About Teresa Fariss
Teresa Fariss McClain began her legal path at William Mitchell College of Law, where she earned her J.D. in 2001. She moved quickly from law school into a federal clerkship, a formative early experience that exposed her to appellate work and complex legal reasoning.
After graduation, McClain served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Donald P. Lay on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in 2002. Working at the appellate level so soon after law school provided her with an inside view of appellate advocacy, opinion drafting and the court’s deliberative process.
She entered private practice as an associate at Mackenzie & Hallberg, P.A. in 2001. By 2004 she was a trial lawyer at Hallberg & McClain, P.A., where she handled litigation in state and federal forums. Those years in the trenches of civil practice gave her steady courtroom experience and a familiarity with the practical demands of trial preparation.
In 2008 McClain returned to William Mitchell College of Law as an adjunct faculty member, teaching Legal Writing and Representation. Her time on the faculty allowed her to translate courtroom and appellate experience into classroom lessons on clear legal analysis and persuasive drafting. Her teaching emphasized practical skills for drafting briefs, organizing legal argument and preparing clients and witnesses for proceedings.
McClain holds admissions in Minnesota and before the Eighth Circuit. Her career includes both trial-level representation and appellate work, reflecting the arc from clerkship to courtroom and back into legal education. She has worked at small, litigation-focused practices and in roles that required both courtroom presence and written advocacy. The combination of appellate clerkship, trial practice and law school teaching shapes how she approaches cases: attention to legal detail, clarity in writing and readiness for oral argument.
She continues to practice in ways that draw on each stage of her career. Her current practice emphasizes trial and appellate litigation and legal writing instruction.
