Nicole Ducheneaux
Partner, Big Fire Law and Policy Group
Ms. Ducheneaux is a Partner and founding member of Big Fire Law and Policy Group, a 100% Native American owned, and majority woman owned, firm whose entire practice is focused on serving Indian country. She is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a first generation descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. She practices primarily in the area of litigation, and represents tribes and tribal entities in state, tribal, and federal courts, including state, tribal, and federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Ducheneaux’s experience includes complex commercial litigation, federal regulatory litigation, and suits proceeding under the Administrative Procedures Act. Substantive areas include Indian Country e-commerce, tribal sovereign immunity, tribal civil jurisdiction, administrative law, environmental law, religious freedom, matters involving tribal sovereign immunity from suit, tribal treaty rights, constitutional law, election law, land-into-trust, taxation, tobacco, and cases arising under the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Recently, Ms. Ducheneaux has been lead litigation counsel for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (co-lead plaintiffs with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) in the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline litigation, which resulted in a significant victory on summary judgment on the issue of treaty rights in June 2017. Ms. Ducheneaux was also on the team that represented the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) in their 2017 victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in Patchak v. Zinke, 138 S.Ct. 897 (2017).
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