O’Melveny Team Recognized with 2024 CLAY Award by the Daily Journal
June 27, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES—June 27, 2024—An O’Melveny team led by partner Matt Kline, head of the firm’s Water Group, has been named to the Daily Journal‘s 2024 list of CLAY Award recipients. The annual list highlights the best lawyers and legal work in California over the past year.
The O’Melveny team, which included partner Russell McGlothlin, counsel Heather Welles, Kathryn K. Turner, and Kevin Kraft, and associates Zach Smith, Adam Phillips, Gillian Hawley, Shey Reif, Katie Takakjian, and Zach Meeker was recognized for achieving three successful trial results representing the Las Posas Farming Group in the first comprehensive groundwater adjudication tried under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Divided into three separate phases, the goal of the case was to resolve rights to groundwater in the 66-square mile Las Posas water basin in Ventura County among nearly 100 parties.
The O’Melveny team prosecuted a stipulation that resolved the first phase of the case involving prescriptive rights claims. In the second phase of the case, involving groundwater allocation and water rights questions, Kline led a group of some 85% of the landowners in the basin to present a stipulated groundwater allocation system to the Santa Barbara Superior Court that achieves the goals of equity and sustainability and comports with California law. In the third and final phase of the trial, concluded in June 2023, Judge Thomas Anderle adopted the proposed final judgment spearheaded by O’Melveny, ending the adjudication and determining groundwater rights and future management of the Las Posas Basin.
O’Melveny prevailed in contested trials during each of the three phases of the case, with Heather Welles taking a lead role on all legal briefs, and Kathryn Turner and Zach Smith helping Kline and Welles with key witness examinations. The settlements spearheaded by Russ McGlothlin really set the table for each trial. "I think the reasons we were able to persuade people to join our approach were, one, it was very fair and consistent with the law, and two, it was supported by a diverse group of people all over the basin," Kline said. “Russ and our clients also did a remarkable job of being practical and equitable about proposing solutions and then defending them with client and expert testimony in court.”
O’Melveny’s Water Group counsels clients on the full spectrum of legal services facing water investors and financiers, agricultural companies, major water users, and government agencies, including high-stakes transactions, complex litigation, and regulatory issues. With water scarcity increasingly a matter of economic, political, environmental, and humanitarian concern, O’Melveny counsels clients on disputes and litigation, water quality and environmental compliance, water infrastructure agreements, and water project financing.
Daily Journal subscribers can view the O’Melveny team’s award profile here.
About O’Melveny
It’s more than what you do: it’s how you do it. Across sectors and borders, in board rooms and courtrooms, we measure our success by yours. And in our interactions, we commit to making your O’Melveny experience as satisfying as the outcomes we help you achieve. Our greatest accomplishment is ensuring that you never have to choose between premier lawyering and exceptional service. So, tell us. What do you want to achieve? Visit us at www.omm.com; read our Insights 2024 report; learn more in our firm at-a-glance; and find us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Contact:
Brandon Jacobsen
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
+1 213 430 8024
bjacobsen@omm.com
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