Keith Harper
Class Counsel, Cobell v. Salazar
Keith Harper is a partner in the Litigation department and heads the Native American Affairs practice group of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP. He is resident in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.
Mr. Harper has represented the plaintiff class of 500,000 individual Indians and served as class counsel in the Cobell v. Salazar class action matter since its inception in 1996.
Throughout his career, Mr. Harper has represented tribes and individual Indians before Federal Courts, the United States Congress, administrative agencies and international forums in matters involving enforcement of the trust responsibility, expansion and protection of tribal sovereignty, enforcement of tribal treaty rights, protection of land and natural resources, ensuring religious freedom for Native practitioners and development of international instruments guaranteeing the rights of indigenous people.
He recently served as a principal advisor and Chair of the Native American Domestic Policy Committee for the Obama campaign and then as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team in the Energy & Environment Cluster.
Prior to joining Kilpatrick Stockton, Mr. Harper was a litigator at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and headed its Washington, D.C. office. Before that, he clerked for the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. During his tenure at NARF, he taught "Federal Indian Law" as Adjunct Professor at Catholic University Columbus School of Law and at American University Washington College of Law.
In 2001, Mr. Harper was appointed Appellate Justice on the highest court of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, where he served until October 2007. More recently, he served on the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
Mr. Harper is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a direct descendent of Cherokee warrior Chief Dragging Canoe.