About Zackaree Kelin

Before becoming a founding partner in the Davis Kelin Law Firm, Zackeree S. Kelin started and ran the Kelin Law Firm, P.C., where his work focused on the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, civil rights, and complex litigation.  Zackeree is also a former managing attorney for DNA-Peoples Legal Services, Inc. (“DNA”), the oldest and largest poverty law program in Indian Country. His work at DNA focused on representing indigent clients, tribes and non-profits before tribal, state, and federal courts and various administrative and legislative bodies in the areas of poverty law, Indian law, sacred sites protection, and environmental law. While in law school at the University of Iowa, Zackeree clerked for the Native American Rights Fund and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. He is graduate of the Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College, a member of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, the American Association for Justice Leader’s Forum, and serves as a member of the National Council of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, on the Board of Directors for Native American Disability Law Center, and has done various projects for his tribe, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.   In recognition for his work, Zackeree received National Center for American Indian Economic Development’s “Native American 40 under 40,” an award given to emerging and existing Native American leaders, and was recently recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in the Southwest.  Zackeree has helped hundreds of clients and families challenge wrongdoing.

Trial Lawyer Zackeree was recently appointed as a Commissioner on the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission. The Commission’s work lead a landmark piece of legislation called the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, which allows for a private right of action for deprivations of rights secured under the New Mexico Constitution.

As a Commissioner on the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission, Zackeree reviewed and developed policy proposals for laws. Zackeree also played a part in reviewing the use of qualified immunity as a defense. He reviewed the need for additional insurance policies for public employees or public bodies.

Zackeree is highly knowledgeable on Civil Rights issues and why there was such a need for the new legislation that became the New Mexico Civil Rights act. This legislation seeks to protect the needs of the community and New Mexico as a whole.

Zackeree was also recently asked to serve as a Representative of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association on the New Mexico Supreme Court’s Equity and Justice Commission. The Commission is studying and will make recommendations concerning issues of equity and justice within the state’s judiciary system.

University of Iowa College of Law recently selected Trial Lawyer Zackeree Kelin as the law school’s representative on the University of Iowa Alumni Leadership Council. Members can serve up to two terms.

Zackeree is a member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife and their little girl.