Patrick Lambert is a licensed North Carolina attorney. He is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and resides on the Qualla Indian reservation in western North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 1993 and has worked for his Tribe for over 25 years in the areas of Federal Indian Law, Tribal Law but primarily in Indian Gaming Law. He pioneered the work for his Tribe in gaming and has worked on various projects with the National Indian Gaming Commission, NIGA and other Tribal regulatory bodies. He served as the Executive Director of the Cherokee Gaming Commission for 21 years. He served on the MICS Committee with the NIGC and as a faculty member for the National Judicial college to establish coursework for training tribal court judges to hear gaming law cases. Patrick served as Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for 2 years from 2015 to 2017. He is currently attending UNLV - Boyd School of Law as a candidate for an LLM degree in Gaming Law and Regulation. He is the father of three and grandfather of eight, soon to be nine. He and his wife own and operate small businesses on the reservation in Cherokee, NC.