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LITIGATION UNIT

  • Office of the Atty General
  • Office of the Prosecutor
  • Human Services & Government
  • Natural Resources
  • Economic & Community Development
  • Tax and Finance
  • Water Rights
  • Litigation Unit
  • Navajo Hopi Legal Services
  • Chapter Unit

Overview

 
The Litigation Unit represents the Nation’s interests in employment and labor matters. This includes defending the tribe in personnel/employment litigation, and advising tribal programs concerning personnel matters.

Contact Us:
Telephone No. 871-6210
Fax No. (928) 871-6177
For any information please email:
general@nndoj.org
 
Clients:
All Divisions, Departments and Programs related to personnel issues, grievances, and adverse employment actions
 
 
 
 
Paul Spruhan
Assistant Attorney General
 

 

 

Paul Spruhan was born in Chicago, Illinois and has lived in the Southwest since 1997. He went to A.B., A.M., University of Chicago (1995, 1996); J.D., University of New Mexico (2000). He is Assistant Attorney General for the Litigation Unit of the Navajo Department of Justice. He has been a licensed attorney for close to 20 years.  He has worked for DOJ for 12 years, and was the law clerk of the Navajo Supreme Court for 5 years.  Before that, he was a staff attorney for New Mexico Legal Aid for a year and half, and started his legal career as an associate at the Santa Fe office Rothstein, Donatelli, Hughes, and Schoenburg. He has licenses for New Mexico, Navajo Nation, Federal District Courts of Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, New Mexico, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal, United States, U.S. Supreme Court.  He lives with his wife and two children in Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation.

 

 

 
 
Sage Metoxen,
Senior Attorney
 
 
Sage Metoxen is a Senior Attorney for the Litigation Unit of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice.  After graduating law school, she moved to the Navajo Nation to work as a staff attorney for DNA People’s Legal Services, Inc. She was then a natural resources attorney for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice.  She has most recently served as Senior Assistant General Counsel for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 2013 with a certificate in American Indian Law from the Center for the Study of American Indian Law and Policy. She is admitted to practice law in the state of Arizona and the Navajo Nation.
 

Vacant

Senior Attorney

 
 
 

Louis Mallette
Attorney
 

Louis Mallette grew up in California and Alaska. He graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2001, and, after getting his JD from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2017, started working as an Attorney for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice’s litigation unit.  In this role, his only job since graduating from law school, he works on employment and labor issues, as well as federal litigation involving the Navajo Nation.  He is licensed to practice law in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.  Louis is married to a Navajo tribal member, and they have one son.

 
 
Jason M. Searle
Attorney
 
 

Jason Searle is originally from Utah and Idaho. He received his B.S. in Sociology, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University in 2015, and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2018. Jason centered his law school education around Federal Indian law and legal issues in Indian country. He spent his first law school summer as a law clerk for Judge Maldonado, Chief Judge of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Tribal Court, and his second summer as a law clerk for the Native American Rights Fund. He also participated in the unemployment-insurance, civil mediation, and environmental law clinics during law school. Jason litigates affirmative and defensive cases involving a wide-array of practice areas in Navajo and federal administrative and judicial tribunals. Jason is licensed to practice law in New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for the Districts of New Mexico and D.C. and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

 
 
 
 
Dana Martin
Senior Legal Secretary
 
 
 
Gerrison Joe,
Legal Secretary
 
 
 
Client Reminder.  If you like to meet with one of the staff from this unit, please make an appointment with the unit secretary.
 If you like to submit Request for Services please click links below for the forms.
/uploads/files/RFS%20(Disciplinary%20Action).pdf
 
 
 
 
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