Updates and Articles
SMW Serves as General Counsel to Ladera Recreation District
In 2022, the firm began serving as General Counsel to the Ladera Recreation District. The Ladera Recreation District is a Community Services District in the unincorporated Ladera neighborhood of San Mateo County. The District has provided exceptional recreational services since its establishment in the 1950s.
Read MoreLA Times Op-Ed: Why Forest Managers Need to Team Up with Indigenous Fire Practitioners
SMW attorney Sara A. Clark co-authored an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times calling for increased support for beneficial fires, especially in partnership with Indigenous fire practitioners, and for an update to our national approach to wildfire management. The partnership between cultural fire practitioners and western scientists, which Clark is facilitating, calls for change in four areas: active land stewardship at the...
Read MoreStaying on Top of the Surplus Land Act – Practice Tips After Recent Updates
When local agencies sell or lease their surplus land to others, California’s Surplus Land Act (SLA) (Government Code sections 54220 to 24234) requires them to prioritize that land for affordable housing, open space, and school use. Agencies must let affordable housing developers, local park and recreation districts and departments, and school districts know that the land is available, and give those entities a chance to...
Read MorePlanning for Environmental Justice: Implementing SB 1000
A Valuable Tool for Equity Due in part to a long history of unequal land use planning and discriminatory housing and industrial policies, communities of color and low-income communities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harms. Large polluting industries tend to be sited in or near these communities, leading to higher rates of long-term health conditions. These communities are also less likely to have...
Read MoreOverturning Roe v. Wade Affects All of Us
The Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and called into question more than 50 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence on the right to privacy, affects us all. In taking away the right to safe and legal abortion care, the Court has opened the door to eroding a broad array of other personal rights, including the rights to contraception and to marry whomever you choose,...
Read MoreSMW Prevails in Fight Against Sprawl Development in the Hills of Contra Costa County
SMW helped non-profit group Save Mount Diablo strike a blow against environmentally damaging, sprawl development in Contra Costa County, and as a result staved off massive grading and development in the hills between Pittsburg and Concord. Earlier this year, the Contra Costa Superior Court agreed with SMW’s argument that the environmental review for a proposed housing development violated the California Environmental...
Read MoreSMW Attorney Teaches Land Use Law at UC Berkeley School of Law
SMW Partner Andrew Schwartz taught Land Use Law at UC Berkeley School of Law for the Spring Semester 2021-2022 and will repeat the class Spring Semester 2022-2023. Mr. Schwartz also teaches Land Use Law at Stanford Law School.
Read MoreSMW Attorney Updates Land Use Law Treatise
Andrew Schwartz and his co-author updated their chapter on Exactions in the California Land Use Practice treatise published by the California Continuing Education of the Bar.
Read MoreSMW Attorneys Revise and Update Environmental Law Treatise
Matthew Zinn and Andrew Schwartz, partners at SMW, with the assistance of associate attorneys Ben Gonzalez and Orran Balagopalan, revised and updated the Takings Chapter of California Environmental Law and Land Use Law, a treatise co-edited by Loyola Law Professor and SMW Of Counsel Dan Selmi.
Read MoreCoastal Open Space Protected in Half Moon Bay
Catherine Engberg, a partner at SMW and City Attorney for Half Moon Bay, led a team of SMW lawyers to acquire nine vacant lots on a bluff overlooking the California coast for the City’s open space program.
Read MoreSMW Attorney Presents at League of California Cities’ Annual City Attorneys’ Spring Conference in Carlsbad
Shute Mihaly & Weinberger partner Seph Petta moderated a panel discussion at the annual League of California Cities (CalCities) City Attorneys’ Spring Conference in Carlsbad, California. The presentation, titled “Staffing a Public Meeting: From War Stories to Your Story,” featured members of the League’s Attorney Development and Succession Committee, which is tasked with helping develop the diverse set of technical,...
Read MoreSMW Staff, Family, and Alumni Gather to Mark the Turning of the Season
SMW invited current firm attorneys and staff to reunite with SMW alumni, including former law clerks, fellows and staff, at a brunch on April 23rd at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. Together the attendees and their families celebrated the arrival of spring and the renewal of in-person connections after the long haul of pandemic isolation. Firm founders Marc Mihaly and Clem Shute were among the guests in...
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