Gabriel Galanda, WK&G's youngest Associate, is strengthening the image of Indian law and Indian people through his active leadership in the Northwest Indian Bar Association (NIBA) and the Washington State Bar Association’s (WSBA) Indian Law Section.
Port Angeles native and descendent of the Northern California Nomlaki and Concow tribes. On September 18, at the 16th Annual UW Indian Law Symposium in Seattle, he will simultaneously step down as the two term NIBA President and assume the Chair position of the WSBA Indian Law Section. His goal is to spearhead a resurgence among Section members and longtime Indian law warriors, and add an Indian law requirement to the state bar exam.
As president of NIBA, a nonprofit educational organization of more than 150 Native and Indian law attorneys, Gabe helped raise more than $20,000 for local Native law students. During the past 15 months, he helped to increase the number of NIBA members nearly 700 percent.
He intends to interject the same energy into the 270-member WSBA Indian Law Section, largely comprised of nonIndian attorneys who have vigorously fought for Washington tribes since the fishing rights battles in the 1970s. "Gabe was an exciting choice given his extraordinary success in developing NIBA into such a dynamic and productive organization," founding Section member and past-Chair Phil Katzen said. "The Nominating Committee is gratified that Gabe accepted the invitation to become the next Chair of the Section."