About US
Who We Are
About Cultural Heritage Partners
Cultural Heritage Partners is a law firm focused on advancing the principle of cultural heritage as a human right. We represent Tribal Nations, local governments, community organizations, and advocates who steward irreplaceable sacred sites, historic properties, traditional knowledge, and cultural landscapes.
Our firm’s victories have strengthened international, federal, and state preservation laws; secured the protection of important sites, objects, and traditions; affirmed the sovereignty of Tribes and First Nations; and helped communities whose culture has been systematically devalued be heard in the courts, legislatures, and before international tribunals.
We empower clients to protect, recover, and invigorate their unique histories and cultural identities through powerful legal advocacy, because doing so is a matter of justice.
When the irreplaceable is damaged or destroyed, we pursue accountability and ensure those responsible pay for their actions.
Together, we advance justice, self-determination, and lasting protection for communities to affirm their dignity, strengthen their identity, and help build a more just and equitable future
- Our Purpose
To strengthen communities and society by protecting, recovering, and revitalizing cultural heritage—and by seeking accountability when it is harmed.
What We Do
We provide comprehensive legal guidance across multiple practice areas, each designed to protect and advance cultural heritage rights.
- Heritage Preservation Practice
“Cultural Heritage is a Human Right”
Representing Tribal Nations, local governments, nonprofit organizations, descendant communities, and grassroots coalitions to protect historic, sacred, and culturally significant places threatened by federal or federally permitted development.
- Tribal Nations Practice
“Tribal sovereignty is only as strong as the systems built to protect it. We build those systems.”
Advising Tribal governments, attorneys, THPOs, and land departments on sovereignty, governance, enforcement, and the protection of Tribal lands and cultural heritage.
Our Area of Practice
Cultural heritage law is the body of domestic and international law that protects, manages, and governs cultural heritage, including sacred sites, historic places, archaeological resources, traditional knowledge, cultural landscapes, and works of art. It establishes legal frameworks to safeguard heritage, ensure responsible stewardship, support recovery and restitution, and promote accountability when cultural heritage is threatened, damaged, or unlawfully taken.
The field operates at the intersection of civil rights, environmental law, property law, international law, and human rights. It addresses how development, government action, conflict, and commerce affect cultural heritage, and imposes legal obligations to consult communities, avoid or mitigate harm, recover stolen heritage, and provide remedies when loss or damage occurs.
At its core, cultural heritage law recognizes that cultural heritage is essential to identity, dignity, and self-determination, and that its protection serves the public interest and fundamental principles of justice.
Our Core Belief
We believe that the surest path to building a better future is to draw wisdom from the past of all cultures. Human societies record their experiences in art, artifacts, architecture, landscapes, traditions, and even their own remains. These lessons can guide us only if they endure.
For this reason, cultural heritage must be respected, protected, and honestly examined. Preserving heritage is not about freezing the past in time—it is about understanding it, learning from it, and carrying its meaning forward.
Our First 15 Years
For our first 15 years, we tested a simple but unproven idea: that a law firm could focus exclusively on the still-niche field of cultural heritage law, while addressing the full range of legal challenges within it. It worked.
We have resolved hundreds of complex matters for clients around the world—protecting ancient burial grounds, recovering stolen art, removing racist monuments, closing black markets for antiquities, shaping new legislation, securing descendant voices at sites of conscience, preserving national landmarks, and defending heritage-based economies.
A representative selection of matters we can discuss publicly includes:
- Saving Rassawek, the ancient capital of the Monacan Indian Nation, from planned destruction for a water-supply project.
- African American Burial Bill
- The Virginia Tribal Consultation bill
- Controversial Monuments
Our Next 15 Years
- Where cultural resources—archaeological sites, historic buildings, cultural landscapes, or viewsheds—are threatened by development projects, including data centers, energy facilities, transportation infrastructure, extractive industries, and large-scale housing, and where federal agencies have legal obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act; and
- Where Tribal Nations seek to develop and enforce their own legal frameworks to protect environmental and cultural resources.
When these cases are resolved successfully, the impact extends beyond a single site or project—shaping future behavior by developers, agencies, and institutions alike.
Our Team
Along the way, we have been fortunate to build a remarkable team of creative, committed colleagues who share our mission and our belief that protecting cultural heritage is not only about the past—it is about justice, identity, and the future.