Shannon Chaffin
Equity Partner
Shannon L. Chaffin is an Equity Partner in the Central Valley office, handling a wide variety of legal issues including land use, environmental, municipal law, and litigation. Shannon currently serves as City Attorney for the City of Yuba City and the City of Madera, as well as Interim City Attorney for the City of Sanger; General Counsel for the Madera County Transportation Commission; Assistant City Attorney for the City of Kerman and the City of San Joaquin; and Assistant General Counsel for the Del Rey Community Services District. He is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Environmental and Natural Resources Group.
Shannon has advised multiple public agencies throughout the state, including previously serving as City Attorney for King City and the City of Arvin, as well as Senior Deputy City Attorney for the City of Fresno. He has served as advisor to numerous boards and commissions, including Planning Commissions, Historic Preservation Commissions, Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Commissions, and Housing and Community Development Commissions. He has experience with multiple comprehensive updates to general plans, specific plans, and zoning ordinances, and brings a broad range of municipal law experience spanning municipal transparency and ethics, regulation of vices, and oil and gas operations.
Shannon also has experience in hundreds of litigation proceedings involving a wide variety of matters, including contract enforcement, personal injury, asset recovery, bond enforcement, bankruptcies, stop notices, land use approvals, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) challenges, civil rights claims, and mediations and negotiations. He has assisted law enforcement as the “on-call” attorney for officer-involved shootings and has provided training for depositions and court testimony. Shannon has presented AB 1234 training, multiple advanced CEQA workshops—including for the Association of Environmental Professionals—and other conferences, including the American Planning Association State Conference.
Shannon graduated with honors from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, where he was a member of the Board of Advocates. He served as a summer associate with the U.S. Army JAG at Fort Irwin and, after receiving his Juris Doctor, practiced in the private sector handling complex business litigation, commercial law, real estate, and civil litigation matters. He holds a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, from Hillsdale College in Michigan, where he majored in Political Economics and History.
The San Joaquin Agricultural Law Review has published an article by Shannon regarding federal water subsidy applications and agricultural operations, and he has served as a lecturer for the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) on CEQA matters.