Howard M Shanker

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Howard Shanker has worked with tribes, tribal entities and grass roots organizations for about 30 years. He has worked in the areas of tribal governance, enrollment, elections, personnel, contracts, sacred sites, gaming, and litigation in tribal, federal, and state courts.

THE SHANKER LAW FIRM, PLC: Tempe and Flagstaff, AZ (2003 - present)
MANAGING PARTNER: As Managing Partner for the Shanker Law Firm, PLC, Howard is responsible for the supervision and training of associate lawyers and support staff. He also oversees the administration and budgeting for the Office. In addition to being the Managing Partner of The Shanker Law Firm, Howard served as an Adjunct Professor at the Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law from approximately 2004 through 2016 where he taught upper level courses in Environmental Justice and Environmental Litigation – where he mentored law students on, in part, their research, writing, and oral presentation skills.

Howard was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council ("NEJAC"), Enforcement Subcommittee, where he worked to create policy to mitigate disparate negative health and environmental impacts on low income and minority communities. Howard served as the Chief Judge for the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians in 2014 and has served as an Administrative Law Judge for the Grand Canyon Resort Company of the Hualapai Tribe from 2014-2015 on an as needed basis. In 2008. Howard was a Congressional candidate in Arizona’s first Congressional District. As a Member/Partner of The Shanker Law Firm, Howard assisted a delegation of the Navajo Nation in testifying at a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the issue of uranium mining and contamination on the Navajo Nation. He also conducted government-to-government negotiations on behalf of the Navajo Nation, with the Obama Administration, on the issue of sacred site protection. In 2013, Howard helped represent the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission present to a United Nations working group. In 2010, he provided testimony to the U.S. Department of State, on behalf of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, regarding protecting Native American sacred sites.

Howard has negotiated, reviewed, and drafted contracts on myriad issues. He has also litigated contract issues on various occasions. Indeed, over the years, Mr. Shanker has provided general counsel services to various tribal entities. Mr. Shanker represented the Hopi Village of Bacavi, where he successfully litigated a “certified question” in the Hopi Court of Appeals that clarified the Village’s authority to remove its Tribal Council Representatives under the Hopi Constitution. On February 15, 2019, Mr. Shanker again prevailed in the Hopi Court of Appeals in a case regarding challenges to the constitutionality of the recently elected Chairman of the Hopi Tribe – on behalf of the Hopi Election Board. Howard also helped to represent the Navajo Nation on various matters under the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”) in Arizona state courts.

In 2018, Howard briefed and argued two cases regarding the application of a state-based grave site protection law to burial mounds in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court – on behalf of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Also, in 2018, he argued a NEPA-based case, opposing the construction of an Arizona freeway expansion, before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Howard recently negotiated a Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. Howard previously worked with the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe on enrollment, gaming, election and tribal governance issues. Howard has also represented the Gila River Indian Community gaming enterprise on licensing issues.

From 2005-2008, Howard represented the Navajo Nation, the Yavapai Apache Nation, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and others in NEPA/RFRA/NHPA- based litigation in an effort to stop the use of reclaimed sewer water in artificial snow-making on the San Francisco Peaks, Coconino County. He prevailed in front of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit only to be reversed by a split decision of an en banc panel. See, Navajo Nation et al, v. U.S. Forest Service, 535 F.3d1058 (9th Cir. en banc, 2008), cert. den. 129 S.Ct. 2763 (2009). Howard successfully helped represent the White Mountain Apache Tribe on issues of Tribal sovereignty in Elliot v. White Mountain Apache Tribal Court, 566 F.3d 842 (9th Cir. 2009). He was also attorney-of-record on the ESA case that helped protect the Desert Nesting Bald Eagle. See, Center for Biological Diversity v. Kempthorne, No. CV 07-0038-PHX-MHM (D. Ariz. 2008). Howard has been the attorney-of-record on myriad of high-profile cases including, in part, Save Our Sonoran v. Flowers, 408 F.3d 1113 (9th Cir. 2005) (NEPA/CWA); NAACP et al. v. Maricopa County, CV 03-2409-PHX-EHC (D. Ariz. 2004) (EJ); Sierra Club v. Dombeck, 55 Fed. Appx. 411, 2002 WL 31887831 (9th Cir. 2002 – unpublished), 161 F. 1052 (D. Ariz. 2001) (NEPA/FLPMA); Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Forest Service, 349 F.3d 1157 (9th Cir. 2003) (NEPA); Benchmark Resources v. U.S., 64 . 526 (2005) (mining/reclamation).

