Howard G. Arnett

Best Best & Krieger LLP Of Counsel Howard Arnett concentrates his counsel in Federal Indian law, especially with representation of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon as well as other tribes. He specifically advises on matters involving treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, tribal law development, government-to-government relations and gaming. Additionally, Howard is well-versed in civil litigation and appellate practice.

Howard spent more than four decades at Karnopp Petersen before the firm joined BBK in 2022. Before that, he worked as a legal services attorney on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona following law school.

Howard is active in Oregon’s statewide legal community. Howard currently serves on the Lawyers’ Campaign for Equal Justice Board. He has served as a member of the Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners, Bar Examiners’ Review Board, and as a past member of the Executive Committee of the Appellate Practice, Indian Law and Legal Services sections of the Oregon State Bar. He also served as a lawyer’s representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and as president of the Oregon Law Foundation Board for 2013.

Howard is also a professor of practice at the University of Oregon School of Law. He teaches the survey course on American Indian law as well as advanced seminars on contemporary issues in American Indian law and comparative law of Indigenous Peoples. Previously, he was an adjunct professor at the Lewis & Clark Law School teaching the survey course and an advanced seminar on Federal Indian law.

Howard is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Navajo Nation Supreme Court.