Kaighn Smith, Jr.
Portland, ME
Drummond Woodsum
University of California-Berkeley, B.S.
University of Sussex, M.Phil.
University of Maine School of Law, J.D.
Kaighn Smith, Jr. leads Drummond Woodsum’s nationwide Indian Law Practice Group. He has represented Indian nations and their enterprises for over 25 years. A litigator, his cases focus on all aspects of federal Indian law, including jurisdiction and sovereignty disputes, gaming matters, labor and employment relations, land-in-trust and environmental matters, and fishing and water rights. He represents clients in the federal, tribal, and state courts and before federal administrative agencies across the country.
In 2011, Kaighn published the leading treatise, Labor and Employment Law in Indian Country, with the Native American Rights Fund. Since 2012, he has served as associate reporter (with Professors Matthew L.M. Fletcher and Wenona Singel) on the Restatement of American Indian Law for the American Law Institute. He is listed in Chambers USA and in Best Lawyers in America for the category of Native American Law.
Kaighn clerked for Judge Frank M. Coffin at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and for Justice Louis Scolnik at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He serves as Adjunct Professor of American Indian Law at the University of Maine School of Law.
