Kevin K. Washburn facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kevin Washburn
Washburn in 2010
Dean of the University of Iowa College of Law
In office March 2018 – December 31, 2024
Preceded by	Gail Agrawal
Succeeded by	Todd Pettys (Interim)
12th Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs
In office October 9, 2012 – January 1, 2016
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Del Laverdure (Acting)
Succeeded by	Tara Sweeney
Dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law
In office 2009–2012
Preceded by	Leo Romero (Acting)
Succeeded by	Barbara Bergman (Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1967-08-09) August 9, 1967 (age 58)
Nationality	American, Chickasaw Nation
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Libby Washburn
Education	University of Oklahoma (BA) Washington University Yale University (JD)

Kevin K. Washburn (born 1967) is an American law professor who has held important jobs in law and government. He was the leader (dean) of law schools at the University of New Mexico and the University of Iowa.

From 2012 to 2016, he worked for President Barack Obama. He was the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. This role involved working with Native American tribes.

Before that, Washburn was a federal prosecutor. He also worked as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice. He was also the main lawyer for the National Indian Gaming Commission. Kevin Washburn is a member of the Chickasaw Nation, which is a recognized Native American tribe.

Early Life and Education

Kevin Washburn was born on August 9, 1967. His mother, Shirley Stark, raised him in Oklahoma City and other small towns in Oklahoma. These towns included Purcell, Heavener, and Ada. He finished high school in Moore, Oklahoma.

Washburn grew up without a lot of money. He talked about his childhood and his mother in a speech. His mother raised him and his two siblings by herself for much of his childhood. She later worked for the Chickasaw Nation and is now on the tribe's Council of Elders.

Washburn went to college at the University of Oklahoma. He studied economics and philosophy. After graduating in 1989, he started law school at Washington University in St. Louis. After his first year, he moved to Yale Law School. He was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation. He earned his law degree (J.D.) in 1993.

Career in Law

Washburn started his legal career working for Judge William C. Canby Jr.. Judge Canby was an expert in Native American Law.

Washburn then became a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division. There, he won a case that helped the Salish and Kootenai Tribes be recognized like a state. This was for setting water quality rules under the Clean Water Act. He also helped the Las Vegas Paiute Native American Tribe get water rights for their land.

From 1997 to 2000, Washburn worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in New Mexico. He handled serious cases like homicides and bank robberies. Many of these cases happened in Native American areas.

National Indian Gaming Commission

From 2000 to 2002, Washburn was the main lawyer (General Counsel) for the National Indian Gaming Commission. This was a busy time because Native American gaming was growing a lot in California.

As General Counsel, Washburn made some important changes. He made sure that staff had clear legal reasons for any changes they asked for in contracts. He also made the agency's violation notices easier to understand. This helped the public know why the Commission was taking action. Washburn also worked to protect the independence of the Commission. He helped Native American tribes use technology for Class II gaming. This helped tribes earn more money and gave them more power in talks with states.

Professor and Dean

Washburn started teaching law in 2002 at the University of Minnesota Law School. He became a full professor there in 2006. He also taught at Harvard Law School and the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.

Much of Washburn's work as a professor focused on federal Native American law and criminal law. He studied how the federal justice system works on Native American reservations. His ideas helped lead to the Tribal Law and Order Act, which became law in 2010. This law aimed to fix problems in the justice system for tribes.

In 2009, Washburn became the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law. He served in this role until 2012. During his time as dean, he helped connect the law school with the community. He also brought in new professors and raised their salaries. Important judges and Supreme Court Justices visited the school during his leadership. He also helped the school get many gifts to support students and professors. The law school also added new programs, like a semester in Washington D.C. and a program to help free wrongly convicted people.

Working for President Obama

In 2012, President Barack Obama chose Washburn to be the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The United States Senate approved his appointment. He started this job on October 9, 2012, and served until January 1, 2016. He was the twelfth person to hold this important position.

In this role, Washburn helped manage lands and money for Native American tribes. He also worked to help tribes become more independent and successful. He helped organize White House Tribal Nations Conferences. At these conferences, President Obama met directly with leaders from Native American tribes. Washburn also helped create the White House Council of Native American Affairs.

During his time, Washburn helped make important policy changes. These changes helped tribal businesses and added more land into trust for tribes. He also worked to improve rules about Native American child welfare and tribal recognition.

Even when the government faced budget cuts, Washburn helped increase funding for Indian Affairs programs. Funding went from $2.3 billion in 2013 to $2.8 billion in 2016. This helped the government better meet its duties to Native American nations. He also helped the U.S. government reach large settlements with tribes in legal cases.

Washburn's work to help Native American tribes was praised by tribal leaders. He also helped the Pamunkey Tribe of Virginia get federal recognition.

After leaving the Obama administration, Washburn returned to teaching at the University of New Mexico School of Law in January 2016. He was one of the longest-serving Assistant Secretaries for Indian Affairs.

University of Iowa College of Law

In March 2018, Washburn became the Dean of the University of Iowa College of Law. He served in that role until the end of 2024.

As dean, he led the law school through the COVID-19 pandemic. He also focused on making the University of Iowa a "Writing Law School." He hired more faculty to support this goal. This effort helped many graduates get jobs as law clerks for judges, including on the Iowa Supreme Court.

Washburn also helped the law school join The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law. He worked to bring in highly qualified and diverse students. To help students succeed, he hired the law school's first full-time mental health counselor. He also helped develop a strong program to help students pass the bar exam.

During his time as dean, Washburn was the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Law School Admission Council. In November 2020, he was part of the team helping President Joe Biden's transition. He also served on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools.

Washburn announced he would retire from the deanship at the University of Iowa at the end of 2024. He later shared that he would join the law faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the fall of 2025.

Personal Life

Kevin Washburn is married to Elizabeth (Libby) Rodke Washburn. Libby Washburn also worked for President Joe Biden. She was a Special Assistant on Native American affairs in the White House. The Washburns have three children.

Expertise in Law

Washburn is a leading expert on gaming and gambling law. He was the main lawyer for the National Indian Gaming Commission from 2000 to 2002. He wrote a law school textbook on Gaming Law and Regulation. He has also written articles about how Native American gaming is regulated. He taught the first course on Gaming/Gambling Law at Harvard Law School. His work has been used by the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts. He has also spoken to Congress many times about gaming issues.

Washburn is also an expert in federal Native American law. He has helped write important books on this topic. These include American Indian Law: Native Nations and the Federal System and Felix Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law. In 2017, he wrote about the future of federal Native American law and policy for the Harvard Law Review.

Affiliations

• Elected member of the American Law Institute since 2007.
• Served on the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admission Council and was chairman from 2019 to 2021.
• Author and editor of Felix Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law.
• Member of committees for the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
• Served on the Yale Law School Fund Board of Directors.
• Served on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Lands Foundation.
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science since 2025.
• Member of the ABA Accreditation Committee.
• Enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
• Won the American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award in 2015.
• Inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame in 2017.

See also

• Bureau of Indian Affairs
• University of New Mexico School of Law
• University of Iowa College of Law