Tribal Partnership Program
The Tribal Partnership Program is a joint project of the DC and National Native American Bar Associations, the National Congress of American Indians and the Appleseed Foundation. The Tribal Partnership Program is designed to bring much needed pro bono legal resources to Indian Country by matching individual Tribes and Native related nonprofit organizations with large law firms to provide much needed legal assistance.
The Tribes and Organizations
Tribal and Native organizations have extensive legal needs, and often do not have the financial resources to meet those needs. Any Tribe or Native organization that has a legal need, but does not have substantial resources is urged to inquire about the program. The law firms work on a wide range of legal issues, ranging from economic development to lobbying to policy research projects. Participants include a variety of entities such as Tribes, domestic violence organizations, urban Indian centers, and Native economic development organizations.
While each Tribe and each Firm will determine their own relationship and issues, these partnerships will not be designed to work on Indian law, gaming, internal political issues, membership, or recognition. These complex subjects are excluded because they are outside of the expertise of most of the non-Indian law firms that will be participating and are issues in which extensive Indian law expertise is needed.
The Law Firms
The Tribal Partnership Program encourages law firms, which do not normally work within Indian Country, to provide pro bono work to Tribal attorneys, Tribal governments, and Native organizations.
The law firms provide assistance in the areas in which they already have expertise: transactional work, contracts, economic development, federal constitutional law, code development, intellectual property, anti-trust, employment, securities, business law, and in some cases legislative efforts. Numerous top tier law firms such as Patton Boggs, Covington & Burling, and Latham & Watkins participate in the Tribal Partnership Program.
Tribal Contact:
Heather Dawn Thompson
President, National Native American Bar Association
1301 Connecticut Ave, NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 466-7767
hthompson@ncai.orgLaw Firm Contact:
Betsy Cavendish
Executive Director, Appleseed Foundation
727 15th Street, NW 11th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
p: 202.347.7960 f: 202.347.7961
bcavendish@appleseednetwork.orgwww.appleseednetwork.org
