The Indian Legal Clinic

The Indian Legal Clinic provides law students with an opportunity to participate in real cases dealing with native peoples and Indian issues.  Please read more in depth about the Clinic below.


Student attorneys working in the Indian Legal Clinic, Fall 2009

Derrick Beetso (Navajo), a third-year law student.	Sarah Cedarface (Oglala Sioux) is a third-year law student originally from Pine Ridge, S.D., and is the mother of two school-aged daughters. Sarah received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University in psychology, graduating with honors. She spent this past summer working at the Arizona Center for Disability Law, focusing on the areas of special education and mental health. In addition to a Juris Doctorate and an Indian Law Certificate, Sarah will be graduating with the College of Law’s Highest Pro Bono Distinction for her extensive volunteer legal work. Once she graduates, Sarah is  interested working in educational and administrative law.	Dan Lewis (Pueblo of Laguna) is a third-year law student and a veteran in the Indian Law Clinic. We are excited that he has returned to continue to work on cases. Lewis is a Phoenix native and received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in molecular and cell biology. He plans to pursue a career in Indian law and cyberspace law. Lewis attended PLSI in 2007 and was a PLSI teaching assistant in 2008. This last summer, he was a summer clerk at Fredericks Peebles & Morgan in Omaha, Neb.	Rebecca Ross, a third-year law student, is originally from California and received her undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998. Before attending law school, Ross worked in book publishing and volunteered as a court-appointed special advocate for a teenage girl in foster care in California. Rebecca is interested in commercial litigation, cultural resources law, natural resources law, and political law.
Vanessa L. Verri is currently pursuing her LL.M. in Tribal Policy, Law, and Government. Verri graduated cum laude, received her J.D. from the College of Law in 2008, and is admitted to practice law in the state of Arizona. She has worked for ASU’s American Indian Policy Institute conducting legal and policy research. Her legal interests are in natural resources, cultural resources and environmental law. Other areas of interest include environmental justice and sustainable development.	Cathy Werick-Fine, a third-year law student.	Naomi White (Navajo), a third-year law student

The Indian Legal Clinic (ILC) of Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law serves both Indian country and the nation's urban Indian populations by providing high quality legal services,  with attention to the special legal and cultural needs of native peoples.  ILC's  mission is:

(1) to educate law students using a methodology which involves providing legal services to clients with actual Indian law cases;
(2) to serve the legal needs of Indian tribes and a distinctive group of people defined by their political status as citizens of Indian nations, each of which has its own distinctive culture and many of which retain their own native languages;
(3) to educate future lawyers so that they are competent to provide for the leadership and legal needs of Indian Country, now and in the future, and to serve the people of Indian communities; and
(4)  to educate and assist present and future tribal officials and leaders in legal skills required to fully serve their tribal communities.

It is ILC's goal to maintain the leading Indian law clinic in the United States by providing cutting-edge, full spectrum learning experiences such as participating in the Tribal Court Trial Skills College; attending seminars on representing clients in Indian country; working on court cases and tribal enhancement projects containing cutting-edge Indian and tribal law issues; and providing direct legal services to clients in tribal, state, and federal courtrooms.  ILC also furthers the goals of the ASU Indian Legal Program in training future leaders in Indian country by training students in the Program in practical litigation, code development, and other tribally-related skills.

Educational Mission

The educational component of the ILC mission should prepare law students to work autonomously and confidently as lawyers in the governmental systems and judiciaries of the three major governments that impact Indian nations and the lives of tribal peoples:  tribal, federal, and state governments, with emphasis placed in that order.   To that end, the Indian Legal Clinic  may accept Indian or tribal law related cases that involve practice in tribal, federal or state courts, listed in order of priority, will represent Indian and other clients in such courts, and will represent Indian tribes and Indian peoples in legislative and administrative matters in all three governments.  Subject to case availability, ILC will structure caseload to provide each student with the opportunity to handle at least one case scheduled for trial during enrollment.

The ILC educational objectives necessarily restrict the number of cases the Indian Legal Clinic can undertake at any given time in order to provide a rich educational experience and appropriate feedback for students on their work.  Within those constraints, however, the Indian Legal Clinic seeks to provide highly skilled professional legal service to clients on a wide range of Indian and tribal law related matters nationwide, with an emphasis on Arizona tribes.

