The Firm's Environmental Law & CEQA Practice
The Firm has a preeminent Land Use and CEQA practice. The Firm also handles a wide variety of highstakes environmental regulatory matters. As a result, FA is able to offer its clients comprehensive strategies for clearing the potential environmental hurdles that confront businesses and proposed development projects. We have assisted multiple public agencies to draft legally compliant environmental impact reports; assisted small, mid-sized, and large developers in navigating CEQA compliance issues within planning commission, city council, and county supervisorial challenges and meetings, and has represented community groups ensuring that local projects are CEQA compliant and in court, negotiating settlements, filing petitions for writs of mandate, and litigating CEQA actions.
The Firm has extensive expertise and experience in handling CEQA and land use matters for both private companies and public entities throughout California. We have good working relationships with numerous local, state, and federal land use agencies and regulators. The Firm also has experience negotiating with many of the prominent environmental nonprofit plaintiff groups and neighborhood advocacy groups in California.
For the last seven years, the Firm has fully litigated CEQA challenges to protect the rights of municipalities, developers, landowners and other stakeholders. Our regulatory experience includes effective negotiation with local, regional, state and federal agencies, administrative permitting, and inspection and compliance reviews. We have represented a diverse client base in over 50 CEQA matters, most of which were litigated, several to appeal.
The Firm has represented developers with real estate opportunity projects in Santa Clara County, including CEQA compliance and other land use issues. Mr, Finney has also worked with the County of Santa Clara over many decades, including assisting the County with state land use, education, social services, infrastructure, workforce development, former CRA and COIN projects with the financial services industry, aerospace, and community and cultural projects including museums with state funding and regulatory issues through multiple state administrations, and has served on state boards and commissions with key Santa Clara County public and private individuals. He has relationships with key players in the region and has assisted with technology and investment projects with Silicon Valley companies and executives both locally and abroad.