Providing cost-effective legal counseling and litigation services to cities and other public and private clients.

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.

GENERAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT LAW

The firm advises and represents cities and other public agency clients on 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).

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. We have also assisted in the formation of special assessments and other districts, including community facility districts under the Mello-Roos Act.

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.

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.  A list of published cases can be found here.