PRACTICE AREAS: Gaming Development and Management; Land Issues; Natural Resources; Reservation Economic Development; Arbitration; Federal Indian Law; Gaming; ICWA; Land; Administrative Negotiation and Procedures, Acknowledgment and Recognition; Land Issues (Fee to Trust); Tribal Sovereignty and Self-Determination; Tribal Government.Maurice R. Johnson
Attorney at Law
ADMISSIONS: Nebraska, 1991; Colorado, 1990.
EDUCATION: Creighton University School of Law (J.D., 1990); University of Nebraska at Omaha (B.A., Internat'l Relations, 1987).
PRIOR LEGAL EXPERIENCE: Associate, Monteau & Peebles LLP, Omaha, NE (1995-2002); Douglas County Public Defender's Office (1991-1994).
ASSOCIATIONS: American Bar Association; Nebraska State Bar Association; Omaha Bar Association; Federal Bar Association.
Mr. Johnson graduated from the Creighton School of Law in 1990. He was admitted to the Colorado State Bar in 1990 and the Nebraska State Bar in 1991. In 1991, Mr. Johnson joined the Douglas County Public Defender’s office, where he spent the next four years practicing in juvenile court. Much of his practice in juvenile court consisted of representing Native American children under the auspices of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
In 1995, Mr. Johnson joined the law firm of Monteau & Peebles. During his seven years with that firm, Mr. Johnson developed substantial experience in representing and advising tribal governments in the areas of Indian gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), Indian land claims, taxation, off- and on-reservation land acquisition, tribal jurisdiction, complex commercial arbitration, construction arbitration, tribal code drafting and revision, and ICWA. In 1998, Mr. Johnson had the privilege of assisting seventeen tribes from the Great Plains in successfully negotiating with the University of Nebraska for the return of the remains of their relatives, as required by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
Mr. Johnson’s experience as past and present in-house counsel to the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska provides him with experience regarding all political and legal facets of tribal government. Mr. Johnson’s litigation experience includes participation in Santee Sioux Tribe v United States, 174 F.Supp.2d. 1001 (D. Nebr. 2001); In Re Desiree F (co-counsel, admitted to California Court pro hac vice) 2000 Cal. App. Lexis 733 (2000), and Missouri River Services, Inc. v Omaha Tribe, No. 00-1094 (8th Cir. 2001). He has also litigated California Indian land claim cases and has practiced in state, federal and tribal courts.
Mr. Johnson’s tribal economic development experience includes the development and licensing of the first Indian-owned cigarette manufacturing facility to hold a federal license; Indian gaming, including the representation of tribal casinos and the preparation of minimum internal control standards (MICS) and gaming codes; tribal employment rights ordinances (TERO); and land development. Mr. Johnson has also assisted tribes in lobbying the State of Nebraska for a Class III gaming bill.
Mr. Johnson has substantial experience in the area of land development and fee-to-trust acquisitions of land by Indian tribes. He has served as a member of the National Congress of American Indian’s Fee-to-Trust Task Force, and has prepared fee-to-trust applications for tribes ranging from New York to California, for on- and off-reservation gaming and non-gaming trust acquisitions. By assisting tribes with their fee-to-trust applications, Mr. Johnson has gained further experience in negotiating memorandums of understanding between tribal, federal, state and local governments regarding cross-jurisdictional and environmental issues.
