Sovereignty and Justice Law, PLLC
Sovereignty and Justice Law fights for — and with — you to seek justice, foster healing, and create change that ripples into the seventh generation. From battling the epidemics of sexual assault of Native Americans and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons to advocating for Tribal Nations in their highest‑stakes litigation, Sovereignty and Justice Law champions the cause. The firm works relentlessly in a trauma‑informed, culturally-rooted way to create a world where Native people are violated and unvindicated no more.
FOUNDER
Shannon ᏌᎵ (Sa-li, her Cherokee name meaning Persimmon Tree) Prince is founder and attorney-at-law at Sovereignty and Justice Law, PLLC. She holds a JD from Yale Law School, where she studied the Tsa-la-gi (Cherokee) language, and a PhD in African and African American Studies and AM in English from Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She earned her AB from Dartmouth College magna cum laude with highest honors. As a Dartmouth postgraduate Fellow, she had the privilege of learning about justice and law from Indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, and Vanuatu.
Shannon's work includes playing a key role in the Cherokee Nation’s litigation against the country’s largest wholesale drug distributors and major retail pharmacies, resulting in settlements totaling over $130 million, the largest in the Nation’s history; representing the Oneida Indian Nation in federal litigation against the New York State Department of Health; advocating for the land and burial rights of the Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiians); and doing restorative justice work with Zulu and other Indigenous prisoners in South Africa.
Shannon has also guided major corporations and high-profile clients through high-stakes commercial disputes, provided pro bono counsel to a criminal defendant in federal court, and helped litigate a landmark lawsuit on the rights of public school students to receive a quality education. Beyond the courtroom, she created a mentorship program for Native American law school applicants, speaks nationally on Tribal gaming and human trafficking, and is a recurring television legal commentator on PBS NewsHour and Court TV. She is the author of Tactics for Racial Justice: Building an Antiracist Organization and Community as well as an ethnography conducted among the Darhad and Tuvan Indigenous peoples of Mongolia, communities into which she has been adopted, and a co-author of Principles of Procedurally Just Policing. She regularly speaks and writes on Indigenous and civil rights issues and environmental justice.
A fancy shawl dancer and beadworker, Shannon serves refugees and immigrants as a board member of My Connect Community; helps preserve a historic neighborhood founded by formerly enslaved people through the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy; and volunteers in wildlife rehabilitation at the Wildlife Center of Texas. She lives in Houston on the traditional land of the Karankawa, Atakapa, and Akokisa peoples and cherishes being an aunt to two nephews.
CONTACT
If you or a loved one has been affected by sexual assault or the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis, or if your Tribal Nation needs complex civil litigation advocacy, Shannon will meet with you for a free case evaluation. You will be treated as a relative with the utmost respect and care.
Shannon is licensed to practice law in the states of Texas and New York and engages local counsel when necessary to practice nationally. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. This website may be considered attorney advertising and is published by Shannon Prince, who is responsible for its content. The primary practice location of Sovereignty and Justice Law, PLLC is Houston, Texas.