Keith Harper

Ambassador Keith Harper focuses his practice on Native American affairs, litigation, and international clients from the private and public sectors. From 2014 until 2017, he served as the US Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Harper is the first Native American to be named a US Ambassador. He represented the plaintiff class of 500,000 individual Indians and served as class counsel in the landmark Indian trust funds lawsuit, Cobell v. Salazar. Ultimately, the case settled for $3.4 billion, which represents the largest settlement of a lawsuit against the United States in history.

From 2010 to 2014, Harper served as Commissioner on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. He also served as a chair for Native American policy in the 2008 Obama for America presidential campaign and then as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team in the Energy and Environment Cluster. Harper was previously Senior Staff Attorney and head of the Washington, DC, office of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) from 1995 to 2006. During his tenure at NARF, he also taught Federal Indian Law as an adjunct professor at Catholic University, Columbus School of Law and at American University Washington College of Law. Harper served as a Supreme Court Justice on the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians from 2007 to 2008 and as an Appellate Justice on the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court from 2001 to 2007.

While attending New York University School of Law, Harper served as articles and notes editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics, was a Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar, and a Fellow at Center for International Studies. After graduation, he was law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Harper has received numerous awards and other recognitions including: National Congress of American Indians Special Recognition Award (2017); Cherokee National Statesman Award (2014); American Bar Association “Human Rights Hero” (2014); election to membership at the American Law Institute (2012); the Native American Bar Association, DC, Award for Significant Contributions to Indian Law and Policy (2012); LawDragon 500 (top 500 lawyers in United States) (2010); selection as one of 50 “Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal (2008); Service Award by Annual People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference for Achievements and Commitments to Justice (2010); and many more.

Harper serves on numerous boards of non-profit organizations including the American Constitution Society; Defenders of Wildlife; United Nations Association – National Capitol Area; and the Artistic Freedom Initiative. The American Bar Association president has appointed him as a Special Advisor to the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative.

The Native American Law team’s service areas include litigation, investigations, and government relations matters involving sovereign immunity, water rights, taxation, scared sites protection, treaties, reservation land status, land and resource use, tribal governance, gaming, lending, and labor and employment, among other issues. The team also has significant experience in international litigation, leveraging experience in government service and foreign affairs to represent clients in cross-border matters.