Litigation and Enforcement
- Defending a real estate development company in one of the largest ongoing toxic tort mass actions pending in the Northern District of California, involving over 9,500 community members, seeking personal injury and property damage from alleged exposures to radioactive substances at a former naval shipyard that is the subject of San Francisco’s largest development project in a century.
- Representing a real estate development company in litigation against a federal contractor and the United States regarding the falsified investigation and remediation of radiological contamination at a Superfund site.
- Defended one of the world’s largest private sector energy companies against multiple lawsuits brought by various California municipalities, who were alleging claims for public and private nuisance, product liability, and deceptive sales while also attempting to shift liability for national and international climate change policy choices onto energy producers. The municipalities sought damages tied to greenhouse-gas emissions between 1965 and 2015. The client was dismissed from the lawsuits with prejudice.
- Defended a real estate development company in a mass tort action involving more than 160 plaintiffs claiming personal injuries and property damage arising from alleged releases of hazardous particulates during construction at one of the largest mixed-use developments in Los Angeles County. The case settled on terms favorable to the developer.
- Won summary judgment on behalf of a real estate development company in litigation challenging the County of Orange’s decision to approve two mixed-use projects, valued at over $4 billion, on portions of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro that are now owned by the County and located within the City of Irvine.
- Represented beachfront homeowners in successfully opposing an action filed by the Broad Beach Geologic Hazard Abatement District, which sought to validate its special assessment against properties in the City of Malibu to pay costs to address shoreline erosion. The trial court held the special assessment violated Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, because the District overstepped on its ability to impose assessments. The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgment in its entirety.
- Represented state water contractors as intervenor-defendants in an Endangered Species Act citizen suit challenging the biological opinions for winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon in a multibillion-dollar water infrastructure project.
- Won summary judgment in an action challenging the biological opinion for the giant garter snake and the NEPA and CEQA environmental impact statement / environmental impact report for a long-term water transfer and sale project.
- Represented a real estate management company in litigation concerning vapor intrusion of trichloroethylene at a commercial property in Los Angeles.
- Represented a Fortune 500 company in an EPA enforcement action concerning alleged violations of storm water requirements under the Clean Water Act at facilities in multiple states.