Brian Carter Boyd

After graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School, Brian came to Alaska planning to stay for one year—and has lived here ever since.  After clerking for Justice Warren Matthews of the Alaska Supreme Court in 1981-82, Brian was a founding member of the firm in 1985.  Brian has spent his entire career counseling Alaskan businesses, including Native Corporations, oil field service contractors, commercial fish processors, landowners, and other businesses and individuals on commercial and transactional matters ranging from contracting issues and land use to oil and gas and corporate governance, and nearly everything in between.  His practice focuses on advising corporate executives and boards of directors on critical business, strategic, and internal governance matters and on drafting contracts, leases, and other documents to facilitate complex business deals.  He is also often called upon to assist or represent clients in dealings with oil and gas companies, negotiate surface use and access agreements, and participate in local, state, and federal permitting processes for onshore and offshore resource development projects.

Brian is one of the most knowledgeable attorneys in the state on issues related to development of Native lands.  He negotiated access and related agreements for the Alpine Oil Field and for oil and gas development in the adjacent “Billion Dollar Fairway” on the North Slope.  Brian has since implemented, applied, and built on those agreements almost continuously over the past 25 years.  He has been instrumental in developing the legal strategies needed to help his clients achieve ANCSA’s twin goals of allowing Alaska Native communities to use their resources to improve the economic quality of life through resource development while preserving subsistence resources and a subsistence lifestyle.  Brian excels at turning big goals into action plans.