Post by Okwes on May 23, 2007 9:50:01 GMT -5
Oneida Nation Builds In-House Department John Caher
New York Law Journal
With a population shy of 6,500, the Oneida County town of Verona, N.Y.,
may seem an unlikely venue for a thriving national law office, even
though its tentacles reach into such varied practice areas as
intellectual property law, land use, gambling, entertainment law,
communications and criminal defense. Never mind that it is the only
legal department in the nation -- the Oneida Indian Nation, that is.
The nation, depending on which side gets the upper hand in an ongoing
land dispute, covers as many as 300,000 acres in New York's Oneida and
Madison counties. But no matter how much space it takes up, the Oneida
Nation in recent years has emerged as a predominant force in a
once-thriving dairy farm community. As an economic engine in Central
New York, the Oneida Nation employs nearly 5,000, has a $123 million
payroll and is the largest employer in Oneida and Madison counties. It
operates the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, along with five golf
courses (three of them championship caliber), 21 restaurants, banquet
facilities and a 5,000-seat entertainment center. It just signed a deal
that will make one of its golf courses a stop on the PGA tour, and is
beginning to lure major acts to its performing arts center. In
addition, it publishes a newspaper, Indian Country Today, runs a
900-head angus beef herd, and manages three marinas on Oneida Lake and a
high-end RV park. It also has a record company, a firm that produces
music videos and an art gallery. All of that business, not to mention
seemingly endless land claim litigation, generates a lot of legal work,
which in recent years the nation has largely doled out to national firms
like Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Hughes Hubbard and Reed; and Zuckerman
Spaeder. But now Nation Enterprises, run by Harvard Law School graduate
and Oneida native Ray Halbritter, is looking to go in-house. "The legal
department we need, as anyone in business knows, has to be as
top-quality as we can create," said Halbritter, whose official title is
national representative and chief executive officer of Nation
Enterprises. "The demands on our businesses, and the issues that face
our nation, are critical to our future. We are looking to develop a
top-flight legal team. It will be demanding work, but intriguing, with
probably as varied a variety of legal issues that you will find
anywhere. This is not for a low intensity person." Halbritter's
managing partner, so to speak, is Peter Carmen, a former member of a
prestigious regional firm in Syracuse, N.Y., Mackenzie Hughes. At the
moment, Carmen has a stable of six lawyers -- he is recruiting for more
-- and a staff of about 20 that also includes paralegals and
archeologists. "Start with the premise that the nation representative,
Ray Halbritter, is himself a very smart lawyer with exceptionally high
standards for what he expects of his lawyers," Carmen said. "Part of Mr.
Halbritter's philosophy is he doesn't want lawyers who claim to
specialize in Indian law, because they can come in with blinders.
Instead, his direction has been made very clear: Find and recruit the
brightest, hardest working lawyers we can find. They can learn Indian
law, but they aren't going to learn a work ethic and creativity."
PAYMENT IN CLOTH The Oneida Nation, a member of the Haudenosaunee
(hoe-dee-no-so-nee) or Iroquois Confederacy, dates to the early 1600s
and holds the distinction of being the United States' first ally. The
Oneidas, joined by the Tuscaroras, were the only members of the Iroquois
Confederacy to join the colonists in the Revolutionary War. They played
a major role in the Battle of Oriskany and fought with the rebels in the
Battle of Saratoga. In return, the new U.S. government assured the
Oneida and Tuscarora nations that they would be "secured in the
possession of the lands on which they are settled." As part of the
Treaty of Canandaigua, the first treaty signed by George Washington, the
United States continues to make an annual annuity payment to the Oneida
Nation. That payment comes in the form of a "treaty cloth," portions of
which are delivered to the Oneidas each year by the U.S. Secretary of
the Interior, and diminishes annually. In the late 1800s, the Oneidas
received over 1,000 yards of cloth. Now it gets about 150 yards a year.
A copy of the Treaty of Canandaigua, in which the U.S. government
pledges to "never claim ... nor disturb" lands reserved to the Oneidas,
hangs on the wall of every attorney on staff. Today, there are only
about 1,000 Oneidas, with approximately 500 living in the ancestral
lands (well under one percent of the local population). Unlike some
tribes, membership in the Oneida Nation is restricted to those whose
mother is Oneida and have at least 25 percent Oneida blood. In other
words, the offspring of a full-blooded Oneida man and a Jewish woman --
or even a non-Oneida Indian woman -- are not Oneida. Members of the
nation are entitled to substantial "public" benefits, including some
social services (education, health care and housing) and legal
assistance. For years, the nation has contracted with attorneys to
provide its members with basic legal services -- like drafting wills,
handling real estate matters, filing bankruptcies, dealing with domestic
matters and criminal issues -- the way a general practice firm would
represent its clients. It operates its own, independent court system,
relying on retired Court of Appeals Judges Richard D. Simons and Stewart
F. Hancock Jr. to preside. The nation has its own prosecutor, and a
contract with a Pennsylvania prison that will hold its convicts for up
to year. GENERAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE But the legal needs of the nation
and its members shifted and grew increasingly complex after 1993, when
the Oneidas built a bingo hall and casino on former farmland adjacent to
the New York State Thruway. More and more, the nation farmed out its
legal work to mega firms that were far removed, geographically as well
as culturally, from Verona. Halbritter wants to bring the legal
business, or most of it, back home. He brought in Carmen as general
counsel. Carmen in turn lured two top deputies: Jaime Previte, deputy
general counsel for business and government transactions; and Meghan
Murphy Beakman, deputy general counsel for litigation and legislation.
