Samantha Skenandore focuses her practice on both federal Indian law and tribal law, advising tribal and corporate clients in tribal governance, governmental affairs, corporate transactions, real estate, labor issues and litigation. Her extensive multijurisdictional experience with tribal law includes representation of corporate entities, both tribal and nontribal, in matters involving financing, minority or women-owned certification, labor relations, complex commercial real estate matters and government relations. She also advises corporate clients on developing successful strategies to launch their businesses, seek and secure business certifications, build capacity and prosper.

She has secured favorable results in state and federal legislation, SBA, 8(a) and minority business certifications and appeals, labor and employment, cultural resources preservation, complex real estate transactions, including fee to trust conversions, development of tribal commercial districts, zoning disputes and appeals, acquisition of federal surplus property, intergovernmental agreements and contracts. Her experience extends to representing clients before members of Congress, congressional committees and agencies through federal lobbying services.

Samantha is an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. She previously served as a Tribal Attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Justice, where she presided over 150+ employment grievances as chair of the administrative grievance review board, secured tribal land acquisitions, and fee to trust conversions. Early in her career, Samantha clerked for the United States Department of Justice, Indian Resources Section and focused on water rights litigation and for the State of Colorado Division of Administrative Hearings as a judicial clerk, both in Denver, Colorado.

Her experience includes:

• Analyzing a tribal client's full code, revising portions of the code and drafting new tribal legislation to launch a multi-million dollar federally-chartered tribal corporation;


• Securing tribal interests and rights throughout the Section 106 federal tribal consultation process, including early consultation, ensuring proper insight in assessing adverse impacts, securing resolutions of the same, and related litigation;


• Successfully representing a tribe seeking recovery of ceded treaty land through the federal surplus real property disposal process;


• Drafting and defending tribal fee-to-trust applications resulting in thousands of acres of tribal trust land conversions; and


• Representation of a tribe in all aspects of negotiating, securing, interpreting and enforcing intergovernmental agreements and transportation law concerning a multi-million dollar bypass project near the tribe's flagship casino; successfully avoiding condemnation of tribe's fee land. Also secured optimal casino enterprise signage, cost-share agreements with a state cabinet agency to minimize costs to client, design modifications to improve access, lighting and safety to tribal residential community, utility infrastructure for future development of tribal land, and aesthetics design reflective of tribal culture and the tribe's enterprises.