Burke Griggs

Burke W. Griggs joined DGRM as Special Counsel in 2024.  He is a Professor of Law at the Washburn University School of Law, where he teaches and researches in the areas of property, natural resources law, and legal history.  He has authored numerous scholarly articles and co-authors standard casebooks on both water law and oil and gas law.

Before joining the Washburn Law faculty, he represented the State of Kansas in federal, interstate, and state water matters.  These include Kansas v. Nebraska, an original action before the Supreme Court to enforce the Republican River Compact, 574 U.S. 445 (2015), serving as counsel of record in the Kickapoo Tribe reserved water rights settlement, and drafting the statute for Local Enhanced Management Areas (Kan. Stat. Ann. § 82a-1041).  He leads litigation against the Department of Interior and the State of Kansas to protect the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, and advises the U.S. Department of Commerce on water and critical minerals issues across Latin America.

Burke is the recipient of the inaugural Fulbright Scholarship in Law and Sustainability at NOVA School of Law in Lisbon, Portugal, the Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award from the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, the Justice William O. Douglas Teaching Award at Washburn Law, and the Yale College Teaching Prize.  A Denver native, he earned his B.A. from Stanford, his Ph.D. from Yale, and his J.D. from the University of Kansas.