Career Highlights

• Represents the California Solar and Storage Association in regulatory proceedings and state court litigation. Succeeded in repealing underground regulations that would have prohibited solar contractors from installing energy storage systems.
• Served as City Attorney for the City of Cupertino. Advised City staff and officials on open meeting laws, development applications, public infrastructure projects, local regulatory actions, real estate transactions, election matters, emergency orders, public contracts, and interagency agreements. Served as Assistant City Attorney for the City of Half Moon Bay and Deputy City Attorney for the City of Saratoga. Currently serves as special counsel for cities and local agencies.
• Serves as Legal Counsel for the San Bruno Community Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to administer $70 million in restitution funds from PG&E after a 2010 gas pipeline explosion.
• Advocates for environmental and community groups before local governments and in the courts to protect open space and public health across California.
• Advises clean energy companies on development projects and transactional matters.
• Representing agricultural interests, successfully opposed a county oil and gas streamlining ordinance adopted without adequate environmental review or mitigation.

Community Service, Publications, and Recognitions

Community Service:

• Board Member, Bay Area Ridge Trail Council

Publications and Presentations:

• Local Governments on High Alert as New Statewide Ballot Measure Seeks to Restrict State and Local Revenue, SMW In the Public Interest (June 2023).
• The California Municipal Law Handbook, Chair of Chapter 8 (Public Property) 2021-2023, previously reviewer of Chapter 11 (Protecting the Environment), League of California Cities/CEB.
• Residents Can Play a Vital Role in Establishing Funding Streams for Local Programs, SMW In the Public Interest (Jan. 2022).
• “Don’t Get Pinched by Golden Door: Records Retention Best Practices for Projects Subject to CEQA,” presentation to the Contra Costa County City Attorneys’ Association (Nov. 2021).
• “Commercial Cannabis Activities: Regulating a ‘New’ Land Use at the State and Local Level,” Dan Curtin Land Use Law Lecture, Sonoma State University Planning Commissioners Conference (Dec. 2017).
• Help Public Agency Clients Avoid Inadvertent Disclosures, SMW In the Public Interest (Spring 2016).
• Local Control of Oil and Gas Operations: Getting a Handle on Fracking and Cyclic Steaming Through Land Use Prohibitions, Moratoria, Discretionary Permits, and Citizen Initiatives, Environmental Law News (Fall 2014).
• “Recent Developments in the Regulation of Fracking at the Local, State, and Federal Levels,” panelist, State of California Environmental Law Section annual environmental law conference at Yosemite (Fall 2014).
• The Open Space and Land Conservation Handbook, contributing author (Solano Press, 2011).

Representative litigation:

• California Solar and Storage Association v. Contractors State License Board (2021) San Francisco County Superior Ct., Case No. CGC-21-594911 (repealing underground regulation that would have prevented solar contractors from installing energy storage systems).
• King and Gardiner Farms, LLC v. Kern County (2020) 45 Cal. App.5th 814 (invalidating ordinance to streamline approval of oil and gas development).
• Friends of Better Cupertino v. City of Cupertino (2020) Santa Clara County Superior Ct., Case No. 18CV330190 (upholding City’s approval of SB 35 project and accepting City’s response demonstrating its long track record of approving and facilitating affordable housing).
• Solano County Orderly Growth Committee v. Solano County (2017) Solano County Superior Ct., Case No. FCS0466724 (vacating County approval of a subdivision on open space lands that would have required municipal water and sewer services in contravention of a city initiative).
• Save Our Historic Town Center v. City of San Juan Capistrano (2016) Orange County Superior Ct., Case No. 30-2014-00760231 (vacating approval of development proposed in the City’s downtown historic area due to inconsistency with City’s general plan).
• American Coatings Assn. v. South Coast Air Quality Management District (2012) 54 Cal.4th 446 (upholding air district’s authority to adopt “technology-forcing” rules).
• California Trout, Inc. v. Bureau of Reclamation (2009) United States District Court, Central District of California, Case No. CV09-0312 (litigation settlement resulted in greater flows into Santa Clara River to protect endangered steelhead trout).

Bar Memberships

Member of the State Bar of California.

Education

U.C. Berkeley School of Law, J.D.

Certificate in Environmental Law

Order of the Coif (top 10 percent of graduating class)

Judicial Clerkship: Honorable Garland E. Burrell Jr., U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California

U.C. Los Angeles, M.A., Urban Planning

U.C. Berkeley, B.A., History

About Me

Before becoming an attorney and the mother of two daughters, I taught English in rural Japan, hiked the California portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, worked in the Office of the Secretary at the California State Resources Agency, and served on the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy.