Sixteen tribes with trust fund management lawsuits have hired Quinn Gillespie & Associates to lobby the Obama administration to settle their cases, Roll Call reports.

Jack Quinn and Manuel Ortiz were hired to "Pursue and promote settlement of Indian trust fund cases," according to a registration document. So far the firm has been paid less than $5,000 to represent the tribes before the Interior Department, according to a quarterly report.

The firm's clients include several South Dakota tribes, two Oklahoma tribes and two Utah tribes. All have cases pending before Judge James Robertson, who recently brokered a settlement to the Cobell trust fund case involving individual Indian trust funds.

The tribes are represented in court by Girardi & Keese, a law firm whose name appears on the lobbying registration documents filed by Quinn Gillespie & Associates.

The Obama administration wants to settle with tribes, Interior Solicitor Hilary Tompkins and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli said at the National Congress of American Indians winter session in Washington, D.C., last week.

Get the Story:
K Street Files: Tribes Fight Back [third item] (Roll Call 3/10)