Summer Blaze Aubrey
Staff Attorney
Summer Blaze Aubrey is a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a Descendant of the Blackfeet Nation. A staff attorney at the Water Protector Legal Collective, she holds a law degree and an LL.M degree from the University of Arizona College of Law, with certificates in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy. Summer is a recipient of the Robert A. Hershey IPLP Outstanding Tribal Advocate Award and the UofA Junius Hoffman “Beyond The JD” Award for her academic achievements and contributions to the law school.
Summer was the first legal intern at the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) and served as Senior Note Editor in the Arizona Journal of Law and Environmental Policy (AJELP). Summer served as Staff Attorney for Human Rights at IITC, where she worked on Treaty rights and co-authored IITC’s 2022 shadow report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s (CERD), representing the organization in Geneva, Switzerland. While at IITC, Summer also contributed to the WPLC shadow report to the CERD on private military and security actors and human rights abuses during #NoDAPL protests.
Summer ’s law article "Violence Against the Earth Begets Violence Against Women" (2019), was cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate Change April 2022 report. While pursuing her LL.M, Summer worked closely with former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Francisco Cali Tzay. Currently, her work at WPLC draws heavily from her expertise in international law in addition to selected environmental and civil litigation including WPLC’s Non-Party Motion to Intervene in the Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace SLAPP suit in North Dakota.
Summer is licensed in Arizona, admitted pro hac vice in North Dakota and admitted in the U.S. District Court of Colorado. She is active in the Federal Bar Association’s International Law Section and the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources where she is a 2024 Diversity Enhancement Program recipient.
