This text is from a mass email sent to law clinicians, and isn’t (I suspect) the official announcement:
Suffolk Law is excited to announce the creation and launch of our Indian Law and Indigenous Peoples Clinic. This is a project I have long been trying to get off the ground…. Now, with the concerted efforts and amazing contacts of Professor Lorie Graham here at Suffolk and those pesky budget matters solved by the support of Dean Camille Nelson, we are starting our clinic. I was deeply impressed and influenced by my visit (eleven years ago?!) at the University of New Mexico where, through Professor Christine Zuni Cruz and SILC, I came to understand the potential and purposes of Indian Law work in the law school setting. It was that inspiration, the continued work of my friend Aliza Organick (now at Washburn), and the amazing passion of Prof. Graham that allowed this continuing scratchy idea at the back of our collective heads to become a reality.
Our program’s first work has been with the recently federally-recognized Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe for whom we drafted their first set of tribal court rules of civil procedure. We will continue to work with the Mashpee and other New England tribes in tribal court technical support, lawyer training, land use issues and other matters and we will soon begin direct representation of tribal members in the Boston area in a number of cases, including ICWA matters, J-Treaty work and partnering with the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB). I believe we may be the only such full-time in-house, Indian Law Clinic east of the Mississippi….
The clinic will be taught this year by Practitioner in Residence Nicole Friederichs, who has extensive practice background in Indian Law matters, indigenous population work and international tribunal representation. I am sure you will all be meeting her soon at conferences, etc. Very gratifying….
Jeff Pokorak
PS We at Suffolk will also be hiring this year for an IP clinic faculty position — announcement will follow soon.
Turtle Talk 