Law professor to receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Native American Bar

Robert N. Clinton, Foundation of Law Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native American Bar Association of Arizona (NABA-AZ). The award is given annually to honor an individual for his or her contributions to the field Indian law in Arizona.

Clinton serves as chief justice of the Winnebago Supreme Court and as an associate justice for the Colorado River Indian Tribes Court of Appeals, the Hualapai Tribal Court of Appeals, and the Hopi Court of Appeals. He also serves as a judge pro tem for the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians.

Clinton has taught Indian Law for more than 40 years, beginning his career in 1973, when he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa College of Law.

“Bob has been an outstanding teacher and scholar of Indian Law,” said former ASU professor and past NABA-AZ lifetime achievement award recipient, William C. Canby. “One of the great victories of the Indian Legal Program at ASU was to entice Bob to join the faculty. He has been thoroughly dedicated to teaching Indian Law, and to working with both students and tribes to advance their understanding of the subject and to make use of that knowledge to their benefit.”

Professor Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, faculty director of the Indian Legal Program at ASU, agreed that Clinton’s work as a professor has made enormous contributions to the field.

“Bob has been instrumental to the development of Indian law and is the most cited scholar in the field,” Ferguson-Bohnee said. “It is fitting that NABA-AZ recognize Bob for not only his tremendous scholarly contributions but also his dedication to developing and guiding future advocates of tribal law and federal Indian law.”

Colleagues have seen Clinton’s work in the classroom up close.

“I know Bob as a classroom teacher with a reputation for teaching at an exceptionally high level,” said fellow ASU law professor, Charles Calleros.

Two alumni of ASU’s Indian Legal Program also will be honored at the event. The Community Service Award will be presented to Diane Enos (Class of ’92), president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and the NABA-AZ Member of the Year Award will be presented to Diandra D. Benally (Class of ’05), assistant general counsel for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.

The NABA-AZ Seven Generations Annual Awards Dinner and Silent Auction will take place from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sept. 27, at the Radisson Fort McDowell Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.