Matthew D. Zinn
Matthew D. Zinn is a partner with the firm. He joined Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP in 2001 after serving as a law clerk to Chief Judge John M. Walker, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His practice areas include climate change, air quality, land use, CEQA and NEPA, defense of regulation against constitutional and administrative law challenges, and development and enforcement of conservation easements and other servitudes.
Mr. Zinn has participated in a number of the firm’s important land use and environmental cases. For example, he was a member of the firm’s winning litigation team in San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco, in which the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that unsuccessful state-court takings claimants are not entitled to relitigate their claims in federal court. In Western States Petroleum Ass’n v. South Coast Air Quality Management District, Mr. Zinn successfully defended at the trial and appellate levels air quality regulation of oil refineries. Mr. Zinn also authored an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of religious groups, in support of the states’ and environmental groups’ victorious position in the landmark climate change case of Massachusetts v. EPA.
Mr. Zinn has written numerous articles on topics in environmental and land use law, including Adapting to Climate Change: Environmental Law in a Warmer World, 34 Ecol. L.Q. 61 (2007), and Policing Environmental Regulatory Enforcement: Cooperation, Capture, and Citizen Suits, 21 Stan. Envtl. L.J. 81 (2002). He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, most frequently on climate change regulation. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1999; an M.S. in environmental policy from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, also in 1999; and a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1994.
Mr. Zinn is a member of the State Bar of California, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Federal Circuits.