Legal Services
Transactional, regulatory, and advisory counsel for complex matters across the American West.
Silex Law is not a litigation firm; we do not go to court. We negotiate the agreements, build the frameworks, draft the codes and devise the strategies that keep our clients protected, positioned, and moving forward. Every service we offer is transactional, regulatory, or advisory in nature, and every matter is handled directly by Zach Stevens.
Cataract Canyon, Utah (Flickr.com)
How We Work With You
Silex Law offers straightforward, transparent pricing designed to fit the nature of each engagement:
Every new client engagement begins with a free telephonic or virtual consultation. There is no obligation and no meter running; just a direct conversation about your situation and how Silex Law can help and advance your interests.
Free Initial Consultation
Contract drafting and negotiation, legislative and regulatory drafting, advisory work, and deal negotiations are billed hourly. You will always know the rate before work begins.
Hourly Billing
State administrative filings (e.g., filings with a state water resources department) are charged at a flat fee. No surprises.
Flat Fee
“In the West, water flows up hill toward money.”
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Water in the American West is not just a resource — it is a legal system unto itself, governed by a web of interstate compacts, federal law, state statutes, tribal rights, and decades of court decisions collectively known as the Law of the River. Understanding it requires more than legal training. It requires fluency in the policy landscape, the political dynamics, and the relationships that shape how decisions actually get made.
The firm’s practice is built on direct immersion in that system, including direct advisory and representational work alongside licensed counsel in Arizona’s Drought Contingency Plan negotiations, involvements in the drafting of the Colorado River Indian Tribes Water Resiliency Act of 2022, and representation of tribal water interests at the federal level. That work has produced working relationships with water policy officials in Arizona, California, the Department of Interior, and involvement in high-level water discussions with some of the basin’s most significant water right holders.
Services Include:
Water rights analysis and strategy • Water leasing and transfer agreements • State water rights filings • Regulatory and legislative drafting related to water governance • Advisory counsel on Colorado River law and policy • Representation before water administrative bodies.
Geographic Focus:Silex Law works with water rights clients across all 17 western states serviced by the Bureau of Reclamation, with particular depth in Arizona, Utah, and the broader Colorado River Basin.
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Tribal governments operate within a legal framework that is unlike any other in the United States—shaped by federal Indian law, tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, and the complex interplay between tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions. Effective counsel for tribal clients requires not just knowledge of the law, but a genuine understanding of tribal political dynamics, governance structures, and particular pressures that tribal leaders navigate.
That representation has included work directly inside tribal government—embedded within a tribal General Counsel’s office—as well as outside water counsel for a major Colorado River Basin tribal nation drafting tribal codes, developing government-wide policies, participating in federal settlement negotiations, and representing tribal interests alongside officials from the Department of Interior.
Services Include:
Tribal code drafting and revision (water codes, gaming codes, police procedures, administrative policies) • Government policy development • Water rights advisory and negotiation • Federal agency coordination and representation • Tribal enterprise transactional support • Legislative drafting and advocacy support
Geographic Focus:
Tribal government clients across the western United States, with particular depth in Arizona and the Colorado River Basin, the Pacific Northwest tribes navigating treaty-reserved water rights, federal trust responsibilities, and tribal governance matters under Washington state jurisdiction.
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Indian gaming is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act established the foundational framework — defining the classes of gaming, allocating regulatory authority between tribes, states, and the federal government, and creating the National Indian Gaming Commission to oversee compliance. But IGRA is only the beginning. Tribal-state gaming compacts layer additional requirements and negotiated terms on top of the federal framework, and the interplay between compact obligations, NIGC regulations, and tribal sovereignty creates a regulatory environment that demands genuine fluency across all three levels simultaneously. For tribal governments, navigating that environment correctly is not just a compliance matter — it is a sovereignty matter. Gaming revenue funds essential government services, and the integrity of the regulatory framework is what protects the enterprise.
Silex Law has direct experience on both sides of the gaming compact table. That work includes the renegotiation of Arizona's Tribal-State Gaming Compact, where a mechanism was developed that secured $5 million for each non-gaming tribe from the larger gaming tribes as a condition of Compact support. It also includes drafting a revised Tribal Gaming Code for a major Colorado River tribal nation, navigating the regulatory requirements of both the Tribe and the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Services Include:
Tribal gaming code drafting and revision • Gaming compact review and negotiation support • NIGC regulatory compliance advisory • Gaming enterprise governance and policy development • Non-gaming tribe compact participation strategy
The areas where Silex Law’s experience runs deepest: years of high-stakes work at the state, federal, and tribal government level.
