Minnesota APPEALS LAWYER

Based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Brad Delapena specializes in appellate law and state tax controversies.  Brad graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1991.  He served as an Assistant State Public Defender from 1992 until 1999, specializing in appeals to the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court.  As an appellate public defender, Brad challenged criminal convictions for persons unable to afford private counsel.  He enjoyed unusual success, obtaining outright reversals for clients convicted of serious felonies including murder and attempted murder.

 

In January 2000, Brad was appointed as an Assistant Minnesota Attorney General.  He worked for seven years in the Tax Litigation Division, which he managed from 2004 to 2007.  While at the Attorney General’s Office, Brad handled a wide variety of state tax controversies including matters involving individual income tax, corporate franchise tax, centrally-assessed property tax, withholding tax, gasoline excise tax, and sales and use tax.  Amounts in issue ranged from under one hundred dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

Brad also acted as lead counsel in two important cases against cigarette companies.  In Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America v. State, a consortium of small cigarette manufacturers that were not included in State’s 1998 settlement with Big Tobacco challenged a statute imposing a 35-cent per-pack fee upon their cigarettes.  The companies alleged, among other things, that the statute was intended to deter advertising and lobbying activity and thus violated the First Amendment, and that it inflicted legislative punishment and was thus an unlawful bill of attainder.  Brad obtained summary judgment in the district court on all counts, and successfully defended the State’s victory in the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Minnesota Supreme Court.  He thereby secured for the State an income stream of $6 million per year. 

 

In State ex rel. Humphrey  v. Philip Morris U.S.A., Inc., major cigarette manufacturers (including Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and others) challenged a statute imposing a 75-cent per-pack “Health Impact Fee” on all cigarettes sold in Minnesota.  The manufacturers alleged that imposition of the fee violated the State’s 1998 settlement agreement with major cigarette manufacturers.  Although the district court agreed with the manufacturers, Brad persuaded the Minnesota Supreme Court that the 1998 settlement agreement had not surrendered the Legislature’s sovereign power to impose taxes and fees.  This appellate victory secured for the State a revenue stream of $180 million per year.

 

In addition to practicing law, Brad has taught law as an adjunct professor at both the University of Minnesota Law School and William Mitchell College of Law.  Brad is a frequent presenter on state taxation at continuing legal education programs.

 

Since leaving the Attorney General’s Office in April 2007, Brad has been in private practice.
 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

 

1/00 – 4/07            Assistant Attorney General, Minnesota Attorney General’s Office,

                                    Tax Litigation Division

 

4/92 – 12/99          Assistant State Public Defender, Minnesota State Public Defender,

                                    Appellate Division

 

1998                      Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School

                                    ∙ State Constitutionalism and Criminal Procedure, Fall 1998

 

1994 – 2007          Adjunct Professor of Law, William Mitchell College of Law

                                    ∙ Advanced Criminal Procedure, 1994-1998

                                    ∙ Criminal Constitutional Law, 1995-1996

                                    ∙ Substantive Criminal Law, 1996, 1999, 2007

 

1990                      Summer Associate, Popham, Haik, Schnobrich & Kaufman, Ltd.

 

 

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

 

            Minnesota Supreme Court Criminal Rules Advisory Committee

                  Appointed December 2007 to three-year term

 

            Frequent presenter on state taxation at continuing legal education programs

 

 

EDUCATION

 

            J.D., cum laude, University of Wisconsin Law School 1991

 

            B.A. Philosophy & Economics, University of Pittsburgh 1986

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

            Individual Liberties Claims:  Promoting a Healthy Constitution for Minnesota, 19 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 683 (1993)

 

 

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

 

            Board Member & Officer, 2000-Present, Twin Cities Aikido Center

 

            Volunteer Judge.  Regularly serves as judge for various law school moot courts and high school mock trial programs

 

 

Back To Top