Biography
Julia Guarino is a Visiting Assistant Professor teaching the newly established Tribal Practice Clinic, which is a collaboration between the Law School and Skagit Legal Aid. She is a 2013 graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law, where she earned a certificate in Federal Indian Law in addition to her J.D. Since her graduation, Guarino has worked in and for tribal communities.
Most recently, Guarino was an in-house tribal attorney for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, where she served on a small legal team to meet a broad range of legal needs for the Tribe’s government. Previously, she worked for the Navajo Nation, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, and the Western Environmental Law Center. Guarino also founded and served as the inaugural executive director of Four Corners Rising, an equity-centered nonprofit organization doing just transition work in tribal communities in the Four Corners region.
Guarino has previously taught law courses at the college and law school levels, including serving as interim director of the Getches-Green Natural Resources and Environmental Law Clinic at University of Colorado Law School.
Publications
- Water & Tribes Initiative, Policy Brief #4: The Status of Tribal Water Rights in the Colorado River Basin. Missoula, MT: Center for Natural Resources & Environmental Policy (2021).
- Guarino, J. “Protecting traditional water resources: Legal options for preserving tribal non-consumptive water use” Public Land & Resources Law Review 37:89 (2016).
- Guarino, J. “Tribal Food Sovereignty and the Law in the American Southwest” Journal of Food Law & Policy 11, no. 1 (2015): 83-111.
- Davidson, W. & J. Guarino. “The Hallett Decrees and Acequia Water Rights Administration on the Rio Culebra in Colorado” Colorado Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law Review 26, no. 2 (2015): 219-276.
- Nania, J. & J. Guarino. Restoring Sacred Waters: A Guide to Protecting Tribal Non-Consumptive Water Uses in the Colorado River Basin. Boulder, CO: Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (2014).
- Guarino, J. "Tribal Advocacy and the Art of Dam Removal: The Lower Elwha Klallam and the Elwha Dams"; American Indian Law Journal 2, no. 1 (2013): 114-145.
- Kenney, D., Nania, J., Calihan, L., Dittman, B., Judkins, S., Guarino, J., et al. Cross-Boundary Water Transfers in the Colorado River Basin: A Review of Efforts and Issues Associated with Marketing Water Across State Lines or Reservation Boundaries. Boulder, CO: Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (2013).
