Rick Jarvis and Ben Fay formed Jarvis & Fay in January 2004. They were formerly shareholders with Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson, where Rick was the head of the Land Use Litigation Group and Ben practiced with the Land Use Litigation and Revenue and Taxation Groups. Dan Doporto joined the firm in September 2004. He was formerly Of Counsel with Morrison & Foerster’s Land Use and Environmental Law group. Clare Gibson, a former colleague of Rick and Ben at Meyers Nave, joined the firm in March 2008, following several years of representing public education agencies at School and College Legal Services.  Mike Rodriquez joined the firm as a partner in July 2011 after nearly 25 years of practicing municipal law at Meyers Nave.

Jarvis, Fay, Doporto & Gibson provides cost-effective legal counseling and litigation services to cities and other public agencies in most areas of local government law, including:

City Attorney Services
The firm’s attorneys provide general counsel services to various cities in Northern California.  Our attorneys have served as City Attorney, Assistant City Attorney and Deputy City Attorney, as both in-house counsel and on a contract basis.  We also provide direct assistance and support to the city attorneys of our municipal clients.

Land Use and Environmental Law
The firm’s land use and environmental law practice, which includes both transactional and litigation services, extends to all aspects of the land use and development approval process in California, including matters arising under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the California Planning and Zoning Laws, the Subdivision Map Act, the Mitigation Fee Act, the Permit Streamlining Act, the Development Agreement laws, the California Coastal Act, the Urban Water Management and Planning Laws (SB 221 and SB 610), and the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

Local Revenues: Taxes, Fees and Assessments
The firm’s lawyers have extensive experience litigating and advising clients on local taxes, fees, and assessments, including issues arising under Propositions 13, 26, 62, and 218.  We have litigated property tax allocations, business license taxes, transient occupancy taxes, utility user taxes, parcel taxes, development impact fees, user fees, regulatory fees, fees for services, and special assessments.

Public Contracts and Construction Law
The firm’s transactional practice includes comprehensive public contract counseling, including bidding, RFQs, RFPs, drafting, negotiation, and document review.  The firm also provides a full range of public construction law expertise, including pre-qualification and bid documents, bid protests, subcontractor issues, construction claims and close out issues, litigation and dispute resolution.  Our client service includes providing lawyer-drafted bid documents tailored for local agency public works projects.

Employment and Labor Law
The firm also provides advice relating to employment and labor law issues, including review and revision of personnel policies; advice regarding disciplinary and grievance procedures; employees’ leave rights and workplace privacy rights; handling complaints of harassment, discrimination and retaliation; the interaction between workers’ compensation laws, medical leave laws and disability discrimination laws; and other workplace issues.

Civil Rights and Government Tort Litigation
The firm has expertise in litigating government tort and civil rights claims, including claims for violation of due process, equal protection, and First Amendment rights; regulatory takings claims; and litigation brought under the Government Claims Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Writs of Mandate and Appeals
Our team, which includes a certified appellate specialist, has extensive experience prosecuting and defending writ petitions in both the trial and appellate courts, as well as in handling traditional appeals, and has litigated or filed amicus briefs in many appellate cases resulting in important published decisions. 

General Local Government Law
The firm also advises and represents cities and other public agency clients on other matters involving local government law, including the Brown Act, the Public Records Act, and Elections law (including initiatives and referenda and challenges to ballot measures and ballot materials).

Click here for our most current Client List.