ADDITIONAL LEGAL EXPERIENCE: HAGENS BERMAN: Phoenix, AZ (2000 - 2003); FENNEMORE CRAIG: Phoenix, AZ (1993 – 1995); DEWEY BALLANTINE, Washington, D.C. (1990 – 1993); U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C. (1987 – 1990).

HONORS/APPOINTMENTS:

* Howard has been a guest lecturer/presenter at Berkley, Boalt Hall; Univ. of Arizona Law School; Vermont Law School; The Sandra Day O’Conner School of Law; Indiana Law School; the Natural Resources Law Teachers Institute; National Lawyers’ Guild; California State Bar; and Arizona State Bar Conventions.

* Howard was appointed by President Clinton to serve a three-year term on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council ("NEJAC"), Enforcement Subcommittee, where he worked to create policy to mitigate disparate negative health and environmental impacts on low income and minority communities;

* In 2014, Howard was presented with a blanket by the Omaha Tribe for his work in negotiating a Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice vis-à-vis provision of Tribal utilities (drinking water, treatment of effluent);

* In 2008, The Navajo Nation President and Council presented Mr. Shanker with a blanket and a plaque commemorating his work on behalf of the Tribe to protect sacred sites;

* Howard was presented with a Living Luminary Award, presented by the Sedona Group for his work on behalf of Arizona tribes and the environment;

* In October 2013, DNA Legal Services presented Howard with a pro bono award for “Valor” recognizing his legal work on behalf of Native American communities in Arizona;

* In 2008, in recognition of his long-standing advocacy on behalf of the Navajo Nation, Howard was honored with the role of Grand Marshall in the Navajo Western Agency fair and parade;

EDUCATION:

Georgetown University Law Center, Juris Doctorate (J.D.) (1989);
Pace Univ., Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.) awarded with Distinction (1984);
Pace University, B.A. History magna cum laude (1982);
Middlebury College, Intensive Russian Language Program (Summer 1982).

BAR ADMISSION:

Admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Arizona, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania (inactive), Hopi Tribal Courts, Fort McDowell and Pascua Yaqui Tribal Courts (inactive), the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

PUBLICATIONS:

Contributing Author, Environmental Justice Chapter – Most Frequently Asked Questions in Environmental Law (Maricopa County Bar Association 2011);

Shanker, Commentary: Hormesis and Toxic Tort Litigation, Belle, Vol. 14, No. 2 (October, 2007); Human & Experimental Toxicology, Vol. 27, No. 2 at 117 (2008);

Shanker & Gupta, Taxing the Environment, 27 Envtl. L. Rep. 10165 (1997); 74 Tax Notes 1451 (1997);

Shanker & Hourcle, Prospective Purchaser Agreements Under CERCLA, 25 Envtl. L. Rep 10035 (1995);

Shanker, Developing Environmental Policy for Lenders, 111 Banking L.J. 540 (Nov. 1994);

Shanker, Lenders Beware . . . Are You Environmentally Liable?, National Real Estate Investor (August 1994); The Secured Creditor Exemption Under CERCLA: The Chill is on Again, 13 Maricopa Lawyer 6, 15 (April 1994);

Ragosta & Shanker, Specificity of Subsidy Benefits in U.S. Department of Commerce Countervailing Duty Determinations, 25 Law & Pol’y Int’l Bus. 639 (1994);

Shanker, Cogeneration and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, 2 U. Balt. J. Envtl. L. 111 (1992); 16 U. Colo. J. of Energy & Dev. 51 (1992);