On Wednesday, January 17 at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, multiple members of Lippes Mathias’ Indian law practice team, including team co-leader Hon. Carol E. Heckman (Ret.), Bryan C. Shade, and Kathryn V. Myrtle will speak during a seminar presented in partnership with Odawi Law PLLC and Capitol Hill Policy Group meant to educate Tribal officials on Indian law and policy.

Lippes Mathias Indian law team members will present during the following sessions at the seminar:

 

 

 

 

 

Session 13: Restoring Tribal Lands Under McGirt v. Oklahoma

 

Judge Heckman, team co-leader of the firm's Indian law practice team, has been representing tribal governments since 2004. Her experience representing tribal governments spans state, federal and tribal courts as well as arbitrations, and has involved state and federal taxation, land claims, sovereign immunity, tribally owned businesses, gaming compacts, IGRA, the Nonintercourse Act, insurance, the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Montana doctrine and tribal civil jurisdiction, property rights and land issues, trust land issues, constitutional claims, treaty issues and contract claims. She also works with tribal courts in procedural and substantive maters. She is highly respected for attention to detail, knowledge of the law and as a strategist. Carol is a former United State Magistrate Judge in the Western District of New York, and puts her knowledge of federal court law and procedures to work on behalf of tribal governments.

 

Bryan C. Shade concentrates his practice on advising tribal clients on issues ranging from gaming and economic development to self-governance and self-determination, and claims settlement and litigation. He is an experienced federal Indian law attorney who has represented tribes and Indian Country in a variety of roles on both sides of the federal-tribal table. Shade formerly served as an attorney/advisor for Indian Affairs at the United States Department of the Interior where he advised the assistant secretary – Indian affairs, the deputy assistant secretaries for Indian affairs for management, policy, and economic development, director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Office of Tribal Self-Governance on various issues relating to the federal trust responsibility to tribal nations. In 2021, Shade was appointed by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to represent the department on the PROGRESS Act Negotiated Rulemaking Committee. Prior to serving in the Department of the Interior, Shade previously served as self-governance general counsel for one of the largest federally recognized tribes in the U.S. as well as executive director of tribal operations and federal programs director for his tribe. He has a demonstrated history of serving Indian Country and is a frontline expert on the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) and other critical areas of federal Indian law. The Oklahoma Bar Association’s Indian Law Section presented Shade with the inaugural G. William Rice Award in recognition of his commitment to and excellence in the field of federal Indian law. He is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma and resides in Rockville, MD, with his wife and two daughters who are citizens of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and who are of Chickasaw and Mississippi Band of Choctaw descent.

Kathryn V. Myrtle advises tribal clients on issues ranging from gaming and economic development to self-governance and self-determination, along with claims settlement and litigation. Prior to coming to Lippes Mathias, she served as a judicial law clerk with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation where she drafted bench memorandums for criminal, civil, and family court proceedings; analyzed complaints, petitions, and motions to the court; and drafted final orders and judicial decisions. Myrtle has also interned with the Catawba Nation, drafting legislative ordinances for the tribe regarding its governmental transparency, family/medical leave, and disability policy.

Lippes Mathias is a full-service law firm with nearly 200 attorneys serving clients regionally, nationally, and internationally. With offices in Buffalo, Clarence, Albany, Long Island, New York, Rochester and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Greater Toronto Area; Chicago, Ill.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Cleveland, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Oklahoma City, Okla. and Washington, D.C., the firm represents publicly and privately-owned companies, private equity and venture capital firms, real estate developers, financial institutions, municipalities, governmental entities, and individuals.