Robert Harper is the nation’s leading expert practitioner in cross-cultural negotiation with tribes. He specializes in reducing legal risk through agreements and partnerships. His team works on the most challenging tribal consultation issues in the United States.
Robert has over twenty-five years of government and tribal affairs experience on land, natural resources, right-of-way, energy, environmental, and infrastructure issues. He has a broad depth of experience advising, negotiating, and mediating agreements with state and federal agencies, project proponents, and tribal governments. He worked with executives, major project managers, tribal leadership, and elected or appointed leadership at the state and federal level. His experience includes negotiations with multiple Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Interior, DOI Solicitors, FERC, BOR, BIA, BLM, USFWS, NPS, USDA, FHWA, FAA, DOC, USFS, as well as other federal and state land, natural resource, utility, and transportation agencies. He has advised leading proponent, right-of-way, power transmission, and telecommunications entities, including AASHTO and RAC, ASCE, Western Power Pool, Southwest Power Pool, IRWA, AAPL, and WESTA/WESTEC.
Robert taught undergraduate and graduate courses at multiple colleges and universities, and was faculty for the Moolin Foundation’s invitational certificate program for Large-Scale Infrastructure Project Managers. He has authored numerous peer reviewed articles on alternative dispute resolution, negotiation, infrastructure development, TEK integration, and project risk management.
Robert has a JD from the University of Montana School of Law; MAs in Communication Studies and Geography from the University of Montana, and a BA in Political Science from Hampden-Sydney College. He has advanced certifications in negotiation and mediation from Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and the Center for Collaborative Solutions. He has graduate certificates in Natural Resources Conflict Resolution from the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, and Federal Indian Law from the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic. He is a past recipient of the John Marshall legal writing award for his work on property rights and public access.
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