Joel West Williams is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and has represented tribal nations, individual Indians, and Indian organizations on a wide variety of issues, including lands, voting rights, sacred places, and religious liberty. Joel was a presidential appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration, where he served as Deputy Solicitor for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. In that role, he advised the Secretary of the Interior and oversaw the legal work for the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and Bureau of Trust Fund Administration, and supervised the Division of Indian Affairs within the Solicitor’s Office.

Prior to that, Joel was an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, where he led the Tribal Supreme Court Project, which focuses on the strategy and coordination of Indian law cases before the United States Supreme Court. He also directed the Washington, D.C. office of the Cherokee Nation and was a trial and appellate attorney with the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of General Counsel. Joel is also an adjunct professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and is the alternate federal commissioner on the Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission. He is a past president of the National Native American Bar Association and Native American Bar Association of D.C.

Joel enjoys exploring the outdoors with his family. Together, they camp, hike, climb, swim, build hide-outs, collect rocks, dig holes, and explore new places in their camper.