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E. Clement Shute, Jr.
Mr. Shute co-founded Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger in 1980 after 16 years with the California Attorney General’s office, where he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environmental and Consumer Protection Section. He received his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, in 1967. Mr. Shute is currently serving as Senior Counsel to the firm.
For over 40 years, Mr. Shute has provided representation to a wide range of public agencies and community groups on environmental and land use issues at the legal, policy and political levels. He has expertise in all areas of land use law, including CEQA, General Plan law, initiatives and referenda, and property rights, and has in-depth experience with the workings of local government and administrative agencies. His expertise includes drafting of state and local legislation and regulations. Mr. Shute has litigation experience in state and federal courts of every level.
Mr. Shute has been involved in Lake Tahoe matters for over 30 years, winning important litigation on behalf of environmental groups in the mid-80s, and subsequently defending the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) against property rights challenges. He has particular expertise in takings litigation, successfully representing the City of Tiburon before the U.S. Supreme Court in Agins v. Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255 (1980), and TRPA in the recent Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. TRPA, 122 S.Ct. 1465 (2002). Another of his specialty areas is representation of government agencies and residents affected by aircraft noise and pollution. Other practice areas include coastal zone management, solid waste, hazardous waste, wetlands regulation, base reuse, public trust, and the Endangered Species Act.
Mr. Shute began practice with the California Attorney General's Office in 1964 where he advised and represented the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission from the time it was created until 1980. He was involved in Lake Tahoe, coastal zone and takings issues, and was instrumental in drafting coastal zone legislation, much of which became law with the enactment of Proposition 20 in 1972. Mr. Shute also represented the Attorney General as a friend of the court in early cases involving the scope of the California Environmental Quality Act.
Mr. Shute is an adjunct professor of environmental law at Berkeley and Hastings. He was a founding co-editor of the Land Use Forum.
Mr. Shute is a member of the Bars of the State of California, the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Eastern and Central Districts of California.
portraits by Liza Heider