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Ryan Seelau, Esq.

Rules Committee Chair

Ryan Seelau, Esq.
Ryan is a human rights attorney specializing in indigenous rights. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2005 and has advanced law degrees (LLM and SJD) from the University of Arizona in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy. For the past five years he has worked for the Native Nations Institute, a non-profit organization affiliated with the University of Arizona that works with Native peoples throughout the U.S. and Canada. In addition, from November 2009 through June 2012 he was a visiting researcher at the Centro Derecho Humanos at Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile. During that time he also co-founded the Project for Indigenous Self-Determination, an NGO tasked with promoting indigenous rights globally.

Ryan has been active in mock trial for nearly 20 years. He began competing in 8th grade and has both competed and coached at all levels (junior high, high school, collegiate and law school). Among his achievements he captained the 2002 AMTA National Championship team from the University of Iowa and the following year he helped coach the 2003 AMTA National Championship team which led him to become the youngest recipient of the Reynoldson Award in AMTA history. In 2005 he co-founded the Arizona State University mock trial program, which grew to five teams in his four years there. During his seven years of undergraduate coaching, Ryan's teams have finished in the top-10 on four separate occasions. For the past three years, despite living outside the country, Ryan has assisted coaching middle school and high school teams from Pocahontas, Iowa via Skype.

In 2006, Ryan was nominated for the AMTA Board of Directors and was confirmed the following year. He has served as Assistant Secretary for the past four years, and has sit on a variety of committees during that time.

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