In-House Counsel 2022: Sarah Whiting

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In her in-house attorney role at ALLETE Inc., an energy company that serves the Upper Midwest, Sarah Whiting supports the environmental and land management department, which includes both environmental and real estate matters. She also provides legal counsel regarding tax, solar development, renewable energy financing, bankruptcy and SEC-related matters.

“With the execution of ALLETE’s sustainability in action strategy,” she says, “my solar development and renewable energy financing practices have grown significantly. And I am proud to be a part of that effort.”

Prior to joining ALLETE in 2019, Whiting, who earned her J.D. in 2011 from Harvard Law School, worked as an attorney at Members Cooperative Credit Union in Duluth for more than three years. Before that, she worked as an associate at Lindquist & Vennum in Minneapolis.

An especially rewarding career experience came right out of law school, she says, when she served as a law clerk to the Honorable G. Barry Anderson, associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.  “It was an honor to serve my home state of Minnesota, and it was a great confidence-booster early in my career to work on several cases that involved issues of first impression with a statewide impact.”

Whiting says her work at ALLETE provides her a strong sense of purpose and personal growth.

“One reason I joined ALLETE was because I value the company’s commitment to sustainability and delivery of clean energy solutions,” she says. “I continue to be impressed by the talent of the employees and the complexity of the work. It’s a place where I will continue to learn new things and gain new skills, especially since the energy industry is in a period of transformation.”

As a Duluth native, Whiting is happy to return to her roots. “I feel very lucky to be able to work on challenging and impactful issues near my family and surrounded by the natural beauty of the Duluth area.”

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