Hilary Tompkins has extensive experience in natural resources and environmental law at the highest levels of government. She is currently a partner with Hogan Lovells in Washington D.C., with a practice in environmental, energy, and Native American law. She recently served in the presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed position of Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior (2009 – 2017). Ms. Tompkins is the first Native American member of Dartmouth's Board of Trustees.
As Solicitor, Ms. Tompkins led over 300 attorneys in the diverse areas of onshore and offshore energy development (conventional and renewable), the administration of federal water projects, conservation and wildlife legal requirements, and public land law. She oversaw litigation on behalf of Interior, including cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and issued a number of landmark legal opinions. Her accomplishments include development of legal reforms following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the successful defense of the first renewables on public lands, and legal clearance for the establishment of multiple national monuments. An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and a leader in federal Indian law, she led the historic settlement of the Cobell tribal trust litigation--a class action lawsuit filed against the United States by hundreds of thousands of individual Native Americans for breach of trust.
Ms. Tompkins also served as chief legal counsel to former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and began her legal career in the prestigious Honors Program as a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she handled civil prosecutions in environmental cases across the nation.
Ms. Tompkins majored in government at Dartmouth, and she holds a JD from Stanford Law School ('96). As a Dartmouth volunteer, she has served on the Dartmouth Alumni Council, an admissions interviewer, and has mentored countless Dartmouth alumni throughout her career.