Two Dentons partners in the Native American Law and Policy practice have been honored by Law360 as MVPs for their individual successes in high-stakes litigation, record-breaking deals and complex global matters. The partners, Matthew Adams and V. Heather Sibbison, were each selected for making significant contributions to their respective practice areas in the past year.

"These honors reflect a deep commitment to client service and true dedication to the ideals of our profession," said US Managing Partner Mike McNamara." Heather and Matt personify our firmwide focus on delivering the best for clients, and we congratulate each of them on this well-deserved recognition."

Adams co-chairs Dentons' US Environment and Natural Resources practice, and is very active in the firm's Native American Law and Policy practice. A highlight for 2016 was his role as outside counsel to the Lummi Indian Nation in connection with the tribe’s opposition to a coal export terminal proposed to be built on Puget Sound, adjacent to the tribe’s reservation. The terminal would be the largest facility of its type in North America and has been valued at more than US$700 million. It is proposed to be built atop the remains of an ancient Lummi village and within the traditional fishing grounds reserved for the tribe by the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. The matter presents novel questions of law concerning the scope of the tribe’s treaty fishing rights and the appropriate consideration to be given those rights in decisions under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. In May 2016, Dentons helped the Lummi Indian Nation secure a published legal opinion by the United States Army Corps of Engineers confirming that the tribe's natural resource treaty rights trump federal environmental law. It is the first such opinion ever issued by the Army Corps.

Sibbison is the head of Dentons Native American Law and Policy group at Dentons. Among her most important accomplishments in the last year is the win she achieved for the Cowlitz Tribe in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The case stems from a decision by the Department of the Interior to take land into trust and make it a reservation for Cowlitz, the agency's first administrative application of the Supreme Court’s 2009 opinion in Carcieri v. Salazar. Carcieri adopted a difficult new interpretation of the Department of the Interior's trust acquisition authority, holding that tribes have to demonstrate that in 1934 they were "under federal jurisdiction." The plaintiffs appealed, and on July 29, 2016, the DC Circuit again found in favor of the Cowlitz Tribe on all counts. The litigation win is significant for many tribes in addition to Cowlitz because the Department of the Interior subsequently issued a formal legal opinion adopting the Cowlitz "Carcieri test" for all future fee-to-trust applications. Sibbison led the team to an important victory, not just for Cowlitz, but for Indian Country in general.