Increasing Resources for Tribal Health—how Section 105(l) Lease and Contract Support Cost Developments Have Led to More Funding for Tribally-Operated Programs

Geoffrey D Strommer Related Seminars and Products

Goeff Strommer joined Hobbs Straus in 1992 and is the managing partner of the Portland, Oregon office. Geoff works with tribes on a wide range of issues, primarily self-determination and self-governance. He is dedicated to working with tribal clients to help them develop stable and strong tribal governments that are able to deliver a range of high-quality services to tribal members.

Geoff is nationally recognized for his knowledge of and experience working with the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA). An active participant in the ISDEAA’s developments and implementation since 1992, Geoff worked on efforts to draft and lobby for amendments to the ISDEAA. He was involved with the development of regulations to implement Titles IV and V of the Act as well as for the Indian Reservation Roads program. His work under the ISDEAA also includes negotiating contracts, compacts, and funding agreements with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and other federal agencies, including the first funding agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2003).

Geoff was recognized for professional excellence in the 2023 and 2024 editions of The Best Lawyers in America for Native American Law. In 2025 he received Lawyer of the Year In Oregon in Native American Law from the same publication. In 2025 he was also selected by Alaska Business as a part of the 2025 Alaska’s Legal Elite.

Geoff is a veteran and served an active tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps. He grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, and enjoys traveling the world with his family. He was an avid mountain climber for many years and climbed a number of peaks in the U.S. and abroad.

Doreen Nanibaa McPaul Related Seminars and Products

is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She is a 1995 graduate of Princeton University and earned her Juris Doctorate in 2001 from the Arizona State University College of Law, where she also received a Certificate in Federal Indian Law and served as a staff writer for the ASU Law Journal. After law school, Ms. McPaul clerked at the Arizona Court of Appeals for the Honorable Jefferson L. Lankford (retired). She has diverse experience serving as a tribal court staff attorney, as an associate attorney at the Nordhaus Law Firm in Albuquerque, and as a visiting clinical law professor and Interim Director of the Indian Legal Clinic at ASU. Since 2008, Ms. McPaul has worked as an in-house tribal attorney for several Arizona tribes, including a 4-year appointment as the Navajo Nation Attorney General. She currently serves as the Deputy Attorney General for the White Mountain Apache Tribe. Ms. McPaul has over 20 years of experience practicing Indian law, and is admitted to practice law in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as before several tribal and federal courts. Ms. McPaul is active in the State Bar and Indian legal community. She serves on the State Bar of Arizona Board of Governors and is currently the Vice President of the State Bar. Ms. McPaul is a founding board member of the Tribal In-House Counsel Association and served as TICA’s President for a decade. She also serves on the Board of the American Indian Law Center and was elected to membership in The American Law Institute in 2021. Most importantly, Ms. McPaul is a proud military spouse and mom. She is married to SFC Mark McPaul (retired) and they have three sons.

James Washinawatok Related Seminars and Products

Southern Ute Indian Tribe

Rebecca Patterson Related Seminars and Products

Rebecca A. Patterson joined Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Monkman’s Anchorage office in 2013 and became a partner in 2017. Mrs. Patterson works in all areas of the firm’s practice. Before joining the firm, Mrs. Patterson clerked for Chief Justice Walter L. Carpeneti (Ret.) of the Alaska Supreme Court and Judge Sharon L. Gleason of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

Mrs. Patterson graduated from Harvard Law School in 2011, where she served as Assistant Managing Editor for the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and was deeply involved in several public interest programs that assisted criminal defendants. Before law school, Mrs. Patterson worked on immigration issues at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. Mrs. Patterson received her B.A. summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in 2007.

Harrison William Rice Related Seminars and Products

Caleb Norris Related Seminars and Products

Caleb Norris joined Hobbs Straus as an associate in April of 2022.

Caleb advises clients on a number of issues, with a particular focus on tribal self-determination and self-governance. His works involves a range of topics including Section 105(l) leasing under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA), contract support costs, tribal housing, tribal healthcare, cultural resource protection, and other transactional work.

Prior to joining Hobbs Straus in the Portland Office, Caleb was a corporate intellectual property attorney in Chicago.

Caleb is a 2020 graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law. As a law student, he interned at the Tribal Law and Policy Institute and clerked at the Native American Rights Fund, where he worked on the Native American Voting Rights Project. He was also the co-director of Oregon’s NALSA chapter and the treasurer of Oregon’s environmental law society (“Land, Air, Water”).

In his free time, he enjoys endurance cycling, reading travel memoirs (and travelling himself), and following his beloved Chicago Cubs.