Stokes Lawrence’s Native American Law Group is a bold and innovative team of attorneys committed to supporting, representing, and protecting the interests of tribal governments, tribal enterprises, and tribal member-owned businesses for economic sovereignty and success.
Our team provides superior litigation and transactional support for American tribes and tribal entities. We offer our tribal clients services, guidance, and regulatory support in an array of areas, including treaty rights, intertribal trade, business and enterprise development, compacts, tax policy, creditors’ rights, cannabis and hemp, gaming, fuel and cigarettes, intellectual property, trust and estates, and real estate/property.
Litigation
Complex litigation in all areas of Federal Indian law defines our practice. From pre-suit investigation and discovery through dispositive motion practice and trial, we provide boots-on-the-ground experience and strategy asserting treaty and tribal rights at every tier, in tribal courts, in the federal courts of the United States, including the United States Supreme Court, and, when necessary, in state courts.
Stokes Lawrence’s Native American Law Group served as counsel of record in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, 139 S. Ct. 1000 (2019), a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming that the Treaty of 1855 preserved the perpetual right of Yakama Nation members to travel the public highways of the United States to trade unencumbered. The Supreme Court’s decision rested and relied on the lower Washington Supreme Court decision, which Stokes Lawrence argued and won on behalf of tribal corporation Cougar Den, Inc. This was arguably the most significant victory in a treaty case in decades.
Stokes Lawrence has built on its successes and continues to litigate to preserve treaty rights and commercial interests on behalf of various Native American-owned corporations nationwide.
Transactional
Our Native American Law Group is committed to advancing the economic vitality of Indian country by leveraging the unique status of tribes and native corporations. We rely on our firm’s extensive business experience to structure complex corporate, financing, and banking transactions involving tribal entities and organizations. We support our tribal clients with large land purchases, fee-to-trust processes, significant commercial acquisitions, and real estate development throughout Indian Country.
