Bob is an AV Martindale-Hubbell rated lawyer and Counsel for Sierra Club California. His legal career in Fresno and Sacramento started in 1972 and has ranged from being a law firm partner in private practice including representation of groups seeking enforcement of environmental laws to public practice prosecuting environmental and white collar crime. He was Adjunct Professor of Environmental Law at San Joaquin College of Law in Fresno from 1990 to 2003.
When Friends of the River challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ rule prohibiting any vegetation other than grass on all of the nation’s levees and the Corps moved to dismiss, Bob won the decision denying that motion. Other victories include the decision in the national class action that school buildings are damaged by the mere presence of asbestos; and the decision finding that the nationwide U.S. Forest Service anti-wilderness land management planning known as RARE II (roadless area review and evaluation) violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Bob also led the inter-disciplinary planning team that developed the Regional Plan adopted by the California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in 1975.
Bob obtained a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966, and after serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army, obtained a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1971. He has been a member of the California Bar since 1972.
“After all these years in water policy, one resounding lesson is clear: the more I learn about water, the more I know I don’t know. I’ve lived in the Delta region for most of my life and I deeply care about its future.”