Carmen, who was first in his class at Syracuse University College of
Law, had represented the nation for several years as outside counsel
with Mackenzie Hughes. Murphy was law review editor at Syracuse before
working for Bond, Schoeneck, & King. Previte, a graduate of Cornell
University Law School, grew up in nearby Rome, N.Y., and never imagined
she would come home after landing a job at White & Case, the global firm
based in Manhattan. "My day is quite varied," Previte said. "There are
entertainment contracts, intellectual property issues, trademarks,
software licensing, gaming issues, construction contracts. There are
government issues, hospitality, general corporate law, financial, real
estate and tax issues. You'd be pretty hard-pressed to find that variety
elsewhere." Carmen said that in his shop, there is extraordinary
opportunity as well as responsibility. "Our lawyers are not just one
layer in a several-layer practice," Carmen said. "On the first day, they
are on the front lines. There is no place to hide. If we are handling a
contract for [recording artist] Mariah Carey to come here, you are
responsible. It's not like there are three layers of partners above you
or three layers of associates below you." Interestingly, none of the
lawyers on staff are American Indian. Halbritter said relatively few
study law. Four years ago, however, the Oneida Nation endowed a chair in
American Indian studies at Harvard Law School, with a $3 million gift.
Halbritter said he developed an interest in law in the 1970s, when his
aunt and uncle were trapped in a burning building and local authorities
refused to help. "We had some land and the police were oppressing some
of our people, so we told them we didn't want them on our property,"
Halbritter recalled. "They said, 'Then we won't send anyone to help
you.' My aunt and uncle burned to death. I wanted to understand how, in
this country, that could happen. I wanted to understand the laws and the
legal system, so I was driven to law school to equip myself with this
tragedy." But Halbritter has never practiced. After graduating from
Harvard Law School in 1990, he turned down a clerkship at the New York
Court of Appeals and instead went to work for his nation, as an
administrator and advocate rather than an attorney. Now a major
administrative prerogative is building a law department. "Outside
counsel is necessary and will probably always be necessary for certain
issues," Halbritter said. "But in-house counsel will be closer to the
ground and will know more about our issues because they will be right
here every day. Having attorneys devoted solely to our issues is
critically important."
New York Law Journal
With a population shy of 6,500, the Oneida County town of Verona, N.Y.,
may seem an unlikely venue for a thriving national law office, even
though its tentacles reach into such varied practice areas as
intellectual property law, land use, gambling, entertainment law,
communications and criminal defense. Never mind that it is the only
legal department in the nation -- the Oneida Indian Nation, that is.
The nation, depending on which side gets the upper hand in an ongoing
land dispute, covers as many as 300,000 acres in New York's Oneida and
Madison counties. But no matter how much space it takes up, the Oneida
Nation in recent years has emerged as a predominant force in a
once-thriving dairy farm community. As an economic engine in Central
New York, the Oneida Nation employs nearly 5,000, has a $123 million
payroll and is the largest employer in Oneida and Madison counties. It
operates the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, along with five golf
courses (three of them championship caliber), 21 restaurants, banquet
facilities and a 5,000-seat entertainment center. It just signed a deal
that will make one of its golf courses a stop on the PGA tour, and is
beginning to lure major acts to its performing arts center. In
addition, it publishes a newspaper, Indian Country Today, runs a
900-head angus beef herd, and manages three marinas on Oneida Lake and a
high-end RV park. It also has a record company, a firm that produces
music videos and an art gallery. All of that business, not to mention
seemingly endless land claim litigation, generates a lot of legal work,
which in recent years the nation has largely doled out to national firms
like Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Hughes Hubbard and Reed; and Zuckerman
Spaeder. But now Nation Enterprises, run by Harvard Law School graduate
and Oneida native Ray Halbritter, is looking to go in-house. "The legal
department we need, as anyone in business knows, has to be as
top-quality as we can create," said Halbritter, whose official title is
national representative and chief executive officer of Nation
Enterprises. "The demands on our businesses, and the issues that face
our nation, are critical to our future. We are looking to develop a
top-flight legal team. It will be demanding work, but intriguing, with
probably as varied a variety of legal issues that you will find
anywhere. This is not for a low intensity person." Halbritter's
managing partner, so to speak, is Peter Carmen, a former member of a
prestigious regional firm in Syracuse, N.Y., Mackenzie Hughes. At the
moment, Carmen has a stable of six lawyers -- he is recruiting for more
-- and a staff of about 20 that also includes paralegals and
archeologists. "Start with the premise that the nation representative,
Ray Halbritter, is himself a very smart lawyer with exceptionally high
standards for what he expects of his lawyers," Carmen said. "Part of Mr.
