SMW Partner Richard Taylor Named a Lawyer of the Year; Eight SMW Attorneys Again Named to Best Lawyers in America List
August 21, 2025Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger partner Richard S. Taylor has received the prestigious “2026 Lawyer of the Year” designation from the Best Lawyers Awards. This award is presented to a single lawyer in each practice area and geographic region. Taylor received this recognition for the environmental litigation practice area, in the San Francisco region.
Taylor joined the firm in 1991. His primary practice areas include City Attorney & General Counsel Services, Land Use Planning & Zoning, Recycling & Waste Management, Parks & Recreation, and Local Ballot Measures. Taylor served as the firm’s Managing Partner from 2016 to 2024.
Best Lawyers also recognized seven additional Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger attorneys on the 2026 Best Lawyers in America list. Ellison Folk, Rachel B. Hooper, Fran M. Layton, Deborah Miller, Robert “Perl” Perlmutter, Andrew W. Schwartz, and William J. White are recognized for their exemplary work in the fields of environmental law, land use and zoning law, environmental litigation, and land use and zoning litigation.
These same attorneys were recognized on the 2025 Best Lawyers list as well.
These recognitions are conferred on lawyers by their peers, through a process of confidential peer review surveys of tens of thousands of lawyers.
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger has also been named several times to the related Best Law Firms rankings, including in the 2025 edition.