Joe Sarcinella Joins Drummond Woodsum’s National Tribal Nations Law Practice

Drummond Woodsum is pleased to welcome Joe Sarcinella as a Shareholder to its national Tribal Nations Law practice.  Joe has dedicated his professional life to serving Indian Country, diligently working to better the lives of Native peoples and Drummond Woodsum is honored to include an attorney of his caliber on our team.

In his practice Joe works with Federally recognized Native American tribes, their enterprises, and businesses and individuals looking to work in Indian Country.  While his focus is primarily on Federal Indian law, he also assists clients with business development and diversification, corporate structuring and governance, government and legislative affairs, sovereign immunity and Arm of the Tribe status. As an experienced attorney he has handled for Tribes an array of issues such as gaming, taxation and finance, transportation, sacred sites/landscapes and cultural resources, Human Rights, environment and natural resources, and energy.

Prior to Drummond Woodsum, Joe was most recently the General Counsel to a tribal holding company where he managed legal affairs for economic diversification efforts.  Prior to that, he was the Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel for the Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA). He joined NAFSA after completing a 4-year term serving as the Senior Advisor & Liaison for Native American Affairs for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. While in that role, Joe was the lead official monitoring Department of Defense and Military compliance with all applicable federal laws, treaties, and executive orders relating to government-to-government relationships with Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and Native Hawaiian Organizations. Joe started his professional career in non-profit tribal youth programming later transitioning into law and public policy.

Joe earned academic fellowships for both graduate school and law school graduating with both an MS and JD from Arizona State University and with a legal certification in Indian law from ASU’s Indian Legal Program.

Joe’s diverse family stretches the landscape of Indian Country, his mother’s family is Lakota/Nakota from Canada, his wife and two sons are Navajo, his nieces are White Mountain Apache, and his cousins are Coyote Valley Pomo.  He resides in Flagstaff AZ, along with his wife, Clara Lee Pratte, CEO of Strongbow Strategies, and their two sons. For him, it is a privilege to live in Flagstaff because his sons are being raised in their ancestral homeland, in the shadow of one of the Navajo peoples 4 sacred mountains.

“We are thrilled to be adding Joe to Drummond Woodsum’s storied Tribal Nations practice group. Joe brings a diverse set of professional experiences, a wealth of knowledge, and a professional network that will immediately enhance our Team’s ability serve our Tribal Nation clients in the tribal economic development, corporate and government relations spaces. We are extremely excited that Joe has joined our Team and look forward to our bright future together,” said Drummond Woodsum attorney Michael Corey Hinton.