A letter from the Native American Law Students Association

Dear Mr. Barrett:

I wanted to draw your attention to some startling statistics as they relate to Minnesota's top ten law firms and their employment of Native American attorneys.  

According to the National Association of Law Placement (NALP), of the nearly 1,700 attorneys employed at Minnesota's top ten law firms (and working in Minnesota offices), only EIGHT are Native American (www.nalp.com).

If those stats weren't bad enough, of the top ten Minnesota law firms, FIVE of those firms employ NO Native American attorneys at all.

Yes, you read that correctly.  The following law firms have ZERO Native American attorneys employed: 

1.)  Fredrikson & Byron 

2.)  Lindquist & Vennum 

3.)  Rider Bennett 

4.)  Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi 

5.)  Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly 

As you know, there are approximately 62,000 Native Americans living in Minnesota, which represents about 1.1% of the state's population of nearly 5,200,000.  One would think that Minnesota's top law firms could have at least 1% of their attorney population be Native American --- a mere seventeen attorneys.

Below, we have listed of the five law firms where no Native Americans are employed, along with statistics and contact information.

John A. Satorius, Chairman 

Fredrikson & Byron 

200 South Sixth Street, Suite 4000 

Minneapolis, MN 55402-1425 

Phone: (612) 492-7000 

Fax: (612) 492-7077 

E-mail: jsatorius@fredlaw.com 

# of Minnesota Attorneys:  181 

# of Native American Attorneys:  0 

Daryle L. Uphoff, Chairman 

Lindquist & Vennum 

4200 IDS Center 

80 South Eighth Street 

Minneapolis, MN 55402 

Phone: (612) 371-3230 

Fax: (612) 371-3207 

E-mail: duphoff@lindquist.com 

# of Minnesota Attorneys:  150 

# of Native American Attorneys:  0 

Stephen O. Plunkett, Managing Partner 

Rider Bennett, LLP 

33 South Sixth Street, Suite 4900 

Minneapolis, MN 55402 

Phone: (612) 340-8928 

Fax:  (612) 337-7628 

E-mail: splunkett@riderlaw.com 

# of Minnesota Attorneys:  122 

# of Native American Attorneys:  0 

Steven A. Schumeister, Managing Partner 

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. 

2800 LaSalle Plaza 

800 LaSalle Avenue 

Minneapolis, MN 55402 

Phone: (612) 349-8500 

Fax: (612) 339-4181 

E-Mail:  contactus@rkmc.com 

# of Minnesota Attorneys:  152 

# of Native American Attorneys:  0 

Brad Keil, Chairman 

Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP 

Plaza VII, Suite 3300 

45 South Seventh Street 

Minneapolis, MN  55402 

Phone: (612) 607-7284 

Fax: (612) 607-7100 

E-mail: bkeil@oppenheimer.com 

# of Minnesota Attorneys:  110 

# of Native American Attorneys:  0 

Mr. Barrett, we encourage you to have your readers contact all of the firms and urge them to re-double their efforts and aggressively recruit Native Americans.

Sincerely, 

Timothy J. Bell 

Native American Law Students Association 

University of Illinois College of Law 

504 East Pennsylvania Avenue 

Champaign, Illinois 61820 

P.S.  It is our understanding that the law firm of Lindquist & Vennum, one of the firms without any Native attorneys, has in the past represented the Red Lake Indian Reservation.

Mr. Bell,

I cannot speak for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians governing body, the membership, or answer the question asked in the post-script.  You probably should send the Red Lake Tribe a similar letter with your questions and concerns.  I will, however, publish this letter on www.rlnn.com.

Michael Barrett

RLNN