Public Agency & Municipal Law

Lewis Brisbois' Public Agency & Municipal Law Practice provides a range of litigation, counseling, and transactional representation to cities, counties, regional governments, special districts, school districts, and joint powers authorities. Our team handles municipal law matters for public entities from California to the East Coast, and features several lawyers who serve as General Counsel, Assistant General Counsel, or Special Counsel for cities, special districts, and other municipal bodies.

The work of our Public Agency & Municipal Law Practice includes:

Property Acquisition/Economic Development

Voluntary acquisition
Eminent domain
Inverse condemnation
Public works construction and claims, including development of public works packages
Bid protests, bidding responsibilities, interpreting and enforcing public works contracts, stop notices, and contractor issues
All aspects of pre-acquisition due diligence, including entitlements
All aspects of redevelopment
Environmental compliance and safeguards
Acquisition and disposition including ERNs, purchase and sale agreements, DDAs, property conveyance documents, common interest agreements, reciprocal easements, and other joint use agreements
Affordable housing

Land Use & Planning

Land use entitlements
Phase I and II investigations
Zoning
Negotiation with and permitting from the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Fish & Game, and Regional Water Quality Control Boards
General Plan development and amendment
All transactional and permitting support for large scale energy projects including liquid natural gas, geothermal, and thermal solar plants

Environmental Concerns:

Compliance with federal and local environmental laws including RCRA, Endangered Species Act, Fish & Game Act, National Environmental Policy Act including remediation, NPDES, CERCLA, and CEQA
Brownfields/Polanco Act
Water, wastewater, recycled water
Air quality
Soil and groundwater contamination

Open & Public Meetings

Compliance with ethics laws
Sitting with and advising Boards, Commissions, and Committees during public meetings
Compliance with the California Open Meeting requirements (Ralph M. Brown Act)
Record keeping and responding to requests under the California Public Records Act

Tort Litigation

Tort Claims Act Claims
Dangerous condition of public property
Nuisance

Local Entity Formation & Governance

Formation of joint powers authority
District reorganizations including annexations and detachments
Local authority administration
Crafting and reviewing ordinances and resolutions
Negotiation of regulatory, administrative, and legal issues with governmental agencies
Drafting of contracts, leases, and licenses for government-owned facilities

Public Finance

Serving as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, trustee’s counsel, letter of credit counsel, underwriter’s counsel, issuer’s counsel, and contract negotiation counsel in connection with public financing
Financing for infrastructure projects, schools, housing, airports, and governmental facilities
Tax increment financing (tax exempt and taxable) for redevelopment activities
Bond anticipation notes, grant anticipation notes and tax and revenue anticipation notes
Assessment, special tax and community facility districts, including all substantive and procedural aspects underlying the formation of such districts, such as validations
Advise on prevailing wage requirements, the reasonableness of city exactions, the economic impacts of proposed taxes, the effects of implementation thereof, and the reasonableness of the provisions of bond financing as structured by underwriters or financial consultants
Counseling on the restructuring or refinancing of benefit assessment districts and Mello-Roos districts

Chairs

Michael McGinley (Partner) - Michael.McGinley@lewisbrisbois.com, 618.781.2756
Kelly Alhadeff-Black (Partner) - Kelly.Black@lewisbrisbois.com, 951.252.6154
Jessica Lienau (Partner) - Jessica.Lienau@lewisbrisbois.com, 213.680.5100 | 602.385.1035