Derril Jordan
Partner
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Social Work, Cum laude, from Temple University (1979)
Master of Social Work from Temple University (1980)
Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School (1987)
ADMISSIONS
Michigan (1988)
New Mexico (1994)
New York (1996)
Washington (2019)
Washington, D.C. (2001)
Seneca Nation of Indians, Peacemakers Courts
Saginaw Chippewa Tribe
Jicarilla Apache Nation
Mattaponi Indian Tribe
LEGAL EXPERIENCE
Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs at the United States Department of the Interior
Attorney General of the Quinault Indian Nation
Attorney General of the Seneca Nation of Indians
Tribal Attorney for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe
REPRESENTATIVE CASES
Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indian v. United States, 121 Fed. Cl. 183 (Fed. Cl. 2015)
Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Indian Reservation v. Mnuchin, 471 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.D.C. 2020)
TEACHING
Adjunct Professor of Law – Federal Indian Law at Cornell Law School (2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012)
Adjunct Professor of Law – Federal Indian Law at State University of New York at Buffalo (Fall 1995)
Derril Jordan
Partner
EMAIL: djordan@nativelawgroup.com
PHONE: 303-926-5292
Derril B. Jordan is an enrolled member of the Mattaponi Indian Tribe and a senior Indian law attorney. He has over 36 years of experience representing tribes as in-house counsel and in private practice. Derril also served for several years as a presidential appointee in the Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor where he was the top lawyer for the Division of Indian Affairs. Derril concentrates his practice on land and jurisdiction issues, strengthening tribal governance, developing tribal enterprises, and improving government-to-government relationships between Indian tribes and the federal government.
Derril has dedicated his career to representing Indian tribes and strengthening tribal sovereignty. He has served tribes in several capacities. He has been in-house counsel to three Indian tribes—the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in Michigan; the Seneca Nation in New York; and the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington State. Derril has also represented tribes across the nation as outside counsel, working on a wide variety of Indian law issues, including land claim litigation, gaming compact and ordinance approvals, trust land acquisitions, historic and cultural preservation issues, federal recognition and enrollment issues, and constitutional law and tribal code drafting. His extensive and diverse career has made him an experienced and effective advocate on behalf of tribes and tribal organizations.
In more than three decades of practice, Derril has represented tribal clients before the Departments of Interior, Justice, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce, among others. He has also represented tribes before Congress. During his time as the Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs, he provided written and oral testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on sovereign immunity and gaming legislation, and prepared congressional testimony for other witnesses from the Department of the Interior. He also testified before the House of Representatives’ Indian Affairs Subcommittee on gaming issues and proposed federal recognition legislation. Derril knows firsthand about the most pressing issues facing Indian Country, and he brings vast knowledge and experience of those issues to his clients.