Tanya Gibbs, a local attorney who represents tribally owned companies involved in various businesses, is departing from majority Native-owned law firm Rosette LLP to establish her own firm based in Grand Rapids.
Mshkawzi Law LLP will officially launch April 1 with Gibbs as majority owner and managing partner.
The firm will exclusively represent tribes in the U.S. and First Nations in Canada as well as their wholly owned business enterprises. Practice areas will include complex litigation, gaming, non-gaming economic development, health care, employment and labor, government-to-government negotiations, regulatory and compliance and internal tribal governance.
Gibbs, a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, joined Tempe, Ariz.-based Rosette LLP in November 2013 and became a partner in 2018, working out of the firm’s Grand Rapids office.
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Gibbs said the decision to launch her own law firm came as “a natural progression” to continue her work, which has primarily focused on non-gaming economic development.
“We still have an entrepreneurial spirit and love for economic development (at Mshkawzi Law),” Gibbs told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “We see that as a really important area for Indian Country to continue to exercise their sovereignty and generate revenue for future generations.”
Gibbs said her goal always has been to provide the best possible legal services to tribes and tribal businesses, whether that be practiced at a firm, in-house or on her own.
Joining Gibbs at Mshkawzi Law are partners Nicole St. Germain and Saba Bazzazieh, who are based out of California and Washington, D.C., respectively. The firm also will employ attorneys Justin Gray and Kathryn Petersen and paralegal Scott Funke in Grand Rapids; attorney Jen Saeckl will work for the firm out of Toronto.
“Starting a new firm with this team will provide the best environment to do the very best work for our clients,” Gibbs said.
In the coming months, the firm will focus on ensuring a seamless transition for clients while also setting the stage for future growth.
The name of the firm means “strong” in the Anishinaabemowin language, a meaning that Gibbs said signifies the experience and dedication the attorneys are bringing to the Mshkawzi Law.
“For us, we wanted a name that signified the power that we bring to the practice and that we’re a group the clients can really lean on,” she said. “We can negotiate really strongly in their favor — we can advocate for their interest.”
Rising tide?
The launch of a woman- and Native-owned law firm in Grand Rapids comes at perhaps a critical time considering the demographics of most major law firms in the U.S.
“It comes in line with another trend we’re starting to see more nationally, even outside of Indian Country, which is that there are more and more women becoming lawyers,” said Matthew Fletcher, a citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and law professor at the University of Michigan.
Fletcher also serves as chief justice of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
“I think that with the rise of tribal governments and tribal justice systems, there is more intention towards moving away from — to be frank — a misogynist legal system,” he said.
In its 2023 report on diversity in the legal industry, the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) indicated that across 178 major law firms in the U.S., women made up the majority of associates in 2023 for the first time ever at slightly more than 50%. Women also experienced record annual growth at the partnership level, although still comprising just 27.76% of all partners.
Separately, the NALP report indicated every racial and ethnic group except for Native Americans and Alaska Natives saw an increase in representation at the associate level in 2023.
Specifically, 0.17% of all associates were Native American or Alaska Native in 2023, according to NALP. Native American and Alaska Natives accounted for 0.15% of all partners last year, down slightly from 0.17% in 2022.
Out of all the demographics tracked each year by the NALP, Native lawyers have not had a net increase in representation since the organization started tracking that data, per the report. That includes the summer associate, associate and partner levels.
‘A big thing’
Fletcher noted the distinct benefits for Native individuals and tribes to engage with Native legal representation, as they are more likely to be more aggressive with state and federal governments while also maintaining respect for the interest of tribes and their cultures.
“Generally speaking, that’s why tribes tend to seek Indian lawyers,” Fletcher said. “That said … there are only so many Native lawyers, so tribes are always going to have to use non-Indian lawyers at some point.”
Overall, Fletcher said he has witnessed improvements within tribal justice systems over time as economic development efforts have afforded tribes more resources.
“Tribes in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, even into the ’90s could rarely afford to hire judges who were lawyers, and so that’s starting to change dramatically,” he said. “Tribes have more resources and are able to professionalize their judiciaries, (and) they are also spending more resources on law-trained public defenders for criminal cases and child welfare cases.”
Fletcher added: “Tribal justice systems have dramatically improved, I think in part as a consequence of more Native lawyers being available, but also because of the different priorities and resources available to tribal governments. That’s a big thing.”
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