Somach Simmons & Dunn

Profile

Mr. Somach's background includes the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Justice. In private practice since 1984, Mr. Somach's practice concentrates on water rights, water quality, federal reclamation law, toxics, natural resources, environmental law, all phases of civil litigation before federal and state courts, and negotiating federal legislative issues. Mr. Somach earned his J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1979. Mr. Somach met with President Clinton, in the White House, to discuss water and environmental issues and has testified before both houses of Congress on water and environmental issues. He has argued significant water cases before both the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court. Mr. Somach has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at McGeorge, having taught natural resources law, water quality and toxics law. He is admitted to the State Bar of California and the District of Columbia Bar, as well as numerous Federal District Courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal. He is a past Chairman of the American Bar Association's Committee on Water Resources Law.

Areas of Practice Emphasis

Water, natural resources and environmental law, federal reclamation law, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), California and federal Endangered Species Acts, Clean Water Act, all phases of litigation in federal and state courts, and public agency law.

Prior Positions

Shareholder: McDonough, Holland & Allen, Sacramento, CA, 1985-1991.

Associate Attorney: McDonough, Holland & Allen, Sacramento, CA, 1984-1985.

Trial Attorney and Attorney-in-Charge of Sacramento Division Office: U.S. Department of Justice, Land and Natural Resources, Sacramento, CA, 1983-1984.

Assistant United States Attorney: U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of California, Sacramento, CA, 1981-1983.

Attorney: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Pacific Southwest Region, Sacramento, CA, 1980-1981.

Attorney: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Solicitor's Honors Attorney Program, Washington, D.C., 1979-1980.

Education

McGeorge School of Law (J.D., 1979)
San Jose State University (B.A., 1970)

Bar Admissions

State Bar of California, 1979. State Bar of District of Columbia, 1988. U.S. Supreme Court, 1985.

Academic Positions

Publications

Somach, How to Build and Manage an Environmental Law Practice, 1999. (Published by the American Bar Association).

Somach and Hitchings, Antitrust Considerations in Water Marketing, Natural Resources & Environment, Vol. 11, No. 2, at p. 26, Fall 1996 (ABA Section of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law).

Somach, Agriculture As Part of the Environmental Solution: Past, Present and Future (Continuing Education of the Bar, California, Land Use & Environmental Forum, Vol. 4, Number 4, Fall 1995).

Somach, What Outrages Me About the Endangered Species Act (24 Envtl. L. 801 1994).

Somach, Who Owns Reclaimed Wastewater? (25 Pacific Law Journal 1087, 1994).

Somach, The Financial Impacts of Instream Protection (Published by Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Institute, 1987).

Somach, Gleason & Markle, Water Rights, Water Supply and Water Related Law, April, 1985, 1988, 1990. (Published as part of advanced real property series, California Continuing Education of the Bar).

Presentations

Moderator and lecturer on water rights matters in the California Continuing Education of the Bar's advanced real property series.
Speaker and Program Co-Chair, CLE International, 18th Annual California Water Law Conference, San Francisco, California, Funding Your State Water Resources Control Board, May 21, 2010.
Panel Moderator, 2007 Colorado River Symposium, Innovations: Increasing the Supply, Santa Fe, New Mexico, September 19-21, 2007.
Speaker, North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, Water 2030 Conference, February 23, 2006.
Speaker, Dividing the Waters: A Dialog for Judges, Masters, and Referees, Seattle, Washington, October 7-9, 2004.
Panelist, ALI-ABA and ELI Course of Study on Species Protection Law, Washington, D.C., ESA and Water, April 8, 2004.
Guest Participant, National Public Radio, "Justice Talking" - Debate: Water Rights, March 11, 2003.
Speaker, Eastern District Judicial Conference, S. Lake Tahoe, California, Survey of Federal Water Related Issues, October 26, 2002.
Panelist, Association of California Water Agencies' Fall Conference, San Diego, California, Reflection on Water Rights, Water Policy Over the Last Twenty Years, November 28, 2001.
Speaker, American Bar Association's Water Law Conference, San Diego, California, Regarding Use of Computer Models in Water Litigation, February 15-16, 2001.
Speaker, Wallace Stegner Center Symposium, University of Utah College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah, Where the Rivers Flow: Sharing Watersheds and Boundaries, April 16-17, 1999.

Reported Cases

California Farm Bureau Federation v. California State Water Resources Control Board, 146 Cal.App.4th 1126 (2007); NRDC v. Norton, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94689, December 29, 2006, Decided, January 3, 2007, Filed; Orff v. United States, 545 U.S. 596 (2005); In re Bay-Delta Programmatic Environmental Impact Report Coordinated Proceedings, 133 Cal.App.4th 154 (2005); Smith v. Cent. Ariz. Water Conservation Dist., 418 F.3d 1028 (2005); City of Barstow v. Mojave Water Agency, 23 Cal.4th 1224 (2000); People ex rel. Lockyer v. Shamrock Foods Co., 24 Cal.4th 415 (2000); City of Lompoc v. United States Bureau of Reclamation 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 3087, February 10, 1999, affirmed at 172 F.3d 55 (1999); Central Ariz. Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 32 F.Supp.2d 1117 (1998); Southern Cal. Edison Co. v. FERC, 325 U.S. App. D.C. 163 (1997); Jordan v. City of Santa Barbara, 46 Cal.App.4th 1245 (1996); State of Cal. ex rel. State Lands Com. v. Superior Court, 11 Cal.4th 50 (1995); Sayles Hydro Ass'n v. Maugham, 985 F.2d 451 (9th Cir. 1993); Wackerman Dairy, Inc. v. Wilson, 7 F.3d 891 (1993); Beck v. United States Dept of Commerce, 982 F.2d 1332 (1992); Didrickson v. United States Dept of Interior, 796 F.Supp. 1281 (1991); United States v. Angle, In Equity No. 30, 760 F.Supp. 1366 (1991); LaFlamme v. FERC, 852 F.2d 389 (1988); Mega Renewables v. County of Shasta, 644 F.Supp. 491 (1986); Western Mun. Water Dist. v. Superior Court, 187 Cal.App.3d 1104 (1986); Grace Geothermal Corp. v. Northern California Power Agency, 619 F.Supp. 964 (1985); County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles, 160 Cal.App.3d 1178 (1984); United States v. California, 694 F.2d 1171 (1982); National Audubon Society v. Superior Court, 33 Cal.3d 419 (1983), cert. den. sub nom., City of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power v. National Audubon Society, 464 U.S. 977 (1983); United States v. California, 529 F.Supp. 303 (1981).