Lenny Powell

Lenny Powell represents clients before appellate and trial courts throughout the country in cases raising high-stakes issues of constitutional and statutory interpretation, administrative law, criminal procedure, and federal Indian law, among others. He regularly briefs matters before the United States Supreme Court, where he has won a number of cases on the merits and successfully opposed dozens of petitions for certiorari, including as lead counsel. Lenny also advises clients who face critical strategic decisions at the trial-court level and litigates case-dispositive motions.As a former elected leader of his federally recognized tribe — the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians — Lenny brings significant experience and a client’s perspective to the firm’s Native American Law Practice. An advocate for tribal sovereignty, he handles cases that run the full gamut of federal Indian law, including cases about treaty rights, reservation status, preemption of state law, sovereign immunity, land into trust, Indian gaming, and tribal lending. Most notably, Lenny helped win McGirt v. Oklahoma, which The New York Times has called “potentially one of the most consequential legal victories for Native Americans in decades.”