macmeekin.com 

Dan MacMeekin         Attorney at Law        Washington, DC, USA

Home Up Library Island Links Contact

ISLAND LAW

Biography of Dan MacMeekin

Private practice  

I established my own law practice in July 2000 .

From 1985 until establishing my own firm, I was a partner in MacMeekin & Woodworth, a two-attorney firm focused principally on meeting the legal needs of Pacific islanders and Pacific Island governments in Washington, D.C., and advising individuals and business with interests in the Pacific Islands. Most of our firm's work was for a single client, the Government of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. We worked for that client on many different matters.  From 1986 to 1997, the firm served as counsel to Special Representatives of the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands in consultations on a wide variety of issues with Special Representatives of the President of the United States .  We assisted the Northern Marianas in several lawsuits and provided legal services to the Commonwealth's Resident Representative to the United States.  

As a subcontractor to CH2MHill, we provided the legal component to the June 1997 Feasibility Study on Privatization of Various Utilities of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The firm also did extensive work for private clients involving the Northern Marianas constitutional restraints on the alienation of land and on the application of particular provisions of the federal Internal Revenue Code to the islands.

The firm assisted clients located or doing business in the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawaii, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Philippine Islands, Indonesia, New Caledonia, and Hong Kong. In 1993 and 1994, the firm provided legal services to the Independent Representative for the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust.

Among the many subjects I have addressed as a private attorney are: 

bullet

autonomy of native peoples

bullet

Indian Self-Determination Act issues

bullet

federal recognition of American Indian tribes

bullet

immigration and citizenship 

bullet

fisheries and other marine resources

bullet

federal audit authority under Inspector General legislation

bullet

intellectual property

bullet

the Freedom of Information Act

bullet

federal income taxation

bullet

land claims

bullet

customs duties 

bullet

tax-exempt bonds

bullet

the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust

bullet

sovereign immunity

bullet

many questions of constitutional law and statutory construction. 

In the course of this work, I have drafted briefing papers, background papers, position papers, press releases, congressional testimony, speeches, pleadings and briefs for litigation, and correspondence to federal officials and Members of Congress.  I have done extensive research in the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the records of a number of federal agencies.

I frequently work with and for other attorneys.

Some comments from attorneys and others for whom I've worked as a private lawyer.

Go to:

Main Biography page Stanford Law graduate
Executive Director of Federal Study Commission Bar admissions and memberships

Legal aid attorney for Micronesians and Navajos

Publications
Peace Corps in Chile

Top of page

* * *

 

  Dan MacMeekin  2000 -2011          Disclaimer  - the fine print                June 16, 2011

Partner,