Les attended sixteen schools around the world before graduating from high school in California. He was one of twenty freshmen accepted in the Honors Division scholars program at Santa Clara University. His junior year was spent in the IES Abroad program in Vienna. After graduation from the University, he attended Georgetown University Law school where he and his teammate were awarded first place in all four categories in the National Moot Court Competition, a national competition among all major law schools in the U.S. This lead to a meeting with a U.S. senator and Les’s employment during law school as a Senate legislative aide with the responsibility of developing and preparing initial draft of legislation including the Endangered Species Act, Off Shore Drilling, Clean Air, Water, Noise Abatement, etc.  

After law school and service in the Army, Les commenced his practice of law which included litigation, corporate, environmental and energy law. He served as general counsel of several major corporations. He was the lead attorney for the $18 billion CityCenter project, served as an expert witness before the California Senate and Assembly and the U.S. Congress. He was partner chair of the Pacific Rim practice group for Norton Rose Fulbright (formerly Fulbright and Jaworski), one of the world largest international law firms. 

He was awarded Corporate Counsel of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar -corporate, served for years as a delegate to the California Bar Associate, received the Chief Dan George Lifetime Achievement Award by the Red Nations International Film Festival, has been honored by the Ventana Wildlife Association and others. He assisted in founding the Native American Service Agency in New York, is Chair of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge and severed for several years on the Board of the Wishtoyo Foundation (Chumash). He was the keynote speaking at the EPA‘s Native American appreciate event which also celebrated 40 years of U.S. environmental laws. His topic was the Native American contributions to the modern environmental movement. He was also keynote speaker at the Dept. of Defense celebration of the Sovereign-to-Sovereign protocol which defines its relationship of NativeNations. He has served on the corporate advisory board for USC law school, Pepperdine Un. Law., and Georgetown Law. He is a Distinguished Fellow of Northeastern University.  

In his capacity as a lawyer, he has advised a wide variety of clients, including major corporations, state and federal agencies including DOD, Dept of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and non-profits. During the 2016 presidential election period, he was retained by one of the presidential campaigns to advise on environmental and energy matters. At the request of the Dept. of Defense, Les served as “independent observer” at the trial proceedings for the 9-11 terrorists at Camp Justice in Guantanamo, Cuba. 

He has spoken and written widely on climate change, energy, resiliency, and Native American matters.  

Recently he published his first novel, SYNERGY, a legal thriller set against the backdrop of corporate greed and international terrorism.