Tahoe Champion and SMW Co-Founder Clem Shute Honored with Dianne Feinstein Award
August 14, 2025Clem Shute, a founding partner of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, has received the prestigious Dianne Feinstein Award. Much of the work for which Shute was recognized with this award was done during his decades at the firm. The news release below, from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, has the details. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency leads the cooperative effort to preserve, restore, and enhance the unique natural and human environment of the Lake Tahoe Region, while improving local communities and people’s interactions with our irreplaceable environment.
Photo: Clem Shute with the presenters of the Dianne Feinstein Lake Tahoe Award. From left, Keep Tahoe Blue CEO Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, TRPA Executive Director Julie Regan, E. Clement “Clem” Shute Jr., and Placer County Supervisor and Governing Board member Cindy Gustafson. Credit: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
News Release: Tahoe Champion Honored with Dianne Feinstein Award
Aug. 6, 2025
Lake Tahoe, Calif./Nev. – E. Clement “Clem” Shute, a California attorney who dedicated much of his career to protecting Lake Tahoe, received the Dianne Feinstein Lake Tahoe Award at the annual Lake Tahoe Summit held in South Lake Tahoe today. The award is named in honor of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to preserving and improving Lake Tahoe’s environment.
Shute has played an instrumental role in Lake Tahoe’s protection and restoration since the early days of the environmental movement, according to the award presenters. During his career, he helped establish the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in 1969, the first interstate compact agency of its kind in the nation. He also helped strengthen the agency’s regulatory framework and defended its policies before the highest courts in the nation.
“It’s a personal honor to have nominated Clem for this award on behalf of the environmental community and all who cherish Lake Tahoe,” said Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, CEO for Keep Tahoe Blue. “From his landmark legal accomplishments that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, to his decade of service on TRPA’s Governing Board, Clem helped build partnerships for Team Tahoe that continue to protect Tahoe today — and will into the future.”
In addition to helping establish TRPA more than 55 years ago, in 2011, Clem answered the call to return to Lake Tahoe as one of California’s representatives on the agency’s 15-member Governing Board. For the next nine years, Shute was a strong presence on the board. He helped negotiate a pivotal update to the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan in 2012 that ultimately brought California and Nevada together to recommit to the Bi-State Compact, TRPA Executive Director Julie Regan said.
“Clem embodies the spirit of collaboration and partnership that has underpinned Lake Tahoe’s protection for more than 55 years,” Regan said. “During the Regional Plan Update, his extensive knowledge and commitment to collaborating with Nevada officials brought the bi-state partnership back together. Lake Tahoe remains one of the clearest bodies of water in the world thanks to leaders like Clem over the decades.”
Clem Shute Jr. accepts the Dianne Feinstein Lake Tahoe Award at the Tahoe Summit August 6. Credit: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
Shute began his law career in the California Attorney General’s office working for the San Francisco Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission. His work in the appellate courts established significant precedents in environmental law. In 2002, he was part of the legal team that successfully defended the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan before the U.S. Supreme Court in Tahoe Sierra Preservation Council v. TRPA, a case that is widely cited in land-use planning policy. In 2015, Shute was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the California State Bar.
Shute’s love of Lake Tahoe goes back to his childhood when he spent vacations on the North Shore with his family. Even as a boy he understood how special the lake is.
“When given the chance to help ‘save Lake Tahoe,’ the choice was easy,” he said. “Looking back, it’s incredible to see just how much has been accomplished collectively. It is humbling to be included among the major figures in Lake Tahoe’s preservation, and I feel those who were alongside me share in this award.”
In 2021, Senator Feinstein herself became the first recipient of the eponymous award for her decades of dedication to Lake Tahoe’s preservation. She co-founded the annual Lake Tahoe Summit 30 years ago along with the late Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. The event continues to bring federal, Tribal, state, and local leaders together to address environmental challenges facing the Lake Tahoe Basin and build collaborative, bi-partisan solutions.
In 2022, the legendary scientist Dr. Charles Goldman received the award. His research in the 1960s showed how harmful development practices were destroying the lake’s famed water clarity. Goldman’s work has helped guide science-based environmental policy in the Tahoe Basin for decades.