Training of Lawyers and Leaders for Indian County

Working in Indian country and with indigenous clients poses unique challenges and opportunities for lawyers and law students.  Cultural understanding and sensitivity is necessary at all stages of client representation,  from the initial intake interview to seeking appropriate remedies to attempt to resolve the client's problem.  Too many attorneys, skilled only in the legal traditions of Anglo-American law, fail to listen carefully to special problems and culturally derived complaints often presented by Indian clients.  Furthermore, lawyers without specialized Indian law training often fail to comprehend the unique governmental status of Indian tribes or the special needs that Indian tribes have in fulfilling their governmental missions to their citizens in a culturally sensitive manner. 

ILC seeks to culturally sensitize future lawyers in the specialized cultural and clinical skills needed to appreciate the special concerns of Indian clients, the special interviewing and fact gathering techniques posed in representing Indian peoples, and the skills required in tribal, federal and state courts or administrative agencies in seeking redress for Indian tribes and native clients.  It also seeks to prepare law students to work both within and with Indian nations in furthering their interests and fulfilling their governing obligations toward their citizens and other persons subject to their jurisdiction.  Finally, ILC seeks to provide law students with important training and skills in the research and application of tribal law, both the positive written law of Indian nations and their tribal customs and traditions. 

In order to train future attorneys to cope with these complex challenges, ILC supplements the law school's general clinical training courses with specialized classes directed at tribal court practice.  In these supplemental classes, the Clinic will teach special interviewing and fact-gathering techniques, as well as the substance and procedure unique to tribal court practice, including the research and application of tribal law, both the positive written law of Indian nations and their tribal customs and traditions.  It also undertakes tribal legal development projects, such as drafting tribal code provisions and court rules for Indian tribes. 

In addition to representation, ILC also serves Indian country by providing resources and training for tribal governments.  Projects can include training for tribal judges, prosecutors, advocates, and legislative staff, both as part of general training sessions open to all, or specialized, tribally-specific on-site workshops.  It additionally seeks to provide resources to assist Tribal courts and governments in matters where no conflict is posed with its client base.

ILC Service Community

The Indian Legal Clinic only undertakes representation in cases that involve (1) the existence of an Indian law issue, (2) matters  governed by tribal law or heard in a tribal forum, or (3) an Indian client.  Its services, however, are not limited to Indian clients and it does not discriminate in the provision of services on the basis of race.  For example, it will undertake representation of nonmembers, including non-Indians, in tribal court so long as the representation does not conflict with any known tribal interest.  While ILC accepts cases and projects from tribes and individual  clients nationwide, due to geogrpahical and economic constraints, most of its individual client base is derived from clients living in the State of Arizona, although they may come from various tribes nationwide.

Non-exhaustive illustrations of the types of cases or projects that ILC might accept include the representation of Indian tribes in jurisdictional or sovereignty disputes in federal court; preparing and filing friend of court briefs on behalf of Indian tribes and Indian organizations in pending federal litigation that potentially affects tribal interests: drafting tribal code provisions or court rules for Indian tribes; preparing and filing comments on pending legislation or proposed administrative rules on behalf of Indian tribes, Indian organizations, or other interested Indians; representing Indian parents, children or tribes in Indian Child Welfare Act proceedings; representing Indians in victims rights, delinquency, divorce, custody, unemployment compensation, consumer fraud, tribal enrollment, criminal defense, or other proceedings; and representing interested parties in tribal court or other tribal forums where Indian Legal Clinic students are permitted to appear.

ILC generally will not undertake representation against any Indian tribe, against the known interest of any existing tribal government, or against any tribal official for actions taken in an official capacity with the exception of criminal defense cases for individual clients in the courts of Indian tribes that have officially requested such assistance from the ILC in writing or in which the case is court appointed.

The procedures and priorities affecting case and project selection in the ILC are available upon request.  While preference is given for enrollment in ILC to those students who have taken Federal Indian Law I and to students seeking an Indian Law Certificate who have not otherwise satisfied their requirement of Indian law work experience and, as noted above, ILC limits its case selection to cases with an Indian or tribal component, ILC provides equality of opportunity in legal education and in its case selection for all persons without discrimination or segregation on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, handicap or disability, or sexual orientation.