Paula M. Yost

Partner

Paula Yost is a civil litigator with experience in a wide range of complex matters involving federal Indian law, contracts and torts, constitutional law, environmental law, insurance coverage, intellectual property, and eminent domain.

Paula has represented clients in state and federal courts throughout California, and has tried bench and jury trials in both systems.

She has argued before the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and is admitted to practice in the California bar, as well as the United States district courts for the Northern, Eastern and Southern Districts of California.

Most of Paula's practice is dedicated to representing Indian tribes in varied contexts.

In tribal representation that reaches from California to Washington, DC, Paula's work has ranged from securing the dismissal of litigation on sovereignty and related jurisdictional grounds to the representation of an Indian tribe in its effort to secure water and access rights for its reservation.

She also has significant experience representing tribes and their outside investors in litigation challenging gaming projects on environmental grounds.

Paula continues to regularly advise tribes on Tribal governance, sovereignty, environmental and business-related issues.

She also works closely with Tribal clients in their project development efforts, both in the context of litigation and in their efforts to negotiate with local, state and federal agency officials. Paula's litigation experience is wide-ranging.

She has successfully represented Tribal clients in membership and commercial disputes, and she has defeated challenges to Tribal development projects.

She successfully defended the Table Mountain Rancheria Band of Indians, an Indian tribe that owns and operates a casino outside Fresno, in several lawsuits.

One such case involved a Las Vegas company that the Tribe believed had exerted illegal control over its casino in violation of federal law and that sued the Tribe upon its termination.

Paula secured dismissal of the lawsuit from both state and federal courts on sovereign immunity and related jurisdictional grounds, even though the contracts at issue contained provisions purporting to waive the Tribe's sovereign immunity.

The litigation resulted in new Ninth Circuit precedent holding that Indian tribes may not be sued in federal district court on "diversity of citizenship" grounds.

In addition to representing Tribal clients in court, Paula advises clients on matters involving Tribal governance and elections and acts in a general counsel capacity for one of the firm's Tribal clients.

Paula's environmental work, on behalf of both Tribes and non-Tribal clients, has involved  a variety of state and federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, the federal and California Clean Air Acts, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act.

Throughout her career, Paula has demonstrated a commitment to representing the indigent, taking on pro bono matters involving immigration, dissolution and custody matters, criminal law, constitutional matters, and civil rights issues.

She currently represents certain student/members of the Mohawk Nation in connection with a local school district's ban on a Mohawk chant while requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Paula's work has led to a number of published appellate opinions, including

• American Vantage Companies, Inc. v. Table Mountain Rancheria, 292 F. 3d 1091 (9th Cir. 2002)
• City of Roseville v. Norton, 219 F. Supp. 2d 130 (D.D.C. 2002)
• Erlich v. Menezes, 21 Cal. 4th 543 (1999)

She is a co-author of E-Business and Insurance: A Legal Guide to Transacting Insurance and Other Business on the Internet and several articles, including

• "Rush Creek v. Ute Mountain Ute Tribe: A Death Knell for Settled Tribal Immunity Law?" Indian Law Newsletter, Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 10 (January 2006)
• "In Search of Coverage in Cyberspace: Why The Commercial General Liability Policy Fails to Insure Lost or Corrupted Computer Data," 54 SMU Law Rev. 4 (Fall 2001)

Prior to her legal career, Paula worked as a news reporter for a variety of publications, including United Press International, The Des Moines Register, the Dallas Times-Herald and The Washington Post.

She graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in journalism and political science, and thereafter earned her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law at Austin.

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