Steven J.W. Heeley serves as a consultant to Akin Gump. Mr. Heeley advises Indian tribes on corporate, transactional and natural resources matters, as well as on tribal governance and jurisdictional issues.
Prior to working with Akin Gump, Mr. Heeley was a partner with a large law firm in Phoenix, Arizona, where he headed the firm's federal Indian law practice group. He has served as the deputy general counsel for the Gila River Indian Community for over 10 years. In addition, he serves as an adjunct law professor at Arizona State University, teaching seminars on economic development and applied business transactions in Indian Country. He also serves as a member of the university's Advisory Committee for the Indian Law Program.
During the 104th Congress, Mr. Heeley served as staff director and chief counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which was chaired by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Prior to assuming that role, Mr. Heeley was counsel to the Subcommittee on Native American Affairs of the Committee on Natural Resources in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was established in 1993. Prior to the creation of this subcommittee, Mr. Heeley served as the deputy counsel on Indian affairs to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs under Chairman George Miller.
From 1989 to 1991, Mr. Heeley served as deputy minority staff director and counsel to Sen. McCain on the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. Before coming to Washington, D.C., Mr. Heeley was the assistant general counsel for the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona. He was a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow and worked as a staff attorney for the Four Rivers Indian Legal Services Program on the Gila River Indian Reservation.
Mr. Heeley received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1982 and his J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California in Berkeley in 1985. He is a member of the State Bar of Arizona and served as vice-chair of its Native American Natural Resources Law Section. Mr. Heeley is a Potawatomi Indian from the Walpole Island First Nation in Ontario, Canada.