Emily Harwell in Trial Magazine: Walking Between Two Worlds

In the September 2026 issue of the American Association for Justice’s Trial magazine, Lieff Cabraser attorney Emily Harwell shares her experience as a Muscogee Creek woman navigating the legal profession and reflects on identity, Indigenous representation, and the importance of cultural understanding in the law. Her article, “Walking Between Two Worlds,” appears as part of Trial’s “Hear Our Voices” series featuring the experiences of minority trial lawyers.

Emily, who grew up in rural Oklahoma on the Sac and Fox Reservation, writes about how her Indigenous identity has shaped her path from college through her legal career. At Dartmouth, where Native American students made up approximately 1% of the undergraduate population, she found a strong Native community and rose to leadership positions within it. That sense of community and connection was a source of strength, even as she encountered judgment and assumptions about her identity, including questions about whether she was “really Native” and instances where others sought to use her identity transactionally—as an “in” with potential new clients.

That tension, between a strong connection to her Indigenous identity and the challenges that can accompany it, runs throughout “Walking Between Two Worlds,” including in her reflections on the broader consequences of Indigenous underrepresentation. Emily notes that Native people rarely see themselves represented in the U.S. justice system, even as they disproportionately feel its effects.

After law school, she sought a place in the legal profession where her commitment to tribal issues could remain central to her work. At Lieff Cabraser, she now has a particular focus on and interest in representing tribes and tribal governments as plaintiffs.

“Through the firm’s Native American practice, my identity is now a strength—one I use to lift up our tribal clients’ needs,” she noted.

Read the full piece on the AAJ’s Trial magazine website (subscription required).