rafting and skiing throughout Alaska.