Lester J. Marston is a Cahuilla Indian with more than forty years of experience representing Indian tribal governments and individual Indians. Mr. Marston’s practice includes experience practicing in all facets of federal Indian law with special emphasis on providing representation and training in all areas of gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, including but not limited to, litigating bad faith lawsuits, drafting and negotiating consulting contracts, management agreements, and tribal-state compacts. Mr. Marston has served as in-house counsel to sixteen federally recognized Indian tribes located in the States of California, Arizona, Oregon, and Wisconsin and has worked with tribes, Indian organizations, and groups in the States of Kansas, Michigan, New York, Minnesota, and Washington.
For five years, Mr. Marston served as the Chief Judge for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Indian Community of Oregon and served as the Chief Judge of the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribal Court for over ten years.
Mr. Marston meeting with representatives from the U.S. Department of the Interior and Assistant Secretary — Indian Affairs Kevin Gover urging the Interior Department to sue the State of California for its refusal to negotiate tribal-state gaming compacts.
Mr. Marston meeting with representatives from the U.S. Department of the Interior and Assistant Secretary — Indian Affairs Kevin Gover urging the Interior Department to sue the State of California for its refusal to negotiate tribal-state gaming compacts.
Mr. Marston has litigated a variety of cases on behalf of Indian tribes in both state and federal courts, including major impact cases in the areas of Indian taxation, zoning, tribal elections, hunting and fishing rights, Indian gaming, and breaches of trust by the United States Government for mismanagement of tribal resources.
In his capacity as in-house counsel for Indian tribes, Mr. Marston has prepared all the legal documents necessary to establish tribal tax commissions, tribal court systems, police departments, housing authorities, fish and game departments, economic development corporations, gaming commissions, and tribal joint powers agencies.
He has drafted numerous contracts utilized by tribal governments in the exercise of their governmental authority, including, but not limited to mutual aid and cross-deputization agreements between tribes and local governments, tax agreements between tribes and local governments, hunting and fishing agreements between tribes and states, construction contracts, partnerships, joint ventures, and many types of development agreements.
Mr. Marston has been personally involved in more than fifty fee-to-trust land acquisitions by Indian Tribes and individual Indians, and three major bond-financed development projects. Mr. Marston has drafted both state and federal legislation relating to Indians and Indian tribes. Working in conjunction with the Native American Rights Fund, for example, he co-authored the 1988 Amendments to the Indian Reorganization Act, 25 U.S.C. § 476, which places an affirmative duty on the Secretary of the Interior to call and conduct constitutional elections for Indian Tribes. Mr. Marston has worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies for the Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix, and Anadarko Area Offices and the Central Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., and he is well acquainted with each of the branches of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and their functions.
From 1984 to 1985, Mr. Marston served as the City Attorney for the City of Willits, California. As the City Attorney, he provided ongoing legal advice to law enforcement agencies, planning departments, water and sewer departments, and redevelopment agencies. As a result, he is intimately familiar with how local governments operate and how they relate and interact with tribal governments. Mr. Marston has also worked extensively in the areas of real estate and business law.
For more than thirty years, Mr. Marston’s practice has been devoted primarily to Indian gaming. He has represented tribes, tribal gaming commissions, and tribal casinos. He was one of the four lawyers chosen to represent 64 California Indian tribes in negotiations with the State of California that resulted in the Tribes entering Class III Gaming Compacts with the State. On behalf of the Ho-Chunk Nation, he also successfully negotiated a Tribal-State Class III Gaming Compact with the State of Wisconsin. Mr. Marston litigated bad faith lawsuits against the Governor of the State of California to compel the Governor to negotiate Class III Gaming Compacts with California tribes under the provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”). He has also litigated cases to determine whether certain electronic gambling devices were Class II rather than Class III devices under the IGRA, and successfully litigated a case against the United States to compel the United States Justice Department to sue the Governor of the State of California to compel the Governor to negotiate a Class III gaming compact with Indian tribes within the State. Mr. Marston has drafted tribal-state gaming compacts, gaming management agreements, gaming equipment lease agreements, gaming consulting agreements, and all of the documents necessary to finance the design, planning, construction, development, and operation of gaming facilities, hotels, and ancillary facilities.
Mr. Marston is admitted to practice before the courts of the State of California, numerous federal district courts, the 7th and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States Supreme Court, and numerous tribal courts throughout the United States.