Arvo Mikkanen (born 1961) is an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma. Mikkanen has been a federal prosecutor since 1994 and has prosecuted cases involving violent crimes, physical and sexual assaults, homicides, firearms offenses, immigration offenses, wildlife violations, embezzlements, drug offenses, government corruption, as well a civil cases involving administrative law, foreclosures, and government regulations. He has been counsel of record in over 450 cases in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, having handled numerous criminal prosecutions, as well as bench and jury trials. He is a lecturer and frequent instructor in federal criminal prosecution issues and Indian affairs law.
Education & Background
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College in 1983 and Yale Law School in 1986, Mikkanen is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and is also of Comanche and Finnish descent.
Judicial Experience
He is a former judge of the Court of Indian Offenses for the Anadarko Area Tribes (1988-1994), which is a federally administered tribal court which is part of the U.S. Department of Interior and formerly served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes (1991-1994). Mikkanen previously was employed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Robert M. Parker and was employed by the United States Claims Court (now the U.S. Court of Federal Claims) as a law clerk to Judge Lawrence S. Margolis.
Prior Law Practice
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he was a litigator with the Andrews Davis law firm in Oklahoma City from 1988 to 1994 where he engaged in business practice, products liability defense, trademark law, real estate law, insurance defense, and commercial litigation.
Awards, Honors, Bar Association & Teaching Activities
He was the recipient of the American Bar Association's Spirit of Excellence Award in 2004 and received the Sonja Atetewuthtakewa Award for Distinguished Service in the Protection of Native American Children in 2003. He was the recipient of the Gold United States Congressional Award from the U.S. Congress in 1985, received the Oklahoma Bar Association's Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award in 1992, and the Equal Access to Justice - Pro Bono Publico Award from Oklahoma Indian Legal Services in 1992. Mikkanen, president of the Oklahoma Indian Bar Association, and two time past president of the National Native American Bar Association (1991 & 1995), also served as an adjunct professor of law at the Oklahoma City University School of Law from 1988 to 2000.
