Thomas H. Shipps
tshipps@mbssllp.com

Mr. Shipps joined the firm after receiving his law degree from the University of Houston (J.D. 1979, President, Order of the Barons) and his undergraduate degree from Fort Lewis College (B.A. 1976, summa cum laude). He was the lead negotiator in the initial tribal gaming compact with the State of Colorado, and he was the principal draftsman of the Taxation Compact Between the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, La Plata County, and the State of Colorado of 1996.

Mr. Shipps has also been involved in numerous cases in federal, state, and tribal court related to tribal jurisdiction. He was also the lead counsel, from the trial court through final argument before the Supreme Court in the leading federal case involving ownership of coal bed methane gas on federal and tribal lands. Amoco Production Co. v. Southern Ute Indian Tribe, 526 U.S. 865 (1999).

He served as a member of the Royalty Management Advisory Committee and the Royalty Policy Committee under the Clinton and both Bush administrations, and he has participated as a lecturer in a variety of programs sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the American Bar Association, and the Federal Bar Association. Mr. Shipps also served for several years as a member of the board of the Indian Law Support Center in Boulder.