Native American Women Lawyers Continue to Be Isolated and Harassed, ABA Study Finds

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Female Native American lawyers often feel isolated and harassed, according to a new report published by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, in collaboration with the National Native American Bar Association.

The mission of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession is to secure full and equal participation of women in the ABA, the profession and the justice system. NNABA, founded in 1973, represents approximately 3,000 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian attorneys throughout the United States.

“Excluded & Alone: Examining the Experiences of Native American Women in the Law and a Path Towards Equity” recounts personal stories of the challenges facing female Native Americans who choose to study and practice law, which is based on a qualitative research study conducted by Arin N. Reeves, president and managing director of Nextions LLC, in late 2022 and early 2023, according to the ABA’s announcement.

Referring to her time in law school, a study participant wrote, “I tried to connect with other racial minorities, but even with them, I had to work too hard to explain Native American issues.  I think they tried to understand, but I don’t think they did. I felt very isolated and alone.”

“Some of the harassment we deal [with], other people think is a compliment,” another study participated reported. “People will ask me about smudging or some Native American ritual, and they are disrespecting my culture by fetishizing it, but they don’t see it that way.”

“Finally, the voices of Native American women lawyers are being heard,” ABA President Mary Smith said in a statement. “This pioneering study shines a light on the unique barriers Native American women face in the legal profession, including financial obstacles, caretaking obligations, limited mentoring opportunities and the persistent issues of erasure, harassment and bias.

“It’s only the second study of its kind, highlighting the pressing need to address these issues and create a more inclusive legal community,” Smith said. “While the findings may be sobering, they serve as a crucial step toward improving the experiences of Native American women lawyers.”

Smith, who is the first Native American woman ABA president, wrote in the “Excluded & Alone” report that the NNABA celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. When NNABA was founded, native lawyers were rare, and Indian law was a nascent practice area, there had never been a Native American federal judge, or law school dean or officer of the ABA.

Currently, there are only two female law deans who identify as Native American: Stacy Leeds, who became dean of Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in February, also served as dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law for seven years from 2011 to 2018, and Elizabeth Kronk Warner has been serving as dean of the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law since July 1, 2019, according to Rosenblatt’s Deans Database.

In 2022, 0.17% of all lawyers identified as Native American or Alaska Native, slightly lower than 0.20% in 2006, with 0.08% identifying as women within that group, down from 0.09% in 2006, according to the National Association for Law Placement 2022 Report on Diversity.

Native American or Alaska Native women made up only 0.06% of partners at law firms in 2022 and 0.10% were associates, according to NALP’s report.

“I was the first in so many places. I was the first Native person that many of my classmates in law school had ever met. I was definitely the first Native lawyer that people at my first job knew. I had to figure out what was possible for a Native lawyer because I didn’t know any. I didn’t really even know if they existed,” a study participant wrote.

For the ABA study, 74 Native American female lawyers, who were randomly chosen for interviews or to participate in group sessions out of an initial pool of 154 registrants, shared personal stories about their journeys into and within the legal profession, according to the ABA’s announcement.

Study participants included 103 women who had practiced for five years or fewer or 15 years or more, and there were 49 women who had practiced between five and 15 years, according to the study.

“As a profession, we cannot keep floundering when it comes to following the tenets of diversity and inclusion,” Massachusetts Superior Court Associate Justice Maureen Mulligan, 2020-2023 chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, and Kaufman Dolowich partner Karol Corbin Walker, 2023 chair of the ABA CWP, wrote in the report. “This report provides meaningful tools for changing, including both participant recommendations and a Call to Action written by the Firekeepers Circle [and] designed to advance the inclusion of Native American women in the legal profession.”

Study participants’ recommendations included not relegating Native American women to meaningless footnotes in research studies; continuing to support and expand prelaw programs to encourage Native Americans to consider law school; training law school faculty and administration on the needs of Native American students; and creating cross-generational mentoring circles for Native Americans.

The report concluded with a detailed call to action for legal professionals to learn about the experiences of Native American females, commit to sustained allyship and take deliberate and tangible supportive action.