Erin C. Dougherty
Staff Attorney

Erin joined the Native American Rights Fund as a staff attorney in 2009. At NARF, Erin is working on a project to assist Alaska Natives in their efforts to relocate coastal villages threatened by erosion and other problems associated with climate change. This includes a wide range of legal issues such as navigating the regulatory jurisdiction over all aspects of community infrastructure and protecting Native subsistence rights.

Erin received her B.A. from Willamette University with a double major in Politics and History. Prior to law school Erin was a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Tromsø in Tromsø (Romsa), Norway where she conducted masters-level research on Sámi political mobilization and indigenous self-governance within international and Norwegian legal frameworks.

She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2008. While in law school Erin was the co-chair of Michigan’s Native American Law Students Association, served on the National Advisory Committee for Equal Justice Works, and also served as an Article Editor and Administrative Manager for the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law.

Erin previously clerked for the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, and legal aid organizations in Alaska and Vermont. After graduation, she was a law clerk for the Honorable Dana Fabe, then Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. She is admitted to practice law in Alaska.