Professor Ruth Okediji, Of Counsel at Robins Kaplan LLP and William L. Prosser Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, was recently honored with a prestigious McKnight Presidential Professorship by University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler. As one of the highest honors bestowed upon University of Minnesota faculty members, McKnight Presidential Professorships are selectively awarded by the University president to recipients after nomination by their academic deans.
Professor Okediji teaches contracts, international intellectual property, copyright, trademarks, and IP and development at the Law School. She focuses her scholarship on issues of innovation policy, economic development, and global knowledge governance in the cotext of international institutions and public international law. Professor Okediji is nationally and internationally lauded for her counsel to developed and least developed nations, regional economic bodies, and intergovernmental organizations on patent, copyright, and trademark law. In 2015, Managing Intellectual Property named her one of the world’s most influential people in intellectual property.