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Troy A. Eid co-chairs the firm’s American Indian Law Practice Group and represents companies in criminal and civil investigations and enforcement actions. Troy is highly sought nationally as a mediator to resolve complex disputes between Indian tribes and energy companies, and between tribes and state governments.

Troy served as Colorado’s 40th United States Attorney appointed by President George W. Bush. During the Obama Administration, Troy was appointed to chair the Indian Law and Order Commission, the national advisory board to the President and Congress for strengthening public safety for all 573 federally recognized tribes in the United States. Before joining GT, Troy served on the cabinet of former Colorado Governor Bill Owens as Chief Legal Counsel to the Governor and later as the Executive Director of the Department of Personnel & Administration, where he directed Colorado’s 72,000-member civil service system and provided mission-critical business, financial, technology, real estate, and operational services to the state’s $8 billion government.

Troy served as the elected President of the Navajo Nation Bar Association. He has been honored for excellence by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, and more than two dozen federal, state and tribal departments and agencies across the country.

Meet Troy Eid

Capabilities

Experience

  • Handles complex criminal and civil environmental enforcement actions – including federal and state grand jury proceedings and investigations – under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and other federal statutes, along with parallel state and/or Native American tribal enforcement activities, with clients ranging from individuals and small companies to the world’s largest publicly traded corporation.
  • Serves as a Special Prosecutor, appointed by Native American Tribal governments, to investigate alleged misappropriation of tribal funds and other wrongdoing to enforce tribal law and ethics codes, obtain restitution and – in coordination with federal law enforcement – refer matters to the United States Attorney’s Office for possible prosecution.
  • Litigates claims under the National Historic Preservation Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act, and other statutes in federal district and circuit courts of appeals.
  • Advises project proponents on memoranda of understanding and programmatic agreements with federal land management agencies, including the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Indian Affairs, in support of the government-to-government consultation process with Native tribes and nations, and to achieve project proponents’ effective compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and other laws.
  • Negotiates cultural resource mitigation agreements with federally recognized Indian tribes to mitigate adverse impacts to various Native American and Alaska Native traditional cultural properties and sacred sites as provided in the National Historic Preservation Act and accompanying federal regulations.
  • Directs and manages energy, transportation and other right-of-way negotiations on federal, state, private and Native American trust and allotted lands.
  • Develops and implements Native American and Alaska Native tribal monitoring programs, and also cultural resource compliance measures, in support of project proponents’ construction and permitting activities on federal public lands.
  • Co-Chairs Greenberg Traurig’s American Indian Law Practice Group, a network of professionals who work on matters involving tribes and tribal entities from the East Coast to Alaska.
  • Represented the private developer of the Grand Canyon Skywalk in its federal and tribal court litigation challenging the purported condemnation, by eminent domain, by a federally recognized Indian tribe of the developer’s interest in a glass viewing platform built on Native American trust land – 4,300 feet above the floor of the Grand Canyon – successfully exhausting tribal court remedies and leading to a confidential settlement.
  • Counsels tribally owned enterprises and corporations in various commercial, banking, financial services, real estate, and other transactional matters.
  • Litigates numerous cases in federal, state and tribal court on behalf of various Native American tribes and nation, as well as non-Indian companies and individuals dealing with tribes and tribal entities.
  • Advises companies and individuals in the divestiture and acquisition of fee properties within the exterior boundaries of Indian reservations across the country, the conversion of fee lands into trust, and the leasing and development of tribal trust and allotted lands by tribes and non-Indian developers.
  • Negotiates a wide range of agreements – on behalf of publicly traded corporations, and private companies and individuals – with tribal governments in matters involving asbestos and uranium remediation, hazardous waste transport and disposal, agricultural and farming operations on tribal trust lands and tribally owned fee lands, and real estate and commercial development.
  • Handles various administrative and regulatory compliance activities involving Native American tribal governments, enterprises and companies, such as the Navajo Preference of Employment Act and other tribal employment rights/preference laws; tribal OSHA and workplace safety and enforcement activities; collective-bargaining and labor union organizing in tribal casinos and other properties; taxation matters; liquor and tobacco laws and regulations; banking and finance; and the development of traditional and renewable energy and mineral resources.
  • Defends FINRA mediation and arbitration actions against non-Indian banks and financial institutions by Native American tribal governments alleging securities and other violations.
  • Serves as an elected member of the Navajo Judicial Conduct Commission, the independent tribal governmental body overseeing ethics and performance of the Nation’s judges and justices, and is past recipient of the Navajo Nation Bar Association’s Member of the Year Award.
  • Represents major national and regional hospital systems in their full or partial conversion from non-profit to for-profit status, pursuant to state law and subject to state approval.
  • Served as a Special Assistant Attorney General to the State of Colorado in the privatization, pursuant to federal and state law, of Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) facilities for dual eligibility Medicare-Medicaid patients.
  • Named Colorado Lawyer of the Year by Law Week Colorado for representing The Colorado Health Foundation – the third largest private health care foundation in the United States – in the sale of its $1.5 billion equity interest to the nation’s largest for-profit hospital system, advising the Foundation throughout the state regulatory approval process and successfully defending the adequacy of that process in Denver District Court and the Colorado Court of Appeals.
  • Defended one of the world’s largest medical device and pharmaceutical companies in mass-tort products liability and wrongful death actions in multiple Native American tribal courts.
  • Represents Indian tribes in civil rights investigations and enforcement actions involving alleged misconduct by local law enforcement off-reservation, as well as “hospital-dumping” and the refusal to treat Native Americans in border town hospitals.
  • Represents multi-national companies, state governments, and Indian tribes and nations to mediate high-profile disputes. This includes controversies involving energy pipelines and other sensitive infrastructure projects.
  • Navajo Engineering Construction Authority v. U.S. Composite Pipe, LLC d/b/a Thompson Pipe Group-Flowtite (mediated confidential settlement resolving litigation in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and In Navajo Nation District Court, Shiprock District regarding the federally funded Navajo-Gallup Water Pipeline System Project).
  • Recent engagements in which Troy served as the mediator, selected by mutual agreement of the parties, include Enbridge (USA) – Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe (interstate crude oil pipeline); DaVilla and Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma – Enable Midstream Partners, LP (intrastate natural gas pipeline); and Barboan v. Public Service Company of New Mexico (transmission line right-of-way renewal on allotted lands with Navajo Nation fractional ownership).
  • United States Attorney, District of Colorado, August 2006-January 2009
  • Cabinet Member, Colorado Governor Bill Owens, 1999-2003
  • Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel, InfoTEST International, Inc., 1994-1998
  • Associate, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, Denver, Colorado, 1992-1994

