Perkins Coie has added five land use attorneys to its Environment, Energy & Resources practice. Partners Cecily Barclay, Matt Gray, Geoff Robinson and Barbara Schussman, along with Steve Kostka, joined the San Francisco office this week.
“We have expanded our national energy, environment and resources capabilities by adding California’s premier CEQA, NEPA, land use and development group,” said Tom Lindley, Environment, Energy & Resources Chair. “Our new colleagues bring even greater depth to the services that we provide our clients.”
Barclay represents agencies and developers in navigating some of the most complex entitlement projects in California. Gray’s practice focuses on securing and defending entitlements for waterfront redevelopment, retail and urban mixed use projects. Robinson handles civil and administrative proceedings involving planning and zoning law, development fees and exactions, and public facilities financing. Schussman provides CEQA, NEPA and land use advice and litigation defense to public agencies and private companies developing infrastructure, energy and institutional projects. Kostka is the leading authority on the California Environmental Quality Act.
Collectively, their agency and developer representations include a number of the highest profile development projects in the state: redevelopment of Candlestick Point, Hunter’s Point Shipyard, Alameda Naval Air Station, and the Cargill Saltworks site; major expansion of Stanford University and Stanford Medical Center; and terminal construction at the Ports of Los Angeles, Oakland and Stockton. Their work also includes numerous infill housing, retail and renewal projects. They author CEQA and land use treatises regularly cited by the California courts, including Curtin’s California Land Use and Planning Law; Practice under the California Environmental Quality Act; California Subdivision Map Act and the Development Process; and California Administrative Mandamus.
Perkins Coie recently added two attorneys to the Environment, Energy & Resources practice, former EPA Region 10 Administrator John Iani in the Seattle office and former Associate Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior Paul B. Smyth in the Washington, DC office. These attorneys join more than 70 Perkins Coie attorneys focused on environmental, energy, and resource matters. Our Environmental practice has been ranked by Chambers USA in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Idaho. In addition, many of our attorneys are individually ranked in Chambers USA.
The firm has been recognized for its accomplishments in the legal profession, its commitment to diversity and its excellent client service. In January, the firm was recognized by FORTUNE magazine for the ninth consecutive year as being one of the “100 Best Places to Work.” In addition, the firm was recently named as one of the “2010 Top Ten Family Friendly Firms” by Yale Law Women. For the second consecutive year, the firm was named one of the “Best Law Firms for Women” by Working Mother magazine and national consulting firm Flex-Time Lawyers LLC and also earned the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating of 100 percent in the 2009 and 2010 Corporate Equality Index. In addition, the firm received the Corporate Partnership Award for Supporting People with Disabilities.
About Perkins Coie: With more than 700 lawyers in 18 offices across the United States and in China. Perkins Coie serves great companies ranging in size from start-ups to FORTUNE 100 corporations.
