Joshua Rees

Renewable energy counsel, and more, for Indian tribes

Josh Rees advises tribal clients on a variety of Indian law issues, with a focus on renewable energy projects. He is experienced with complex negotiations regarding Indian water rights settlements, mining on tribal lands, negotiations for intergovernmental agreements and contracts, tribal economic development, human resources and myriad other issues related to tribal governance and tribal operations.

Before joining Quarles, Josh served as the deputy attorney general of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Sells, Ariz., and was an in-house attorney for the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation Trial Court.

• Finalizes sales agreements for the sale of water storage credits.
• Negotiates tribal 638 contracts.
• Drafts tribal personnel policies and represents tribal departments in grievance hearings.

• Worked closely with federal and state parties as part of a tribal negotiating team that met regularly in furtherance of the tribe’s water settlement.
• Negotiated an agreement between a tribe and mining company that provided financial incentives for the tribe while larger scale discussions about resumption of operations were ongoing.
• Amended a tribe’s water code and ushered it through the federal approval process, making it one of the only secretarial-approved water codes in the nation.