With reflection on the past, Malorie Stick is crafting a positive future for underrepresented communities in the law field.
Stick is a current Juris Doctor candidate at the University of Colorado Law School focusing on tribal, family and juvenile law. She was raised in Durant, Oklahoma, where she attended high school and graduated with honors. While in high school, Stick first recognized her interest in law as a member of the school’s speech and debate team.
“Speech and debate team is what first inspired me to pursue the law as a career, because I enjoyed the public speaking, advocacy and arguing both sides of an issue,” Stick said.
After high school, Stick, a Chickasaw citizen attended Oklahoma State University (OSU) where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and a Bachelor of Science degree in political science in 2023. During her time at OSU, Stick said her sorority’s motto, “Building Stronger Girls,” inspired her to build on her own strengths. She invested most of her time and energy into class work, but also excelled outside of the classroom, becoming chapter president of Gamma Phi Beta her senior year.
“The experience that I got as president made me even more confident about law school, as I did lots of public speaking, problem-solving and ensuring sound judgment at our executive meetings,” Stick said.
Stick took time in college to reflect and educate herself on systematic oppression by taking courses like feminist philosophy and joining the belonging, equity, diversity and inclusion committee in her sorority.
“These experiences grounded me in my passion for tribal justice and, more generally, justice for minority communities,” Stick said.
In the summer of 2023, Stick became a legal intern at a law office where she assisted firm partners with case files concerning criminal, juvenile and family law as well as civil litigations.
“My experience there was imperative in confirming for me that I wanted to be a lawyer,” Stick said. “It is hard to be sure about pursuing the law until you actually see how an attorney’s day-to-day work life looks.”
Stick is currently in her second year of law school at Colorado Law in Boulder, Colorado, and expects to graduate in May 2026. However, she is already planning for the future and, in turn, positively impacting her community.
Stick currently serves as the first-year law student advocate on the National Native American Law Students Association (NNALSA) executive board. She also serves as president of the Colorado Law Native American Law Students Association.
“Through my involvement in these organizations, I’ve gained invaluable leadership experience, built connections with First American lawyers and had the opportunity to work closely with the Native community. This exposure has deepened my understanding of the challenges Native people and Native students face, and has equipped me to be a more effective and committed advocate in the future,” she said.
Stick took on the role of a judicial extern for Judge Kelley Southerland in Colorado’s 17th Judicial District in the summer of 2024. She completed legal research regarding family law issues such as child support, property division and custody disputes. However, her favorite part of the externship took place in the courtroom.
“I got to watch how attorneys interacted with the judge, with self-represented litigants, the division clerks and how they presented in court,” Stick said. “This afforded me the opportunity to envision the type of attorney I want to be and to learn effective advocacy strategies for family court.”
Stick currently works at the American Indian Law Clinic at Colorado Law as a student attorney.
“There are seven student attorneys in the clinic including me, and we all practice law under our professor’s license,” Stick said. “We represent individual tribal members, tribes, nonprofits and tribal entities in a variety of areas.”
Stick said she has gained a better understanding of the issues faced by tribal communities in her student attorney position by representing First American clients. The position has also pushed her into the political landscape to make a stand against voter discrimination among First American communities. Stick recently returned from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota where she and her fellow student attorneys spent 13 hours at a polling site as election observers.
“We went there to ensure the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) people got their votes in as there is a long history of voter discrimination in South Dakota,” Stick said. “We were at the polling site to serve as an on-site presence to watch polls and intervene if someone was turned away from voting.”
The polling site Stick observed did not face voter discrimination. However, there were practical issues such as limited space for voters to have their own booths and untrained poll workers.
“The American Indian Law Clinic and the voting rights trip has given me an idea of what work needs to be done in Indian Country and what it is like to represent tribal members and tribal interests as an attorney,” Stick said.
Upon graduation, Stick hopes to begin her legal career practicing family and tribal law.
“I’d like to work with divorce and custody matters, while devoting the other half of my time to representing tribal governments or tribal members in various matters,” she said.
Stick said sovereign policy is important to her because it allows tribal members within a federally recognized sovereign nation to have a government that is of, by and for the people of the tribe.
“This form of self-governance, where a government operates exclusively to benefit its citizens, is a rare privilege,” she said. “The Chickasaw Nation serves as a prime example of how tribal sovereignty enables a government to thrive and invest in its people, ultimately contributing to a stronger society.”
Stick said the support she has received from the Chickasaw Nation has been instrumental in her academic journey.
“The Chickasaw Nation has had a profound impact on my life, particularly in the area of education,” Stick said. “From providing critical funding for college to supporting my path through law school, their commitment to my success has been unwavering. I can also trace this support back to my childhood when the Chickasaw clothing grant helped ease the financial strain of needing winter school clothes. That early support instilled in me the confidence that I was capable and deserving of a quality education.”