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Alaska Native Matters The firm's Alaska Native practice generally breaks down into three broad categories: (1) representation of village and regional corporations established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA); (2) representation of individual tribal governments and remote Native-controlled municipal governments, including Native-controlled housing authorities; and (3) representation of non-profit organizations, including tribally-established regional health and social service providers and statewide Native advocacy groups.
One major portion of our Alaska Native practice involves representing ANCSA village and regional corporations in areas of general corporate law; ANCSA law; land law; construction law; natural resource law; business law; personnel and employment law; and a wide range of other day-to-day corporate operations and procedures. Our representation of ANCSA corporations involves assisting our clients with economic development, including business formation; advice on federal minority-owned business laws; representing our clients in litigation before state and federal courts and administrative tribunals; and general advice in the area of commercial law and corporate governance.
We also have extensive experience representing tribal governments in Alaska. We successfully represented Amici tribes in protecting their sovereignty in John v. Baker, 982 P.2d 738 (Alaska 1999), cert. denied 528 U.S. 1182 (2000), the first Alaska Supreme Court case to confirm the federally recognized sovereign tribal status of Alaska Native villages operating outside Indian country. Our work for Alaska tribes may touch upon ISDA matters; ICWA matters; construction and other business activities; tribal self-governance (including drafting constitutions, constitutional amendments and justice codes); health law; elections; employment law; hunting and fishing rights; and all manner of other issues that commonly come before tribal governments. In a related area, we also occasionally represent remote Native-controlled Alaska municipal governments, an area which in addition to the foregoing involves advice under state law and the Alaska municipal code.
Finally, a major part of our Alaska practice involves representing non-profit Alaska Native organizations to aid their efforts to improve the lives, health and well-being of Alaska Natives. In this regard, our firm represents both regional and statewide tribal health care and social service consortia and advocacy groups. Here, much of our work involves Indian Self-Determination Act (ISDA) contracting and compacting, the laws and regulations pertaining to BIA programs, and health law. This work also includes congressional lobbying, negotiated rulemaking, litigation, contract and compact negotiations, and regularly advising clients regarding the requirements of major health care laws such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), physician self-referral laws (Stark I and II), the anti-kickback laws, and Medicare and Medicaid requirements.
Our Alaska Native practice, which includes representation of clients by attorneys in all of our offices, involves considerable expertise in the following areas:
Self-Determination and Self-Governance
Litigation: Trial, Appellate and Supreme Court
Health Law
Employment Law
Business Law, Economic Development and Corporate Counseling
Environmental Law
Hunting and Fishing Rights
Child Welfare
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