Speakers

John Williams has over 30 years experience in American Indian, business transaction, corporate and energy law.  He has worked for large and small corporations, large law firms and decided to form his own law firm in February, 2018 dedicated solely to Native American issues.  John focuses on business transactions, energy development, tribal law, tribal corporate structure, and regulatory law. His clients include tribal governments, tribal business entities, banks, hedge funds and other vendors with tribal counterparties and has closed multiple transactions in Indian country totaling over $1 billion at this point. John has been a leading force in ecommerce in Indian Country for almost 15 years engaging with tribal, state and federal authorities. John has been extremely involved with Digital Sovereignty project to assist rural tribes in allowing customers to access their reservations via the internet. He was the principal tribal author of an ecommerce memorandum of understanding with New Mexico. See, https://www.hpultribe-nsn.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/New-Mexico-MOU-Ecommerce-2019.pdf. 

John brings an excellent blend of legal, technical and business expertise.  He began his professional career as a reservoir engineer with a leading oil and gas corporation.  Later, he returned to law school where he specialized in Native American and natural resources law.  During an internship with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, John wrote a model environmental code for use by tribal governments.  This experience provided the basis for his first publication, The Effect of the EPA’s Designation for the Tribes as States on the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma.  Additionally, he drafted the Cherokee Nation’s original environmental code.  Using his diverse background, John was also a contributing author for the Resources for the Future study which analyzed the renewable energy policies of the 17 most populous states.  His experience with corporate structure and the interplay of business and tribal culture contributed to the article Paving the Way for the Future:  Potential Structures for Tribal Economic Development and to several presentations of “When Worlds Collide: The Collision of Tribal and Corporate Culture.”  He has also served as a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of American Indian History.

John gained in-depth energy expertise as an attorney and business development manager for a leading energy corporation and has practiced before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Comisión Reguladora de Energía in Mexico.  His diverse experience in energy matters involved such areas as FERC regulated pipelines, power generation and transmission, energy marketing, and FERC compliance.  He has applied his energy, business and regulatory expertise to projects in Indian Country where, among other projects, he permitted a large power plant on tribal trust land. He has represented both companies doing business with tribal nations and tribes and tribally owned businesses. John’s firm current serves as outside general counsel to a tribal nation in California which provides John with insight to the myriad of issues for tribal businesses and governments.

John earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in 1988 from The University of Tulsa graduating cum laude.  He also earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1992 from The University of Tulsa.  In law school, John was awarded both the Eastern Mineral Law Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation scholarships.  He was also one of the first recipients of the University of Tulsa College of Law Indian Law Certificate.  John served on the Energy Law Journal as managing editor for ABA publications.  John served as adjunct faculty at the University of Tulsa College of Law in the American Indian and energy law programs including formerly serving as the interim head of The University of Tulsa’s Muscogee Creek Nation Legal Clinic. He spent eight years as an adjunct professor in the Masters of Jurisprudence program teaching Principles of Federal Indian Law, Introduction to Federal Legal Administrative Systems, and Basic Oil and Gas Law.