Fatima Abbas

Fatima Abbas is a federal government affairs attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. Ms. Abbas focuses her practice on Native American law and policy, tax-exempt organizations and philanthropy, federal funding and contracting, tax, economic development, labor and employment law, and public policy and regulatory matters.

Ms. Abbas has extensive experience working across federal, Tribal, nonprofit and private sector settings. She advises on matters involving Tribal and Native entities, federal programs and compliance, tax policy, economic development, gaming, financial institutions, labor and employment issues, energy and natural resources, telecommunications and healthcare.

In addition, Ms. Abbas has in-depth knowledge of federal funding programs and regulatory processes, including work on more than 300 final federal guidance matters ranging from Bank Secrecy Act compliance to energy tax regulations.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Abbas served as inaugural director of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Tribal and Native Affairs, where she advised the secretary on department-wide matters affecting Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations and Native Hawaiian entities across two presidential administrations. Her work included leading the implementation of $30 billion in Tribal and Alaska Native Corporation set-asides at the Treasury Department for more than 575 Tribes and 200 Alaska Native Corporations, as well as leading the issuance of two tax regulations in 2025 that enable Tribes to exclude more than $40 billion in annual revenue from income tax and provide tax-excluded assistance to their community members.

In addition, Ms. Abbas previously served as senior advisor in the Treasury Department's Office of Capital Access, which managed more than $1 trillion in funding to 30,000 governments. In this role, she worked on the development of funding formulas, guidance and compliance processes for management of federal funding.

Ms. Abbas previously served as the vice president of government relations at the National Congress of American Indians, where she led a coalition that secured more than $40 billion in historic Tribal set-asides from 2020 to 2021 across two Congresses. Earlier in her career, Ms. Abbas served as the first general counsel to the Karuk Tribe and as a deputy attorney general for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, providing broad-based legal counsel on economic development, employment and labor law, natural resources and governance issues. Ms. Abbas also served as a litigator for a firm in Philadelphia, where she worked on commercial, real estate, and employment and labor law matters.

Ms. Abbas is an enrolled citizen of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina. She is recognized for her leadership on Tribal policy, economic development and access to capital, with honors from the Treasury Department, Native American Bar Association of D.C., California Indian Law Association and other organizations.

Not admitted to the District of Columbia Bar; admitted to California, Arizona, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars only and practicing under supervision of lawyers licensed to practice in the District of Columbia.