Native American UCLA law school students learning the responsibilities of tribal lawyers | Practice Source - Legal News and Views

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UCLA established its Tribal Legal Development Clinic more than 25 years ago as a class to help law school students learn the legal needs of Native Americans and encourage more students to become tribal lawyers.

San Manuel Band of Mission Indians donates $2+ million to UCLA law clinic

It’s come a long way: On Monday, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians presented the clinic with a $2.2 million grant to support its work helping tribes with issues big and small.

“This grant is extraordinary,” said Mica Llerandi, the clinic’s director and one of the professors.

The clinic seeks to create a pipeline of tribal lawyers, and part of the grant will be used to pay for staff salaries.

“It’s also going to help fund students who are traveling to Indian country to see their tribal clients, to experience the conditions that tribal communities are living in, and understanding the full impact of their work,” Llerandi said

Travel is an essential part of the process: Law school students get to meet with tribal members and learn a tribe’s unwritten customs and traditions.

From tribal constitutions to protecting health

Before the announcement, members of the Native American Law Students Association laid out cookies, brownies and other snacks on a table for a fundraiser.

“This past year, I worked with the clinic helping a tribe revise its constitution,” said Kyler McVoy, a third year UCLA law student who is a citizen of the Miami tribe of Oklahoma.

McVoy said he could not reveal which tribe he helped, but added he learned that when the U.S. government enacted the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, tribes were given boilerplate documents to serve as constitutions.

UCLA’s Tribal Legal Development Clinic

The clinic connects law students directly with tribal leaders and members to provide legal services.
Visit the website.

“They almost sound like articles of incorporation for a business, rather than, structured as a constitution for a people that need to be governed,” he said.

McVoy said he’d like to be a college professor to teach about the intersection of natural resources and Native American communities.

Other students are helping tribes with more specific policy issues that affect their members.