Joseph R. Membrino

Mr. Membrino is a 35-year attorney with a practice in Indian Law, Corporate/Commercial Law and Legislative & Regulatory Affairs. He is an AV-rated attorney through Martindale-Hubbell.

Highlights of his legal career include:

• Obtained federal legislation securing a $42 million judgment fund for payment of Indian tribal land claim.
• Wrote and oversaw enactment of legislation and executive branch implementation of program to restore one of the largest rivers in California and the fishery on which several Indian tribes depend. This activity accomplished the greatest reallocation of water (250,000 acre-feet annually) to environmental protection and “green” economic development in the 100-year history of the federal reclamation program.
• Wrote and oversaw enactment of legislation to restore to Indian tribe 2,600 acres of old growth forest land in California that had been wrongfully seized by the federal government in the 19th century.

• Shareholder

• Administrative Law
• Business Transactions
• Complex Commercial Litigation
• Corporate Services
• Energy & Natural Resources
• Gaming Regulation
• Indian Law
• Land & Water Rights
• Lobbying

• Boston College Law School (J.D., 1971)
• Georgetown University (B.A. in English, 1968)

• Connecticut, 1972
• District of Columbia, 1979
• Supreme Court and all Districts of Connecticut
• U.S. District Court for Connecticut and the District of Columbia
• United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
• United States Supreme Court

• Past President and current Board Member, Shepherd Park Citizens Association
• Little League Baseball, Coach

• 1989 - Present Hall Estill
• 1976 - 1989 U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Division of Indian Affairs (Assistant Solicitor–Water and Power 1982-1989)
• 1974 - 1976 Travel in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia
• 1972 - 1974 Native American Rights Fund, Boulder Colorado. Attorney and legal counsel to the National Indian Law Library
• 1971 - 1972 Waterbury (Connecticut) Legal Aid and Reference Service

• D.C. Bar Association