Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Update 2024

Doreen Nanibaa McPaul Related Seminars and Products

Doreen Nanibaa McPaul is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She is Kinyaa'áanii, born for Bilagáana, her maternal grandfathers are Honaghaahnii, and her paternal grandfathers are Irish. She was born and raised in Chinle, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. 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. Ms. McPaul has nearly 25 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 a 2013 graduate of the State Bar’s Bar Leadership Institute and remains active in the State Bar and Indian legal community. She currently serves as the President-Elect of the State Bar of Arizona after becoming one of the first American Indians appointed to serve on the State Bar’s Board of Governors in 2018. The Supreme Court of Arizona re-appointed her to the Board in 2019 and again in 2020 and 2023. Ms. McPaul is also a founding board member and current Executive Director of the Tribal In-House Counsel Association, a national organization that provides informational networking and support measures and programming to in-house tribal attorneys and federal Indian law practitioners. She also serves on the Board to the American Indian Law Center and serves on the PLSI Judicial Clerkship Committee. Finally, Ms. McPaul serves as a Trustee for the Irish Cultural Center in Arizona.

Ms. McPaul has received several honors for her work. In 2021, she received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad from Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins at a ceremony at the Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin. She was also elected to membership in The American Law Institute in 2021. Ms. McPaul received the 2020 Alumnus of the Year Award from the National Native American Law Student Association in recognition of her work, passion, dedication to serving Indian Country, and empowering native law students to dedicate their careers to serve their tribal communities. She is also the recipient of the State Bar of Arizona Indian Law Section’s 2020 Rodney B. Lewis Award of Excellence for exemplifying the honesty, integrity, courage, grace, dignity and respect of the award’s namesake. And finally, Ms. McPaul received the 2020 Cushing Academy Leadership Award for outstanding leadership, commitment to public service, and invaluable contributions to the Navajo Nation and the legal profession.

Most importantly, Ms. McPaul is a proud military spouse and mom. She is married to SFC Mark McPaul (retired) and they have three sons, two Rez dogs, and a cat.

Virjinya Ruth Adair Torrez Related Seminars and Products

Pascua Yaqui Tribe

is an Assistant Attorney General for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, a federally recognized Indian tribe located in Arizona. Virjinya earned both her J.D. and her M.A. in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona, and she earned her B.A. in Political Science (specializing in International Relations) and East Asian Studies at the University of Iowa, with certificates in International Business and American Indian and Native Studies. She is admitted to practice in both the federal and state courts of Arizona, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Tohono O’odham Judicial Court, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Court. She is also an accredited Veteran Affairs attorney. Virjinya started her legal career as an associate at Vingelli & Errico, a small general practice firm in Tucson, Arizona; was a solo practitioner for a brief period of time; and served five years as an Assistant Attorney General for the Tohono O’odham Nation. Virjinya is a 2016 graduate of the State Bar of Arizona's Bar Leadership Institute; is the Immediate Past Chair of the Executive Council for the State Bar of Arizona’s Indian Law Section; serves as the appointed State Bar of Arizona’s representative on the Arizona State, Tribal & Federal Court Forum; and is a member of NABA-AZ, the Arizona Minority Bar Association, and the Tribal In-House Counsel Association. She is also active in the community and serves on TUSD’s Native American Education Advisory Committee, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona’s Community Investment Team, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona’s Governance Committee, and the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona’s Board of Directors. Virjinya's work for the Tribe is varied, but she primarily represents the Tribe’s Public Safety, Human Resources, Education, and Facilities Management Departments and programs. Virjinya is Cherokee/Seminole/Muscogee Creek, and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. 10/18

April Erin Olson Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Rothstein Donatelli LLP

April Olson has served tribal governments for almost 20 years, first as a social worker and then as an attorney. April is a first-generation college student and the only lawyer in her family. She graduated from the Indian Legal Program at Arizona State University with a Certificate in Indian Law. April is now a partner in the Tempe Office Rothstein Donatelli LLP, a firm that specializes in Indian law, civil rights litigation and criminal defense. April joined the firm in May 2010 after serving as in-house counsel for a tribe for three and a half years. April practices exclusively in the field of federal Indian law and tribal law and her experience includes a wide variety of practice areas. A substantial part of April practice also involves ICWA matters. April has represented 9 tribes in ICWA matters in over 10 states across the country. Ms. Olson has provided ICWA representation to tribes at the trial court level and in appellate proceedings. Most recently, April and her firm filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in the Brackeen case.

Kathryn Fort Related Seminars and Products

Director of Clinics

Michigan State University College of Law

Kathryn (Kate) E. Fort is the Director of Clinics at Michigan State University College of Law and runs the Indian Law Clinic, where she teaches the Clinic class and other classes in federal Indian law. In 2015, she started the Indian Child Welfare Act Appellate Project, which represents tribes in complex ICWA litigation across the country. She is the author of American Indian Children and the Law, published by Carolina Academic Press. Prof. Fort has written articles on laches and land claims and has researched and written extensively on the Indian Child Welfare Act. Her publications include articles in the Harvard Public Health Review, George Mason Law Review, Saint Louis University Law Journal, and American Indian Law Review. She co-edited Facing the Future: The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30 with Profs. Wenona T. Singel and Matthew L.M. Fletcher (Michigan State University Press 2009). She contributes the popular and influential Indian law blog, TurtleTalk. Prof. Fort is a popular guest lecturer and speaker at conferences, trainings, and law school classes around the country.

Prof. Fort graduated magna cum laude in from Michigan State University College of Law with the Certificate in Indigenous Law and is licensed to practice law in Michigan. She received her B.A. in History with honors from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.