Cheryl Fairbanks

Cheryl Fairbanks is a partner in the firm of Cuddy & McCarthy. She focuses her practice in the areas of Indian Law, State-Tribal Relations, Indian Gaming, Tribal Courts, Mediation, Family, School and Educational Law.

She obtained her B.A. from Fort Lewis College in 1969 and her J.D. in 1987 from the University of New Mexico School of Law.

Prior to her legal law career, she served as a teacher for the Albuquerque Public Schools and Zia Day School, and was an administrator for Acomita Day School and the Santa Fe Indian School.

Fairbanks worked with the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs as senior policy analyst in the area of state-tribal relations. She was instrumental in establishing the Indian Child Welfare Desk, New Mexico Office of Indian Tourism, the UNM School of Law's Southwest Indian Law Clinic and the passage of the New Mexico Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

Her professional associations include the State Bar of New Mexico (member of the Indian Law Section; co-director, CLE), Federal Bar Association, New Mexico Indian Bar Association (past president), the National American Indian Court Judges Association and the New Mexico Center for Dispute Resolution.

She has been a family court judge at Santa Clara Pueblo from 1992-1994, chief justice of the Yavapai Apache from 1995-2005 and an associate justice of the Saginaw Band of Chippewa Indians. She currently serves as a justice for the Inter Tribal Court of Appeals for Nevada and is adjunct faculty for the National Judicial College.

Fairbanks is Tlingit-Tsimpshian and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Prior to joining the Cuddy firm, she was a partner with the law firm of Roth, VanAmberg, Rogers, Ortiz, Fairbanks & Yepa, where she specialized in Indian law.