AKWESASNE --The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe has two new Tribal Court Legal Advocates. Deborah Bush, program manager, and Shelley Jacobs, domestic violence/sexual assault advocate, graduated from the National Tribal Trial College with a Certificate in Tribal Court Legal Advocacy. 

The six-month course is sponsored by the United States Department of Justice and enables graduates to practice law and represent clients in Tribal courts.

Twenty-nine graduates representing 18 different Tribes located in 14 different states completed the 2020 Certificate course. Deborah Bush and Shelley Jacobs’s intensive training enables them to now represent clients in Tribal court divorce, child custody, child support, visitation, domestic violence protection orders and victim rights cases.

“Our graduates are actually more qualified to provide legal representation in Tribal Courts than most attorneys,” said the dean of the National Tribal Trial College, Hallie Bongar White. “They undergo more than 20 weeks and 200 hours of online study before completing 40 hours of trial skills training. The faculty all have practical, real world litigation expertise in advancing safety and justice in Indian Country and in Alaska Native Villages.”

Graduates are required to master legal research, writing, and analysis through a series of readings, online lecture videos, assignments, and quizzes. Only the top students in the online course then qualify to attend the award winning, in-person courtroom training at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the University of Wisconsin-Madison cancelled all in-person meetings on campus for the summer. NTTC staff and faculty met this challenge by transforming the previous 40-hour in-person portion of the training held on the UW campus into a 100% online and interactive training with faculty. Now in its sixth year, the National Tribal Trial College has graduated 143 legal advocates representing clients in Tribal courts from Alaska to Massachusetts.

For more information about the National Tribal Trial College: please visit www.nttconline.org.

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