Pete Heidepriem

Pete is a trial lawyer practicing in the federal, tribal, and state courts of South Dakota. His personal injury work ranges from farm and ranch injuries to car accidents. Pete also represents people vindicating their civil rights in claims based on racial discrimination or other constitutional violations. He has a track record of representing clients in personal injury cases where they achieve significant results:

• $2.5 million—workplace injury, loss of leg
• $2.1 million—car crash, wrongful death of two individuals
• $1.6 million—ATV rollover crash
• $1.25 million—car crash, wrongful death
• $1.1 million—wrongful death in farm accident
• $1 million—medical negligence, failure to diagnose disease

Pete’s appellate experience covers state and federal courts. In front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, he argued on behalf of a driver in a traffic stop who claimed his constitutional rights were violated—the result was a unanimous decision in his client’s favor. He has appealed fraud and probate claims to the Supreme Court of South Dakota, achieving a unanimous decision for his client. Before the U.S. Supreme Court, he filed an amicus brief regarding tribal sovereignty on behalf of American Indian tribes, and the Court ruled unanimously in favor of the party supported in the brief.

Pete is passionate about advocacy that supports tribal governments and communities. From 2023 to 2024, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe named him General Counsel. In that role, Pete served as the chief legal advisor to the Tribal Council and provided legal advice to all levels of the tribal government and members of the Tribe. During 2020 to 2021, Pete served as a tribal prosecutor for the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where he was lead counsel in a court trial and managed complex prosecutions involving violent crimes and drug offenses. He also has served as counsel to a tribal judge of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate.

In addition to private practice, Pete maintains a focus on academic work. Since 2022, he has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law, teaching a seminar on appellate advocacy and federal Indian law. During fall 2021, he was a Joachim Herz Fellow and visiting scholar at Bucerius Law School in Germany, where he conducted research on international investment law and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Bucerius featured Pete in an article about his fellowship, and you can access it here.