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Hwal'Ba Bay dba GCRC: Subordinate Economic Organizations and Tribal Sovereign Immunity
Original Program Date :
Length: 01:03
Course discusses the recent Hwal’Ba Bay case out of Arizona and explores when subordinate economic organizations of a Tribe qualify for sovereign immunity.
Faculty
TJ McReynolds, Senior Attorney, Kewenvoyouma Law, PLLC
Paul Spruhan, Navajo Nation Department of Justice
Moderator
Peter Larson, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
Chairpersons
Doreen McPaul, Attorney General, Navajo Nation; President, Tribal In-House Counsel Association
Virjinya Torrez, Assistant Attorney General, Pascua Yaqui Tribe
Peter A Larson, Attorney, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
Peter A. Larson is a partner with Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP in the firm's Tribal Affairs, Public Finance, and Gaming practice groups. His transactional practice focuses on representing Indian tribes, tribal entities in financing matters, and commercial and economic development in Indian Country. Peter has considerable experience in all areas of Indian gaming, including Indian lands determinations, federal, state and tribal regulatory matters, and representation of tribal gaming agencies. He also works on other economic development issues, including land use and leasing, tribal court development, taxation issues, development of tribal laws and regulations, and regularly interacts with the NIGC and the Department of Interior.
Thomas J McReynolds, Senior Attorney, Kewenvoyouma Law, PLLC
Thomas McReynolds (“TJ”) is an experienced and dedicated Indian law practitioner who focuses on tribal economic development, energy & environmental matters, and Indian land and water rights. He has represented tribal clients in major fee-to-trust conversions, gaming and hospitality developments, land acquisition matters, monumental energy projects, oil and gas matters, and complex water rights settlements. He also provides legal advice to tribal governments concerning governance issues, corporate matters and also drafts laws, ordinances and regulations.
His specialties include, Indian Gaming, fee-to-trust, tribal government, water, environmental law, oil and gas, and economic development.
His specialties include, Indian Gaming, fee-to-trust, tribal government, water, environmental law, oil and gas, and economic development.
TJ was raised at the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, NM, and began his legal career in 2003. Upon graduating from the University of Denver, Strum College of Law, TJ clerked for the Honorable Nathan B. Coats of the Colorado Supreme Court and then joined an International Law firm in Washington, D.C. representing tribal governments and advocating for them before various federal agencies and congressional delegations. After his stint in Washington, D.C., TJ moved back west working as general counsel for a large tribe’s gaming regulatory body and then for a boutique Indian law firm where he continued his representation of tribal governments and tribally owned business and gaming facilities. He recently served as In-House General Counsel for the Pueblo of Nambe before transitioning back to private practice in October of 2020; he is now with Kewenvoyouma Law. TJ is a former board member of the Tribal In-House Council Association and a current member of the Board of Trustees for the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian located in Santa Fe, NM.
TJ is admitted in Colorado, Washington, D.C., New Mexico and Arizona. He is also admitted to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Paul Spruhan, Navajo Nation Department of Justice
is Assistant Attorney General of the Litigation and Employment Unit at the Navajo Nation Department of Justice in Window Rock, Arizona. He received his A.B. in 1995 and his A.M. in 1996 from the University of Chicago. He received his J.D. in 2000 from the University of New Mexico. He has several Indian law articles published in law reviews, including A Legal History of Blood Quantum in Federal Indian Law to 1935, 51 South Dakota Law Review 1 (2006). His latest article, CDIB: The Role of the Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood in Defining Native American Identity, will be published by the American Indian Law Journal in May, 2018. He also teaches Indian law topics for Barbri, Inc. and the Tulsa Law School Masters of Jurisprudence in Indian Law Program. He and his wife have two children and live in Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation. 04/18