Halbritter's philosophy is he doesn't want lawyers who claim to
specialize in Indian law, because they can come in with blinders.
Instead, his direction has been made very clear: Find and recruit the
brightest, hardest working lawyers we can find. They can learn Indian
law, but they aren't going to learn a work ethic and creativity."
PAYMENT IN CLOTH The Oneida Nation, a member of the Haudenosaunee
(hoe-dee-no-so-nee) or Iroquois Confederacy, dates to the early 1600s
and holds the distinction of being the United States' first ally. The
Oneidas, joined by the Tuscaroras, were the only members of the Iroquois
Confederacy to join the colonists in the Revolutionary War. They played
a major role in the Battle of Oriskany and fought with the rebels in the
Battle of Saratoga. In return, the new U.S. government assured the
Oneida and Tuscarora nations that they would be "secured in the
possession of the lands on which they are settled." As part of the
Treaty of Canandaigua, the first treaty signed by George Washington, the
United States continues to make an annual annuity payment to the Oneida
Nation. That payment comes in the form of a "treaty cloth," portions of
which are delivered to the Oneidas each year by the U.S. Secretary of
the Interior, and diminishes annually. In the late 1800s, the Oneidas
received over 1,000 yards of cloth. Now it gets about 150 yards a year.
A copy of the Treaty of Canandaigua, in which the U.S. government
pledges to "never claim ... nor disturb" lands reserved to the Oneidas,
hangs on the wall of every attorney on staff. Today, there are only
about 1,000 Oneidas, with approximately 500 living in the ancestral
lands (well under one percent of the local population). Unlike some
tribes, membership in the Oneida Nation is restricted to those whose
mother is Oneida and have at least 25 percent Oneida blood. In other
words, the offspring of a full-blooded Oneida man and a Jewish woman --
or even a non-Oneida Indian woman -- are not Oneida. Members of the
nation are entitled to substantial "public" benefits, including some
social services (education, health care and housing) and legal
assistance. For years, the nation has contracted with attorneys to
provide its members with basic legal services -- like drafting wills,
handling real estate matters, filing bankruptcies, dealing with domestic
matters and criminal issues -- the way a general practice firm would
represent its clients. It operates its own, independent court system,
relying on retired Court of Appeals Judges Richard D. Simons and Stewart
F. Hancock Jr. to preside. The nation has its own prosecutor, and a
contract with a Pennsylvania prison that will hold its convicts for up
to year. GENERAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE But the legal needs of the nation
and its members shifted and grew increasingly complex after 1993, when
the Oneidas built a bingo hall and casino on former farmland adjacent to
the New York State Thruway. More and more, the nation farmed out its
legal work to mega firms that were far removed, geographically as well
as culturally, from Verona. Halbritter wants to bring the legal
business, or most of it, back home. He brought in Carmen as general
counsel. Carmen in turn lured two top deputies: Jaime Previte, deputy
general counsel for business and government transactions; and Meghan
Murphy Beakman, deputy general counsel for litigation and legislation.
Carmen, who was first in his class at Syracuse University College of
Law, had represented the nation for several years as outside counsel
with Mackenzie Hughes. Murphy was law review editor at Syracuse before
working for Bond, Schoeneck, & King. Previte, a graduate of Cornell
University Law School, grew up in nearby Rome, N.Y., and never imagined
she would come home after landing a job at White & Case, the global firm
based in Manhattan. "My day is quite varied," Previte said. "There are
entertainment contracts, intellectual property issues, trademarks,
software licensing, gaming issues, construction contracts. There are
government issues, hospitality, general corporate law, financial, real
estate and tax issues. You'd be pretty hard-pressed to find that variety
elsewhere." Carmen said that in his shop, there is extraordinary
opportunity as well as responsibility. "Our lawyers are not just one
layer in a several-layer practice," Carmen said. "On the first day, they
are on the front lines. There is no place to hide. If we are handling a
contract for [recording artist] Mariah Carey to come here, you are
responsible. It's not like there are three layers of partners above you
or three layers of associates below you." Interestingly, none of the
lawyers on staff are American Indian. Halbritter said relatively few
study law. Four years ago, however, the Oneida Nation endowed a chair in
American Indian studies at Harvard Law School, with a $3 million gift.
Halbritter said he developed an interest in law in the 1970s, when his
aunt and uncle were trapped in a burning building and local authorities
refused to help. "We had some land and the police were oppressing some
of our people, so we told them we didn't want them on our property,"
Halbritter recalled. "They said, 'Then we won't send anyone to help
you.' My aunt and uncle burned to death. I wanted to understand how, in
this country, that could happen. I wanted to understand the laws and the
legal system, so I was driven to law school to equip myself with this
tragedy." But Halbritter has never practiced. After graduating from
Harvard Law School in 1990, he turned down a clerkship at the New York
Court of Appeals and instead went to work for his nation, as an
administrator and advocate rather than an attorney. Now a major
administrative prerogative is building a law department. "Outside
counsel is necessary and will probably always be necessary for certain
issues," Halbritter said. "But in-house counsel will be closer to the
ground and will know more about our issues because they will be right
here every day. Having attorneys devoted solely to our issues is
critically important."