Riyaz Kanji graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in Social Studies in 1986, and received his J.D. in 1991 from Yale Law School, where he served on the Law Journal and won the Potter Stewart Prize in the Moot Court competition. He served as a law clerk to Judge Betty Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court. Riyaz then spent two years as a Skadden Fellow at Evergreen Legal Services in Seattle, where he principally worked on the shellfish subproceeding of United States v. Washington, and three years at Williams and Connolly in Washington, D.C., where, in addition to significant tribal representation, he litigated complex matters for clients including ABC News and Georgetown University.

Riyaz's present practice encompasses a wide variety of issues, including Indian gaming, treaty hunting and fishing rights, reservation boundaries, sovereignty issues, and jurisdictional disputes. For example, Riyaz served as lead counsel for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in its successful trial and appellate efforts regarding the legality of its Turtle Creek Casino. In addition, he frequently serves as specialist counsel to tribes and their attorneys on matters of Supreme Court and appellate practice, and he has taken an active role in the development of the Tribal Supreme Court Project. In this regard, Riyaz was the lead author of the amicus brief on tribal-state cooperation that NCAI, NIGA and tribes across the country filed in the Supreme Court in the Bishop Paiute case, and was a co-author of the brief filed by NCAI regarding Congress' ability to vindicate tribal sovereignty in United States v. Lara. Riyaz recently argued for the NCAI and over 40 Tribes in the First Circuit case of Carcieri v. Norton, which involves a challenge to the federal government's ability to take land into trust for Tribes. He also regularly assists Tribes in defeating efforts by the federal government, States, and private parties to have the Supreme Court review lower court decisions favorable to tribal interests. Riyaz has also served as an Affiliated Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where he has taught a seminar on Native American Law.

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