David R. E. Aladjem

Partner

621 Capitol Mall
18th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Areas of Law:

Water, NEPA/CEQA, Public Agency Law, Endangered Species Act

Admitted to Practice in:

California

Mr. Aladjem regularly serves as counsel for public agencies in connection with complex multiparty water negotiations throughout California. Currently, he represents two municipal water districts in Southern California that have just acquired water rights that would provide a permanent water supply serving between 100,000 and 125,000 people. This effort has included overseeing the preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); a contested water right hearing before the California State Water Resources Control Board; and multiparty negotiations with water districts, environmental groups, and state and federal regulatory agencies. He also recently served as counsel for three statewide and national associations in connection with the successful negotiation of a statewide policy regarding the use of recycled water. That negotiation, again, involved extensive discussions with environmental groups and state regulators. For that pathbreaking agreement, he was awarded the 2009 Excellence in Water Leadership Award from the Association of California Water Agencies. This past year, he was deeply involved in the legislation that culminated in the landmark water conservation legislation that will require 20% water conservation in urban areas of California.

In the past, Mr. Aladjem has served as counsel to many agencies involved in complicated water rights negotiations. As an example, he served as counsel to a mutual water company in the Sacramento Valley that was renewing a water right settlement contract with the United States. In those negotiations, the United States wished substantially to reduce the quantity of water provided to the mutual water company. Mr. Aladjem was able to assist the company in limiting the reduction of Central Valley Project water and obtaining an increased quantity of base supply water in its renewal contract. He also has extensive experience in negotiating the terms of water transfers with state and federal agencies, including issues relating to the regulatory restrictions placed on water rights as well as compliance with CEQA, the National Environmental Policy Act and the state and federal endangered species acts.

Other examples of Mr. Aladjem's experience in negotiating complicated and cutting-edge projects include his service as general counsel to a flood control district in the Sacramento Valley that was implementing an innovative floodplain management program. In this capacity, Mr. Aladjem coordinated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state and federal fish and wildlife agencies, as well as the federal action agency. Mr. Aladjem also served as counsel for a water agency located on the Central California coast. In that role, he counseled the agency in the reoperation of its reservoirs to reverse a half-century of seawater intrusion in coastal groundwater basins. On a pro-bono basis, he represented the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in a complex land-use/air quality/transportation planning stakeholder process that was intended to end the decades-long battles over growth and Sacramento's “urban form.” For that service, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments named him as one of its “Citizens of the Year” in 2005. In all of these—and many other—cases, Mr. Aladjem brings his substantive knowledge of the law, his creativity, and his ability to work with diverse stakeholders to assist clients in crafting new and unique solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

Mr. Aladjem has just completed a two-year term as the Chair of the American Bar Association's Water Resources Committee and in 2006 served as Chair of the American Bar Association's Annual Water Law Conference. He was recently asked to testify as an expert on California's water rights system before the California Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water. He has received an AV (highest) rating from his peers through the Martindale-Hubbell peer review process. He is admitted to practice before all state courts in California, before the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Eastern Districts of California, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He attended law school at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), and received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Professional Honors

Association of California Water Agencies, “Excellence in Water Leadership,” 2009

Sacramento Area Council of Governments, “Citizen of the Year,” 2005

Significant Publications

American Bar Association Natural Resources & Environment, “The Public Trust Doctrine: New Frontiers for Sustainable Water Resources Management,” (25th Edition), (in press), Author

Global Business & Development L.J ., “Recycling the Process: Collaborative Interest-Based Negotiations in an Era of Climate Change,” GLOBAL BUSINESS & DEVELOPMENT L. J . (in press), Author

McGeorge Law Review, “Innovation within a Regulatory Framework: The Protection of Instream Beneficial Uses of Water in California, 1978 to 2004,” 36 MCGEORGE L. REV. 305 (2005), Author

Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, “California's Other “Dual System”: Coordinated Management of Groundwater and Surface Water,” 49 PROC. ROCKY MOUNTAIN MINERAL L. INST. (2003), Author

Ecology L.A., “Public Use and Treatment as an Equal: An Essay on Poletown Neighborhood Council v. City of Detroit and Hawaii Housing Auth. v. Midkiff,” 15 ECOLOGY L. Q. 671 (1988), Author