Sandra Zellmer is a Professor and Director of Land Use and Natural Resources Clinics at the University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law, where she teaches public lands, wildlife law, and related courses. Zellmer has published dozens of law review articles as well as several books, including A Century of Unnatural Disasters: Mississippi River Stories (NYU 2014) (with Klein), Water Law in a Nutshell (2015; 2025) (with Getches and Amos), Natural Resources Hornbook (2015) (with Laitos), Developing Skills in Environmental Law (2016) (with Glicksman), and Water Law & Policy Casebook (2018; 2025) (with Thompson, Abrams, and Leshy). Zellmer was appointed to the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2020.  She has served as a board member and law school trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. She is active with the American Bar Association Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources Committees on Public Lands and on Water Resources.

Prior to Montana, Zellmer served on the faculty and held the Robert B. Daugherty Chair at the University of Nebraska College of Law. Before teaching, she was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, litigating public lands issues for the National Park Service, Forest Service, and other federal agencies. She also practiced law in the Environmental Litigation Group at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and clerked for the Honorable William W. Justice, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas.

Research interests include: public lands, wildlife, water law, environmental law, disaster law, federalism, takings

Public Lands; Wildlife; Water Law; Torts; Environmental Justice & Practice; Natural Resources Clinic; Torts