Kevin M. O'Brien

Partner

621 Capitol Mall
18th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Areas of Law:

Environmental, Water, Litigation, Climate Change & Sustainability, Natural Resources, Water Rights, Endangered Species

Admitted to Practice in:

California, Colorado (inactive)

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.

MEMBERSHIPS

American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, Past Chair; Water Resources Committee, Member

State Bar of California, Real Property Law Section, Executive Committee, Former Member

Sacramento County Bar Association, Environmental Law Section, Member

Placer County Bar Association, Member

Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), Legal Affairs Committee and State Legislative Committee, Member

Northern California Water Association (NCWA), Member

EDUCATION

University of Denver College of Law (J.D., 1980)

University of California, Davis (A.B., 1977)

PUBLICATIONS

4 Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal 131, “Alice in Groundwater Land:  Water Supply Assessments and Subsurface Water Supplies,” 2010, Author

36 McGeorge Law Review 435, “The Governor’s Commission Recommendations on Groundwater: Treading Water Until the Next Drought,” 2005, Author

American Bar Association Water Resources Committee newsletter, “Recent Phase 8 Bay-Delta Settlement,” 2001, Author

Natural Resources & Environment, "A Tale of Two Coasts: How Two States Link Water and Land Use Planning," 1996, Co-author

25 Pacific Law Journal 1053, "Water Marketing in California Revisited: The Legacy of the 1987-92 Drought," 1994, Co-Author

California Environmental Law & Regulation Reporter, "From D-1485 to Delta Smelt:  A Description of the Controversy Surrounding the Bay-Delta Estuary," September 1994, Co-Author with David Aladjem

California Real Property Journal, "Water Service Issues," December 1991, Author

19 Pacific Law Journal 1165, "Water Marketing in California," 1988, Author

33rd Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute Proceedings, "New Conditions for Old Water Rights: An Examination of the Sources and Limits of State Authority," 1988, Author 

PRESENTATIONS

University of California, Davis, Extension, “Principles of Groundwater Law, Hydrology and Management,” 2001-Current, Lecturer

Association of California Water Agencies, Panel Presentation on Regional Desalination Project in Monterey County, 2011, Presenter  

State Bar Environmental Law Section, Environmental Institute, "What Every Environmental Attorney Should Know About California Law of Groundwater Rights and Groundwater Management," 1998, Presenter

University of California, Davis, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, 1987-1991, Lecturer

CHARITABLE

Capital Public Radio, Board of Directors, Chair

Eureka Schools Foundation (non-profit corporation raising private funds for the Eureka Union School District), Former President