Horseshoe Bend, Arizona
Western water law needs builders, not litigators
The most consequential water law is never decided in a courtroom.
WESTERN WATER GOVERNANCE
The Legal Architecture of Western Water
Boutique legal counsel for institutions navigating Western water governance, tribal sovereignty, and regulatory systems.
Western water law is built through institutions and agreements that govern how scarce water moves across jurisdictions. Interstate compacts, tribal water rights settlements, legislative frameworks, regulatory systems, and basin-wide negotiations form the legal architecture that determines who can use water, when, and under what conditions across the American West.
Silex Law advises governments, tribal nations, and institutional stakeholders working inside these systems — helping design agreements, draft statutes and regulatory codes, and resolve complex allocation and management questions that shape the region’s long-term water future.
Hoover Dam, Lake Mead
AREAS OF PRACTICE
Practice Areas
Western Water Governance
Silex Law advises institutions navigating the legal frameworks that structure water allocation and management across the American West — including interstate compacts, basin negotiations, and regulatory systems governing scarce water resources.
Tribal Water Rights & Sovereignty
The practice works with tribal governments and institutional partners on water rights settlements, governance frameworks, and the legal systems that shape the exercise of tribal sovereignty in Western water management.
Regulatory & Legislative Architecture
Western water systems are governed through statutes, agency rules, and negotiated regulatory frameworks. Silex Law assists clients in drafting legislation, designing regulatory systems, and navigating complex institutional processes.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
Selected Work
A selection of representative matters from the practice.
Tribal Water Code Drafting & Adoption
Principal drafter of a comprehensive tribal water code adopted by the tribal council, establishing the legal framework governing water management and allocation within tribal jurisdiction.
Federal Authorization for Tribal Water Leasing
Drafted and negotiated federal legislation authorizing a tribal government to lease water for use off reservation lands — legislation ultimately enacted into federal law.
Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Negotiations
Participated in negotiations surrounding the Arizona Drought Contingency Plan, securing $38 million in compensation for a tribal client in exchange for leaving 150,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead as system conservation over a three-year period.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Understanding Western Water Systems
Selected explanations of the legal and institutional systems governing water across the American West.
Law of the River
The complex body of interstate compacts, federal statutes, court decisions, and agreements that govern how the Colorado River is allocated across the American West.
The Great Salt Lake Crisis
How decades of water diversions and basin management decisions pushed the Great Salt Lake toward ecological and economic collapse — and what legal tools exist to respond.
Stevens Treaties
The 1854–1855 treaties between the United States and Pacific Northwest tribes that continue to shape tribal fishing rights and water governance across Washington State.
In the West, whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting.