MICHELLE L. LAPENA

Michelle L. LaPena is experienced in a broad spectrum of tribal legal matters including tribal gaming operations and regulation, cultural resource protection, Indian child welfare, tribal taxation, administrative law and general civil litigation involving tribal governments. She is extensively involved in developing statewide policy on tribal taxation, gaming regulation and cultural resource protection.  In 1999, she negotiated a tribal-state gaming compact with the State of California.  Since that time, she has worked with gaming tribes to implement complex terms in their compacts, including licensing procedures for gaming resource suppliers, revenue sharing distribution to non-gaming tribes and public safety.

Prior to entering private practice, she edited and contributed significantly to reports that were submitted to Congress in August 1997 by the Advisory Council on California Indian Policy. She has served as a trainer for the National Indian Gaming Association, Gaming Regulator Certificate Program and lectured at primary, secondary and university levels on topics related to California Indians and federal Indian law.

In 2003, Michelle was appointed to the Governor’s Children’s Justice Act Task Force which allocates Title IV-E money to child abuse prevention programs in the state of California. Michelle is a member of the Pit River Indian Tribe, and is admitted to practice in California, all federal district courts in California, and the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court.  She received her B.A. in 1993 and her J.D. in 1998, both from the University of California, Davis.  She was recently featured on the cover of Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine.

Publications:

“Real Estate Transactions in California's Indian Country: How to Conduct Business with California Indian Tribal Governments and Businesses,” Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, January 2006 (Cover Article). 

Book Review, “Negotiating Tribal Water Rights:  Fulfilling Promises in the Arid West,” by Bonnie G. Colby, John E. Thorson, and Sarah Britton; foreword by David H. Getches.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press, American Indian Cultural and Research Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1 (2005).

“A Healing Process,” reprinted in Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, University of Washington Press, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2002).

Book Review, “To Show Heart: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1960-75,” by George Pierre Castile, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Spring 1999.

“Federal Land Management Practices and California Indians: A Proposal to Protect Native Plant Species,” Environs, UC Davis Environmental Law Review, June 1998.

 “A Healing Process,” Prized Writing 1992-1993, An Anthology from the University of California, 1993.

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AMYANN R. TAYLOR

AmyAnn Taylor is the newest associate to LaPena Law Corporation.  AmyAnn specializes in the firms land and environmental practice including fee-to-trust applications, environmental codes, and cultural resource protection issues.  She heads up the firms general civil litigation practice, the drafting of tribal codes, and issues surrounding probate, Indian Child Welfare Act, and administrative law.

Prior to joining LaPena Law Corporation as an attorney, AmyAnn served as the firm’s law clerk since January 2007.  AmyAnn previously worked as a law clerk in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Department of Justice, in the Environment Division and the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means; and in Sacramento at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the Office of Legal Affairs.

AmyAnn received her law degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where she specialized in Governmental Affairs.  During law school AmyAnn was heavily involved in campus affairs as the Student Bar Association class representative, President of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and was a student member of the Anthony M. Kennedy Inn of Court in 2006-2007.

She received her B.A. in both Public Relations and Political Science from Brigham Young University.  While there, she wrote for the collegiate newspaper, and was a student body representative for the school and state legislative activities.  Upon graduation she worked for Bravo Group, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s most prestigious lobbying firm, in their communications department before entering law school.

AmyAnn is an active member of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, California Indian Law Association, and the Federal Bar Association.  She is licensed to practice law in California and is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

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