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Ellison Folk
Ms. Folk joined Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger in 1990 and is a partner with the firm. She received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, and she also holds a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California Berkeley.
Ms. Folk represents community groups, public agencies, and environmental organizations on a wide range of environmental and land use issues, including CEQA, the California Coastal Act, NEPA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and general plan and zoning law. Ms. Folk also advises and defends public agencies in litigation raising takings and related constitutional challenges to land use and environmental regulations. Ms. Folk has considerable litigation experience in state and federal courts, including:
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Lead attorney representing petitioners in Communities for a Better Environment v. California Resources Agency, 103 Cal.App.4th 98 (2002), which struck down several amendments to the CEQA Guidelines which would have significantly undermined the protections provided by the statute and the case law (case featured in The Plaintiffs’ Hot List; Twenty-Five Go-To Teams for When the Going Gets Tough, July 21, 2003 National Law Journal).
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Co-counsel representing petitioners in Berkeley Keep Jets Over the Bay v. Port of Oakland, 91 Cal.App.4th 1344 (2001), which set aside the Port of Oakland’s environmental impact report for the expansion of the Oakland Airport. Among other deficiencies in the EIR, the court found that the Port had failed to adequately evaluate the impacts of increased toxic air emissions that would result with expansion of the airport.
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Co-counsel representing the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in defeating a challenge to the agency’s comprehensive plan for protection of Lake Tahoe. Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. TRPA, 122 S.Ct. 1465 (2002). The case resulted in a precedent-setting ruling from the United States Supreme Court that reasonable delays in land use planning do not result in a taking of property.
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Lead counsel to WaterKeepers Northern California in numerous actions under the Clean Water Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, including an action finding that the California State Water Resources Control Board had improperly granted variances from the state “Toxic Hot Spots” law, and actions against companies operating in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Ms. Folk is lead author for several publications regarding takings law, including Chapter 65: Takings and Other Constitutional Controls in California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice (Matthew Bender), and articles for the California Environmental Law Reporter. She regularly speaks at conferences regarding land use and environmental issues. Ms. Folk served on the Board of Directors for Save San Francisco Bay Association from 1998 through 2003.
Ms. Folk 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