Jeff has been practicing law since 1995, and joined the firm in 1998. He attended the law school at the University of California at Davis after obtaining his Bachelor of Arts Degree in from the University of California at Los Angeles.
A substantial part of Jeff's practice focuses on California Environmental Quality Act compliance and litigation, and administrative law. Jeff is currently involved with the preparation of the environmental documentation for the City of Irvine's "Great Park" project, where he regularly consults with environmental and technical consultants on issues ranging from agriculture resources to traffic circulation.
Jeff was also the main day-to-day legal consultant on the City of Irvine's "Northern Sphere" project, which involved a General Plan amendment and zone change for over 7000 acres of property within the City's sphere of influence. Over the next 10 to 15 years, the Northern Sphere project will involve the construction of 12,000+ new homes.
In addition to his transactional work, Jeff is highly experienced in handling CEQA litigation. He has litigated cases involving projects in the Cities of Newport Beach, Morgan Hill, La Palma, Irvine, Irwindale, and Palm Springs, and in the County of Orange.
Jeff works closely with other consultants, including planners, biologists, hydrologists, traffic engineers, and noise and air quality analysts. Through this work, Jeff has developed a several areas of broad technical knowledge that allow him to more effectively represent clients. He has applied this knowledge in client meetings, negotiations, planning commission and city council meetings, and in court.
Other major components of Jeff's practice include telecommunications law, cable law, eminent domain, and land use disputes involving Constitutional (Free Exercise and/or Free Speech) issues.
Jeff has tried cases before the California Superior Court as well as the United States District Court, and has argued cases to the California Court of Appeal.
REPRESENTATIVE TRANSACTIONS/ MATTERS
· City of Irvine MCAS El Toro Environmental Work. For the last 4 years, Jeff has been heavily involved in the City of Irvine's environmental work relating to the reuse of the Former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. He has drafted portions of the various environmental documents prepared on behalf of the City of Irvine, including the EIR for the City's "Millennium Plan II" project and the various related technical report. In the main, Jeff's role has been to ensure that the environmental documentation generated by the City withstands attack in litigation. Jeff has also consulted on comment letters submitted in opposition to environmental documentation prepared by the County of Orange in connection with its proposed Airport reuse of the El Toro property.
· City of Irvine Northern Sphere Project Environmental Work. Jeff was the City of Irvine's lead attorney consultant on the 7000+ acre Northern Sphere project, which will involve the construction of over 12,000 homes over the next 10 to 15 years. The project includes significant circulation improvements, and involved discussions/negotiations with CalTrans over potential impacts from the project on I-5. Jeff has played a key role in all aspects of the project, including (i) devising planning and zoning strategies to minimize environmental impacts and/or the potential for challenging the EIR, (ii) drafting the EIR, (iii) devising methodologies for technical studies in support of the EIR, (iii) responding to comment letters, (iv) representing the City's Planning Commission in its more than six months worth of meetings on project, and (iv) handling the litigation instigated in opposition to the project.
· Irvine Planning Area 17 EIR. On this project, Jeff was the principal City of Irvine attorney responsible for reviewing and evaluating the adequacy of environmental documentation prepared in connection with a program-level EIR for the development of the City's "Planning Area 17" - which is a large parcel of property on the west side of I-405, across from the Irvine Spectrum. Jeff's work on this project included providing advise to City staff and consultants, as well as representatives from the Irvine Company, to ensure that the project was - to the maximum extent feasible - protected from CEQA challenges. The project was not challenge in litigation.
· City of Lake Forest, et al. v. County of Orange, et al. Jeff represented the plaintiffs in a challenge to the County of Orange's attempt to "piecemeal" a portion of its planned This matter involved a challenge to the County of Orange's attempt to "piecemeal" its jail expansion project through the approval of a Negative Declaration relating to the construction of a laundry facility and a sheriff's substation on the Musick Honor Farm site. After several months of hotly contested litigation, the Orange County Superior Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that the environmental analysis prepared by the County of Orange was insufficient.
· City of Cerritos v. City of La Palma. In this matter, Jeff was La Palma's lead litigation counsel in two CEQA cases arising from a dispute over a zoning ordinance amendment and conditional use permit that increased the maximum allowable height of telecommunications monopoles in an area immediately adjacent to Cerritos. Jeff handled all briefing and argument in the two matters, which were resolved entirely in favor of La Palma.
· Serrano Heights 1400 LLC v. Orange Unified School District. This matter involved a dispute over $14 Million + in school impact fees that Orange Unified School District contended it was owed from a private landowner. After attempts to negotiate a resolution to the dispute failed, Jeff handled the filing of litigation, the landowners successful effort to obtain an "alternative writ of mandate" (akin to a preliminary injunction) and, ultimately, a final ruling from the trial court that was entirely in favor of the plaintiff. The trial court further awarded attorneys' fees in favor of the plaintiff.
· San Jose Christian College v. City of Morgan Hill. In this case, Jeff represented the City of Morgan Hill on a challenge to a zoning denial that, if approved, would have allowed a college to relocate to a vacant hospital facility. One of the principal issues in the litigation was whether the college adequately described the scope of its intended development, so as to satisfy CEQA's requirement for a stable, accurate, and finite project description. Jeff was successful in arguing to a federal court in San Jose that the College's CEQA compliance was inadequate on this front, thereby providing grounds to uphold the City's determination to deny the zone change.
· Quail Business Center v. HEV Newport Beach, Ltd. This case involved Rutan & Tucker's client's purchase and subsequent development of the former site (in Newport Beach) of the Fletcher-Jones Mercedes dealership into an extended stay hotel. Jeff was initially involved in negotiations and successful oppositions to ex parte motions in federal court relating to the foreclosure sale of the real property. After our client successfully secured the property, neighboring property owners filed a CEQA lawsuit challenging the City of Newport Beach's approval of the hotel development. After handling the initial stages of the litigation, working with Newport Beach's staff and attorneys, and conducting extensive discussions with opposing counsel, the case was ultimately settled on terms favorable to our client.
PUBLICATIONS/SEMINARS
· Author, "What General Practitioners Need to Know Before Suing a Public Entity," Journal of the State Bar of California, September 2000.
· Author, "To Issue, or Not to Issue: A Look at Local Government's Role in Enforcing the ESA under CEQA and that Pesky Constitution," paper presented at Continuing Legal Education Seminar, June 2000.
· Author, "The Existing Legal Framework for Intergovernmental Cooperation," Western Cities Magazine, June 1996
PRACTICE GROUPS
· Affordable Housing/Economic Development
· Land Use/Natural Resources
· Municipal/Government Agency Law
MEMBERSHIPS/ADMISSIONS
· Member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association, Orange County Chapter
· Orange County Bar Association
· American Bar Association
· State Bar of California