Stevie Nichols joins the Branch Law Firm as an associate attorney, practicing in the fields of mass torts and pharmaceutical malpractice. Ms. Nichols is a member of the State Bar of New Mexico and graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in May of 2010, with a Certificate in Indian Law. While in law school, Ms. Nichols was Manuscript Editor for the New Mexico Law Review, served on the boards of the National and UNM Native American Law Students’ Associations, and worked as a law clerk for Luebben Johnson & Barnhouse LLP in Albuquerque.

Ms. Nichols brings to the firm her prior experience with multi-district and class action litigation as a paralegal for a plaintiffs’ complex litigation firm in San Francisco. There, she initiated the first case filed on behalf of iPod owners alleging that Apple made material misrepresentations and omissions in its advertising regarding the lifespan of the iPod’s battery. Ms. Nichols’s supervising attorneys, later appointed by the court as counsel for the class, negotiated a settlement of approximately $15 million.

Ms. Nichols graduated from Dartmouth College in 2002, majoring in Native American Studies, with a focus on language preservation and federal policy. She spent two terms at the University of Oklahoma and with the Choctaw Nation to learn the Choctaw language. After college, Ms. Nichols began pursuing a legal career within Native American communities, which ultimately brought her to New Mexico. Her work with tribes nationwide includes drafting tribal constitutions, codes and ordinances, helping tribes to comply with federal and state legislation, creating culturally appropriate materials and policies for the federal Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Health, drafting analyses of state legislation for the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs, and lobbying the United States Congress, the Department of the Interior, the California and Hawaii state legislatures, and the California Governor’s office on behalf of tribal interests.

Ms. Nichols also completed the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth’s Pre-MBA Bridge Program in 2003 and the American Indian Law Center, Inc.’s Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI) in 2006.

Ms. Nichols has lived in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Honolulu, New Hampshire, Texas and Australia. She was born and raised in southeastern Oklahoma and is a member of the Choctaw Nation. Ms. Nichols currently resides in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill, sits on the Board of Directors for the Albuquerque Little Theatre, sings with the “Curio Cowboys” western-swing band and owns a Jazzercise franchise.