Professional Activities: Present - Speaker on Native American law; taxation, tribal utility and energy issues; Remarque Forum (International Policy); Executive Board, Homewise (Affordable Housing Non-Profit); Director, NCGR (National DNA Science Center). Former - Board Vice-President, MALDEF (national civil rights organization); Co-Chair, Energy in the Southwest Conference; Commissioner; ABA Commission on Women; National Law Journal, Top 40 Lawyers Under 40; Featured in Book, Mujeres Valerosas; Regional President, National Hispanic Bar Association; NM Rhodes Scholar Selection Committee; USDA Women In Leadership; Hispanic Women's Council, Las Primeras Award, MANA Brindis Award.
Prior to joining the Nordhaus Law Firm in 1989, Ms. Leger clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. As a senior federal law clerk, she worked on landmark civil rights, immigration, and environmental recovery cases. From 1985 to 1987, Ms. Leger did substantial work in immigration law. Additionally, she researched comparative law issues in Peru, and worked with Public Advocates of San Francisco, California. Before attending law school, Ms. Leger worked as a Fellow in New York at the Ford Foundation and was President of a theater company. Ms. Leger joined the Nordhaus Law Firm in 1989 and became a partner in 1994.
Ms. Leger is fluent in Spanish.
Ms. Leger has served as lead counsel on complex business and financial deals, federal negotiation, litigation and general counsel work for our clients. She has served as borrowers and issuer's counsel for a half a billion dollars of bond and commercial borrowing. In this capacity, she has been at the forefront of exploring new options and structures for capital financing in Indian Country. She established one of the Nation's only regional community development financial institutions created to increase Native American access to financing. Ms. Leger has developed an expertise working with tribal utility companies, which includes securing financing for infrastructure development to assisting in their formation - drafting tariff's, charters and operating policies. She has served as a co-chair and speaker at several conferences dedicated to energy and utility infrastructure.
Ms. Leger has extensive experience working with the State Legislature. She drafted and successfully lobbied for tax legislation that promotes cooperation between the State and Tribes and eliminates double taxation. She won a complex redistricting case under the voting rights act to ensure Native Americans are adequately represented in the state legislature and wrote and lobbied for voting rights legislation. Jepsen v. Vigil, No. D0101, 2001, 02177.
Ms. Leger litigated and successfully negotiated agreements under the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Protection Act to protect our clients' economic, environmental and cultural resources. She works on housing and community development matters for our clients. She negotiated the first written joint venture agreement with the Indian Health Service for the construction of a new health facility and is working on the compacting of health services under ISDEA.
Ms. Leger took a sabbatical from the firm when President Clinton appointed her in 1995 to serve as a White House Fellow in the country's foremost leadership program. She analyzed domestic and international policy issues with national/international leaders and innovators in politics, academia, the media, military and sciences. From 1995 to 1996, Ms. Leger served as a Special Assistant to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she worked as a liaison on White House initiatives, on public/private financing of public housing and on legislation affecting Native Americans and underserved communities.