Recognition & Leadership

  • Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Native American Law; Environmental Law; Natural Resources Law; Criminal Defense: White-Collar, 2013-2025
    • Named, "Lawyer of the Year," Native American Law, Denver, 2020, 2022, and 2024
  • Team Member, a Law360 "Environmental Practice Group of the Year," 2022
  • Listed, Chambers USA Guide, 2010-2024
  • Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, Colorado Super Lawyers, 2006-2009, 2011-2024
  • Recognized, The Legal 500 United States
    • Industry Focus > Native American Law
      • "Leading Lawyer," 2022-2023
      • "Recommended Lawyer," 2022
    • Dispute Resolution - Appellate: Courts of Appeal, 2021
    • Dispute Resolution - Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action- Defense: Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, 2021
    • Environment - Litigation, 2017-2020
  • Listed, 5280 The Denver Magazine, “Top Lawyers, Native American Law,” 2015-2016, 2020
  • Listed, Denver Business Journal, "Who's Who in Energy," 2014-2018
  • Team Member, Indian Country Today, "2016 Hot List: Indian Law Practitioners," 2016
  • Recognized for distinguished public service by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and more than two dozen federal, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies and professional organizations.
  • Team Member, U.S. News - Best Lawyers®, Best Law Firms Edition, "Law Firm of the Year," Environmental Law, 2016
  • Selected, Law Week Colorado, "Barrister’s Best – Environmental Law," 2015
  • Team Member, a U.S. News - Best Lawyers® "Government Relations Law Firm of the Year," 2014
  • Selected, Navajo Nation Bar Association, “Member of the Year”
  • Selected, Law Week Colorado, "Colorado Lawyer of the Year"
  • Rated, AV Preeminent® 5.0 out of 5.0

°AV®, AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell DistinguishedSM and Martindale-Hubbell NotableSM are certification marks used under license in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell® certification procedures, standards and policies.

  • Member, Law360 Editorial Advisory Board, Native American, 2024.
  • President Emeritus, Navajo Nation Bar Association.
  • Adjunct Professor of Native American Tribes and Federal Law, University of Denver – Sturm College of Law.
  • Appointed by the U.S. Senate and elected Chairman of the National Indian Law and Order Commission, advising the President and Congress on public safety and criminal justice improvements for all 574 federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native Tribes and Nations.
  • Member, American Bar Association.
  • Member, Colorado Bar Association.
  • Member, Federal Bar Association.
  • Member, American Law Institute; Board of Advisors, Restatement of the Law Third: The Law of American Indians.
  • Life Member, National Association of Former United States Attorneys.
  • Board of Directors and General Counsel of NavajoYES, a Navajo Nation non-profit organization dedicated to physical fitness and sponsor of ‎ultra-marathon running and mountain bike races on the country’s largest Native American Tribal homeland.
  • Advisory Board Member, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Foundation.
  • Advisory Board Member, Mesa Verde National Park Foundation.
  • Masters Division Member, USA Track & Field.

Credentials

Education
  • J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 1991
  • A.B., Stanford University, 1986
Clerkships
  • Judge Edith H. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1991-1992
Admissions
  • Colorado
  • Navajo Nation
  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
  • Hualapai Indian Tribe
  • Pueblo of Pojoaque Tribal Court