Henkels Law LLC

Based in Portland and Newport, Oregon, Henkels Law LLC advises and represents individuals & entities in legal issues involving juvenile dependency and parental rights, business and public contracting, tribal and Indian law issues, and energy, water, and other utility matters. Henkels Law LLC is an Oregon Benefit Company.

Diane Henkels

Based in Newport and Portland, Oregon, Diane Henkels has received a joint degree from Vermont Law School including a JD in 1997 and a Masters of Environmental Law and Policy in 1998. 

Fluent in French thanks in part to her Whitman College French Literature degree, Diane served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Central African Republic for two years, learned Sango, the CAR national language, and supported Central African medical colleagues implementing the country’s public health policies in maternal and child health and AIDS education. The experience informed Diane that law was a good fit for her career and her joint degree at VLS included field work in Madagascar supervised by a Malagasy attorney and PhD and a VLS Malagasy alum with the Development and Environmental Law Center-Madagascar. Diane researched environmental law, and modern and customary law, related to establishing an eastern cloud forest national park, working in French and Malagasy. While in law school, Diane also completed initial research and writing leading to publication on corporate-community contracts under the theme of sustainability. See Diane’s publications listed on the firm’s website. 

Diane’s began post-graduate legal work in the U.S. as an Environmental Law Clerk for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians-CTSI, and then became Project Attorney responsible for a federal grant funded CTSI Tribal Court development project. Since then, Henkels has represented individual and entity clients, tribal and non-tribal, in tribal courts in juvenile, criminal, employment, and commercial matters at trial and appellate levels. She has served as counsel in 2007 for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and as a Senior Policy Analyst with the Oregon Department of Energy in 2008 

Private practice with Henkels Law LLC has included significant representation of small businesses on the central Oregon coast and elsewhere. Since 2014, Henkels has been counsel for a nonprofit representing the small nonresidential customers of utilities, particularly in public utility commission electricity and natural gas related proceedings.

Henkels chaired the Oregon State Bar Indian Law Section, Sustainable Future Section, and Environmental and Natural Resources Section, received the Oregon State Bar (“OSB”) President’s Sustainability Award in 2012, serves on the Federal District Court of Oregon Rules Advisory Committee. She has taught or presented various law topics in several universities in Oregon and law schools, and is on the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association Juvenile Law Education Committee.

Henkels is rear commodore of the Yaquina Bay Yacht Club, has sailed for decades, and is racing in one of the sailboats pictured on the firm’s homepage.

Juliette A. Jackson

Juliette A. Jackson J.D., LLM, is an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes, and grew up in Northern California. She received her JD from American University, Washington College of Law (AUWCL) in 2022, and her Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental & Energy Law focused on Indigenous Rights at The George Washington University Law School in 2024.

Juliette speaks Spanish and has recently begun Klamath/Modoc language lessons with the Klamath Tribes Language Department.  She completed her B.A in Political Science; Public Law and her Paralegal Studies Certificate from the University of California, San Diego. Before going to law school, she worked as a paralegal, policy researcher, and campaign organizer.  After working as a researcher studying the tobacco industry tactics of targeting Native American communities, she wanted to pursue a legal career helping her community.

In law school, she was an active student leader and served as President (chapter founder) of the Native American Law Students Association AUWCL Chapter, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief, and Director of Sustainability for the Student Bar Association. She was selected as an AU Changemaker for her continued efforts to make a difference in her community following graduation.

During law school she clerked at the: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Enforcement Training Institute Honors Program, Office of Enforcement & Assurance Compliance; U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Tribal Justice; Earthjustice – Tribal Partnerships Program; and the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Division of Indian Affairs, Environment and Lands branch. She also worked as a Student Attorney in the AUWCL International Human Rights Law Clinic.

After law school, Juliette was awarded a Justice Catalyst Legal Fellowship and did a year long post-doctoral research project with the Center for Biological Diversity focused on animal law, co-management, California Environmental Quality Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.  Thereafter, she has worked on a variety of Federal Indian Law and Tribal law matters at Patterson, Real Bird & Rasmussen, LLP, Native Law Group. She has experience working on matters related to artifacts and remains, cannabis/marijuana policy, co-management, community development financial institutions,  cultural resources, energy law, federal legislation, fee-to-trust, governmental affairs, housing, natural resources, tribal consultations, and water rights.

Juliette is passionate about the rights of nature and environmental justice.  While clerking with the U.S. EPA Honors Law Clerk Program, where she drafted the section on Traditional Ecological Knowledge ("TEK") in a proposed national policy on sustainability.  Her recent Master’s thesis was published as a law review article in the University of New Mexico Tribal Law Journal titled, Stop Killing the Klamath: Rights of Nature Protections with Tribal Law, the National Historic Preservation Act, and Collaborative Management Strategies for a Tribe on the Front Lines of Climate Change, and is a meaningful contribution to the field of tribal environmental justice.  This groundbreaking piece addresses the toxic conditions in Upper Klamath Lake, the largest fresh body of water west of the Rockies, its devastating impacts on their sacred fish, and the effective stewarding, such as the use of prescribed burning, the Tribe is taking to combat climate change. 

Her law review publication has already attracted substantial attention, including a feature on the influential Indian Law blog Turtle Talk and an alumna spotlight by The George Washington University Law School.  She has presented her research in classrooms, conferences, and other speaking engagements: University of Cuenca – Ecuador’s Rights of Nature Conference, Google’s Native American Heritage Month Event, the 2025 Bioneers Conference, GW's Climate Health Institute, Mashpee Wampanoags Rights of Nature Symposium hosted by their tribal youth, Native Environmental Ambassadors.  Her insights will soon reach other audiences at the Boston Museum of Science and through the Young & Indigenous podcast.

Juliette has served on the California Indian Law Association, Pathways to Law Committee since 2022, and is part of the Protecting Mother Earth Collective organized by Earth Law Center and the Indigenous Environmental Network. She enjoys traveling and trying new cuisines, and has visited over 30 states in the U.S and 20 countries.