Emily N. Harwell

Emily Harwell is an associate in Lieff Cabraser’s New York office. She works in all areas of the firm’s practice, with a particular focus on and interest in representing tribes and tribal governments as plaintiffs.

Ms. Harwell grew up on the Sac and Fox Reservation in Oklahoma. She is a member of the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Creek Nation of Oklahoma. Ms. Harwell graduated from Dartmouth College where she served as President of the Native Americans at Dartmouth. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental science and studio art.

During her undergraduate studies, Ms. Harwell studied historical climates through ice cores collected from Greenland and Antarctica. In addition, she studied greenhouse gas release from soil used for livestock in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Prior to law school, Ms. Harwell attended the American Indian Law Center’s Pre-Law Summer Institute. She graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022. While in law school, she served as Executive Editor for the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy and clerked at the Native American Rights Fund (“NARF”). As a clerk, Ms. Harwell focused on Native American voting rights litigation against state governments.

In her final semester of law school, Ms. Harwell was selected as a New York Pro Bono Scholar with the New York Legal Assistance Group’s Special Litigation Group. As a Pro Bono Scholar, she assisted with consumer protection litigation, including a class action against a predatory debt collection agency and a class action against the Social Security Administration for wrongful termination of SSI benefits.

Ms. Harwell served as President of the Native American Law Student Association of Cornell and as Treasurer of the Native American Alumni Association at Dartmouth.

Classes & Semiars

•Panelist, “Land Grab Universities,” Cornell Law School Indigenous Law Summit, April 2024
•Speaker, “Opportunities in Plaintiff-Side Tribal Law: A Conversation with Lieff Cabraser,” Berkeley Law, February 2024

Publications

•Judicial Discretion Across Jurisdictions: McGirt’s Effects on Indian Offenders in Oklahoma, 107 Cornell L. Rev. 7 (Nov. 2022)
•Rep. Haaland’s Historic Nomination: Diving Into the “Department of Everything Else”, Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol’y, The Issue Spotter (Mar. 12, 2021)
•Native Nations & Rural America: An Unlikely Partnership?, Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol’y, The Issue Spotter (Oct. 23, 2020)
•From Smallpox Blankets to COVID Ballots: Understanding the Pandemic as Fundamental Threat to Native American Voters, Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol’y, The Issue Spotter (Aug. 17, 2020)

In the News

•October 16, 2024
Edward Baker and Emily Harwell to Moderate FBA Qui Tam Section Panel on “The FCA and The Protection of Tribal Funds”
•April 9, 2024
Emily Harwell to Discuss “Land Grab Universities” at Upcoming Cornell Law School Indigenous Law Summit
•February 14, 2024
Lieff Cabraser Attorneys Speak at Berkeley Law Event on Opportunities in Plaintiff-Side Tribal Law