Career Highlights

• Overturning a regulatory takings jury verdict against the City of Carson’s mobilehome rent control program in Colony Cove Properties LLC v. City of Carson, 888 F.3d 445 (9th Cir. 2018).
• Defending the auction of emission allowances under California’s greenhouse gas cap and trade program against a Proposition 13 challenge in California Chamber of Commerce v. State Air Resources Board, 10 Cal. App. 5th 604 (2017).
• Defending the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s regulation of VOC emissions from paints and coatings in American Coatings Ass’n v. South Coast Air Quality Management District, 54 Cal. 4th 446 (2012).

Community Service, Publications, and Recognitions

• 2013 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award in environmental law.
• 2019 International Municipal Lawyers Association’s Amicus Service Award.
• Knick v. Township of Scott: A Source of New Uncertainty for State and Local Governments in Regulatory Takings Challenges to Land Use Regulation, 47 Fordham Urb. L.J. 623 (2020) (with Laura D. Beaton).
• Adapting to Climate Change: Environmental Law in a Warmer World, 34 Ecol. L.Q. 61 (2007).
• Policing Environmental Regulatory Enforcement: Cooperation, Capture, and Citizen Suits, 21 Stan. Envtl. L.J. 81 (2002).
• Board of Directors, Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.

Bar Memberships

Member of the State Bar of California; the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Central, and Eastern Districts of California; the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth, D.C., and Federal Circuits; and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Education

Law clerk to Hon. John M. Walker, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2000-01

University of Michigan Law School, JD, 1999

University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, MS in Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, 1999

UC Santa Cruz, BA in Politics and Sociology, 1994

About Me

When not lawyering, I like to be ultrarunning, mountain biking, photographing, and wine quaffing.

Contact Me