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William J. White
Mr. White joined Shute Mihaly & Weinberger in 1995 and is a partner
with the firm. He graduated magna cum laude from New York
University Law School. After two years in the firm’s environmental
fellowship program, he worked as an associate attorney with Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. and rejoined the firm in 1998.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.
Mr. White represents environmental organizations, community groups and governmental
agencies in state and federal litigation on a range of environmental, land use
and constitutional law issues, with an emphasis on CEQA and Clean Water Act litigation,
public trust advice, and takings defense.
Mr. White is familiar with all aspects of environmental administrative practice
and litigation. He was is lead attorney on behalf of a coalition of national
and regional environmental groups in a 2005 settlement involving the 22,000-acre
Rancho Mission Viejo project, and is presently lead attorney for a similar coalition
opposing the Foothill-South Toll Road before the Coastal Commission and in ongoing
CEQA litigation (California State Parks Foundation et al., v. Superior Court
of San Diego County, 150 Cal.App.4th 826 (4th Dist. 2007)). Mr. White
also has considerable experience with citizen suits under the federal Clean Water
Act and the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act.. His environmental clients
include the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Audubon Society,
Endangered Habitats League, California State Parks Foundation, Surfrider Foundation,
San Francisco Baykeeper, and Pesticide Action Network of North America.
Mr. White also has expertise in defending governmental agencies against takings
and related property rights claims. He was part of the legal team that
successfully defended the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) at the trial,
appeal, and Supreme Court levels in Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. TRPA,
122 S.Ct. 1465 (2002). He advises TRPA on property rights and regulatory matters,
and has successfully defended the agency in a number of takings lawsuits. He
has also won takings cases as lead or co-counsel for local governments, including
the cities of Newport Beach, Ross, Livermore, and Lafayette.
Mr. White advises local government and public agency clients on a wide range
of land use matters, including issues related to CEQA, general plan, subdivisions,
planning and zoning law, development agreements, water supply, and public trust. He
is special counsel to the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Redevelopment
Agency, and the Treasure Island Development Authority on a number of waterfront
development projects, and assisted the Agency in preparing environmental documentation
for the San Francisco federal building. He and another attorney at the
firm advised El Dorado County on its adoption of a General Plan and related CEQA
review, and was lead attorney in a subsequent challenge to the Plan in which
he successfully defended the County.
Mr. White specializes in public trust law and related issues, with a focus on
complex trust exchanges and redevelopment of former military bases. He advises
Bay area cities and local reuse authorities on some of the largest public trust
exchanges in California, including proposed exchanges at Hunters Point Naval
Shipyard, Naval Air Station Alameda, Oakland Army Base, and Treasure Island. He
has extensive experience negotiating with the State Lands Commission and other
interested agencies, and is the principal author of numerous state laws involving
grants of trust lands to local governments and authorizing trust exchanges. He
advises the Port of San Francisco on a number of waterfront reuse and development
projects.
While at Earthjustice, Mr. White represented environmental and community organizations
in federal court litigation, negotiation, and administrative review, with a focus
on NEPA, wetlands permitting, and the Clean Water Act.
Mr. White is co-author of Chapter 65: Takings and Other Constitutional Controls in
California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice (Matthew Bender), and has
contributed to the California Environmental Law Reporter. He is a member of the
Bars of the State of California, the District of Columbia (inactive), the U.S.
Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and D.C. Circuits, and the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the District of Maryland, and
the Eastern District of California.
portraits by Liza Heider