Water

Our Water Group counsels clients on the full spectrum of legal services facing water investors and financiers, agricultural companies, major water users, and government agencies, including high-stakes transactions, complex litigation, and regulatory issues. With water scarcity increasingly a matter of economic, political, environmental, and humanitarian concern, O’Melveny counsels clients on:

Disputes & Litigation

As the oldest law firm in Southern California, and one of the largest in the state, O’Melveny has been at the forefront of water litigation in the West for more than a century. Through the decades, we have accumulated an unrivaled record counseling clients in some of the nation’s most complex water cases. We have successfully represented clients in litigation concerning the development of tidelands and coastal areas, disputes involving the demarcation of water agency boundaries and allocation rights, litigation over federal reserved water rights, water issues related to oil and gas exploration and production, and high-profile controversies over agricultural water allotments and access.

This experience includes mediating the most challenging questions arising out of California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), where we served as lead counsel for the first contested post-SGMA groundwater basin adjudication filed in California, Las Posas Water Rights Coalition v. Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency. Our many years of dedication to the water sector leads to more efficient processes, more productive dialogue, and more equitable solutions for all parties involved. Our ultimate goal is to fashion win-win outcomes in complicated disputes, driving sustainable, equitable use of resources.

When settlement is not an option, our nationally recognized team comes to trial ready to win. We lead trial victories, bring to bear years of experience working collaboratively with water-sector experts, and help argue and shape law and policy. O’Melveny’s appellate team is among the finest in the country, and water disputes need strong appellate counsel at the ready. Our years of experience with water litigation, deep bench, and core commitment to water law and policy leadership distinguish O’Melveny’s Water Group from any other in the country.

Water Quality and Environmental Compliance

Drawing on our team’s experience in academia and government, we help clients with significant water operations satisfy their state and federal water regulatory obligations, including the treatment of water used in manufacturing and commercial operations, wastewater, and other commercial uses. Our environmental attorneys have substantial counseling and litigation experience with compliance inquiries and enforcement actions brought by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state environmental agencies, state attorneys general, and third parties. We are particularly fluent in many of the most complicated environmental rules governing the country’s water supply, including the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Safe Drinking Water Act, and California’s Proposition 65.

Members of our team have been highly active in the development of SGMA, as well as laws designed to reform judicial procedures related to groundwater basin disputes. We have an exceptional understanding of high-stakes groundwater management issues in California.

Water Infrastructure and Agreements

Our water infrastructure attorneys help bring a diminishing resource to a growing population. We guide project developers, investors, sponsors, governmental entities, and others within the water sector in the development and operation of water-related infrastructure and investment projects, including groundwater banking, seaports, wastewater treatment facilities, chilled water facilities, pipeline systems, agricultural properties, and other water-related infrastructure assets. We also advise clients on all facets of water purchase and transfer agreements, including private arbitrations, sales to municipalities, stakeholder negotiations, and the establishment of rules for marketing groundwater.

Water Project Financing

Our corporate attorneys help secure the financing of water projects, facilities, and systems, both domestically and internationally, advising clients that include underwriters, lenders, sponsors, and others. Our full-service team also counsels clients on financing of and investment in new water-related technologies and security, including advice on tax implications and issues involving water-related projects and investments.

Thought Leadership in the Water Sector

O’Melveny water attorneys are thought leaders on the legal issues related to global water challenges. Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson, Jr. is an of counsel in O’Melveny’s Water Group. Buzz is the Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law at Stanford Law School, a professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and a Senior Fellow of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. He also leads Stanford’s Water in the West program. The author of multiple books on water law and policy, he is one of the world’s leading experts on water issues, with more than forty years of experience. Buzz and our Water Group practice leader Matt Kline co-teach the “Business of Water” at Stanford University, bringing experts from across the industry together with graduate students in a range of disciplines. All of our water attorneys, including Russ McGlothlin, Heather Welles, and Zach Smith, regularly speak at prominent conferences and seminars on water-related issues around the country, and have authored numerous articles in industry publications concerning current and complex water issues facing the water sector.