Katie Brossy and Her Work with Native American Tribes Profiled by Lincoln Journal Star

Akin Gump public law and policy senior counsel Katie Brossy has been profiled by the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star in an article titled “Ponca lawyer helps tribes win massive water settlements,” referring to her status as a member of the Ponca tribe of Nebraska.

The article covers her work with Akin Gump’s American Indian policy and regulation practice, where she has worked on teams that helped secure passage of settlements for native tribes. Brossy is noted as counting her work on the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act as among her greatest accomplishments to date, saying that the $460 million settlement will help the tribe repair its irrigation system, build a clean drinking water system and implement energy development projects. She said that the settlement will also provide tribe members with a basic necessity—potable water—that many Americans take for granted: “A lot of our first people, our first Americans, don’t necessarily have access to clean drinking water.”

The profile features among Brossy’s other career highlights her work on the Akin Gump team that represented the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma in a $380 million settlement by the federal government for its mismanagement of the tribe’s lands and natural resources. It also discusses an ongoing representation of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians in California in a water settlement similar to that of the Crow.

The article also describes the influence that her mother, who is executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, had on her, Brossy noting, “She has been my biggest and strongest role model.”

Brossy was recently named among the 2016 Trending 40 Lawyers Under 40 and featured in Legal Bisnow (learn more here).