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Kevin M. O'Brien

Partner
Sacramento

Contact Info:
Email: Send an email
Phone: (916) 444-1000
Fax: (916) 444-2100

Practice Areas:
Environmental
Water
Litigation
Climate Change & Sustainability

Additional Areas of Expertise:
Natural Resources, Water Rights, Endangered Species

Bio

Kevin O'Brien is the Managing Partner of Downey Brand. He has been a central figure in California water law for more than twenty-five years.  His practice spans litigation, regulatory and transactional matters involving water rights, environmental and endangered species issues.  Mr. O’Brien is rated “AV” by Martindale Hubbell (“the highest level of professional excellence”) and he has been described in Sacramento Lawyer magazine as a lawyer who "advocates principled positions that reflect the law and are intended to achieve a solution for all the parties, not just his clients."

Mr. O’Brien has served as lead trial counsel in several major water right cases including two groundwater basin adjudications (the Seaside Basin in Monterey County and the Santa Maria Basin in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties).  He has also negotiated major transactions involving the long-term transfer of water entitlements from one region of the state to another.  For example, he negotiated and successfully implemented one of the first major transfers of State Water Project entitlements from an agricultural water user located in Kern County to a municipal water user located in Contra Costa County.  He recently represented the seller in a $32 million transaction involving the sale of Central Valley Project water entitlements from an agricultural water user to a municipal water user, both in Sacramento County; this transaction is currently in the regulatory approval process.

Mr. O’Brien has spent a good deal of his career addressing water right and water quality issues relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta—the hub of California’s water supply system.  For more than twenty years he has represented a large group of Sacramento Valley agricultural water users in a series of proceedings before the California State Water Resources Control Board to determine whether and to what extent senior water right holders must contribute to Delta water quality.  These proceedings are ongoing.  

Mr. O’Brien has extensive experience in groundwater law—a highly technical subset of California water law.  He was recently selected to represent the court-appointed water master in the City of Los Angeles v. City of San Fernando groundwater adjudication of the Upper Los Angeles River Area in Los Angeles County.  For many years he has served as special counsel to the Monterey County Water Resources Agency where he has represented the Agency in numerous proceedings relating to the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin.  Mr. O’Brien teaches  a popular course on groundwater law and hydrology through the University of California, Davis Extension.

Mr. O’Brien has served as chair of the American Bar Association’s Water Resources Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California’s Real Property Law Section.  Early in his career he served in the Solicitor’s Honors Program at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

Admitted to Practice in:
California, Colorado (inactive)

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