Native American Heritage Month Spotlight on NIC Commissioner Kostan Lathouris
Kostan R. Lathouris, an enrolled member of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, received his Juris Doctor from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (“UNLV”) in 2015 and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, as a University Honors Scholar, from UNLV in 2009. He is a member of both the State Bar of Nevada and the State Bar of California, and is admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the District of Nevada, the Central District of California, and the Eastern District of California; the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; and in the courts for the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, and the Colorado Indian River Tribe.
Kostan practices federal Indian law and tribal law, including rendering legal opinions, drafting and updating tribal laws, representing tribal interests in tribal-state gaming compact negotiations, and asserting and defending tribal sovereignty in tribal and federal court litigation for various tribes. His volunteer work includes representing abused and neglected children, grandparents seeking visitation with their descendants, and serving on his tribe’s Indian Child Welfare Act Committee and the Stewart Indian School Preservation Alliance.
During law school, Kostan received the Barbara Buckley Community Service Award, the CALI Excellence for the Future Award for Environmental Law, the State Bar of Nevada Diversity Scholarship, the Public Interest Law Association Full Grant, and the Professional Development Fellowship. He chaired his school’s Native American Law Student Association (“NALSA”) and was awarded second place “Best Spoken Advocate” during the 2015 National NALSA Moot Court Competition. He also spent a summer interning with the Department of the Interior, Officer of the Solicitor, Division of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C