Core Expertise
The Central Arizona Project (asce.org)
Silex Law’s transactional and regulatory capabilities applied across a broader range of clients and contexts—from tribal governments and businesses to individuals navigating complex regulatory environments.
Transactional & Regulatory
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Most attorneys interpret laws. Far fewer can write them. Legislative drafting, regulatory code development, and institutional policy work require a distinct set of skills — precision in language, the ability to anticipate unintended consequences, and a working understanding of how legal text functions across the full range of circumstances it will eventually govern. It is demanding work, and the difference between a well-drafted code and a poorly drafted one is measurable in the disputes, ambiguities, and administrative failures that follow.
That work has included legislation, codes, ordinances, regulations, and institutional policies across a range of legal fields — water law, tribal governance, Indian gaming, criminal justice, unmanned aircraft systems, and federal procurement — for clients ranging from sovereign tribal governments to Fortune 500 defense contractors. That breadth is not incidental. The drafting skills that produce a durable Tribal Water Code are the same skills that produce a sound government-wide UAS policy or a defensible administrative regulation. The subject matter changes. The standard doesn't.
Services Include:
Legislative and ordinance drafting • Regulatory code development and revision • Government-wide policy frameworks • Administrative rule drafting • Institutional procedure and compliance documentation • Code modernization and gap analysis • Legislative strategy and review
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A well-drafted contract is not just a legal document — it is a strategy. It anticipates disputes before they arise, allocates risk deliberately, and protects your position when the other party pushes back. Silex Law drafts and negotiates contracts that are built to hold up, written clearly, and designed around what you actually need to accomplish.
That experience spans government contracts negotiated on behalf of a major defense contractor, commercial acquisition agreements for tribal enterprises, non-disclosure agreements, and purchase and sale agreements for multi-million dollar transactions.
Services Include:
Commercial contract drafting and review • Government and DoD contract negotiation • Purchase and sale agreements • Non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements • Memoranda of understanding • Service and consulting agreements • Contract negotiation strategy and representation
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Navigating administrative agencies — whether federal, state, or tribal — requires understanding both the formal legal requirements and the practical realities of how those agencies operate. Silex Law advises clients on administrative processes, assists with agency filings and submissions, and helps clients understand their rights and obligations within administrative frameworks.
Environmental law in the American West is inseparable from water law — the two systems are deeply intertwined through federal statutes, regulatory schemes, and the practical reality that water policy decisions carry significant environmental consequences. The National Environmental Policy Act sits at the center of that intersection: federal agency action affecting water resources, tribal lands, and natural resource management routinely triggers NEPA review, and understanding how to engage effectively in that process is part of effective western water and tribal practice. Silex Law provides advisory counsel on environmental law matters as they intersect with water rights, tribal land use, and natural resource management.
Services Include:
Administrative filing preparation and strategy • Agency coordination and representation • Administrative appeal advisory • Federal agency engagement (Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs) • State agency filings (e.g., Utah Division of Water Resources; Arizona Department of Water Resources) • NEPA process guidance and comment strategy • Environmental regulatory advisory • Natural resource and water-environment intersection issues • Tribal environmental governance support • Environmental due diligence for transactions
The Great Salt Lake, Utah (pexels.com)
Who We Work With
Tribal Governments
Silex Law's deepest roots are in tribal government representation. We understand the unique legal framework governing tribal sovereignty, the political dynamics within and around tribal governance, and the particular challenges tribal leaders face when protecting their communities' most critical resources. We work with tribal governments across the western United States on water rights, gaming, regulatory development, and transactional matters.
Businesses & Institutions
From government contractors to enterprises navigating complex regulatory environments, Silex Law provides transactional and advisory counsel to businesses that need more than a generalist firm can offer. We are particularly well-suited to clients whose work intersects with federal agencies, natural resources, or the regulatory frameworks governing the American West.
Individuals
Water rights affect individual landowners, ranchers, and property owners across the West in ways that are often poorly understood until a problem arises. Silex Law works with individuals who need to understand, protect, or transfer their water rights.
State & Local Government
State agencies, water districts, and local governments across the American West operate at the intersection of water law, natural resource policy, and complex regulatory frameworks. Silex Law provides transactional and advisory counsel to government clients navigating interstate compacts, federal agency relationships, and the legal challenges that come with managing and protecting the West's most critical resource.