Christine Carson is a Partner. She serves as general counsel and advises public agencies on a broad range of issues, including Water Law, civil litigation, Labor and Employment Law, the Public Records Act, CEQA, the Clean Water Act, land use, contract formation and negotiation, drafting and amending ordinances, resolutions, and personnel rules, conducting wage and hour audits, and management trainings.
Ms. Carson provides advice and legal support on water, wastewater and MS4 issues for most of the Firm’s clients, including water quality, infrastructure, and rate-setting. She has represented county and municipal water districts, irrigation districts, mutual water companies, investor-owned public utilities, State Water Project contractors, city water departments, and transportation entities. She has litigated and advocated water rights.
In her litigation practice, Ms. Carson has successfully litigated many complex cases and obtained dismissals of numerous cases through motions. She also externed with Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr., then Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court, Central District. Ms. Carson was a certified law clerk for the Riverside District Attorney’s Office, handling jury trials and preliminary hearings.
• Successfully defended challenges under the Mitigation Fee Act and CEQA to water capacity fees, in the trial court and Court of Appeal, including in Granville Homes, Inc. v. City of Fresno (2020) 2020 WL 2832493.
• Represented cities and counties in multiple-plaintiff overtime cases, including a 500-plaintiff Fair Labor Standards Act case in U.S. District Court brought by police officers, sergeants and lieutenants; represented County sued by dispatchers for overtime; represented City in cases concerning calculation of regular rate of pay.
• Provided strategic advice to public agencies concerning compliance programs relating to environmental statutes and regulations, including NPDES permits.
• Successfully conducted chain of title research for multiple water districts tracing client water rights to the 1800’s and proving pre-1914 water rights and prescriptive water rights.
• Provided strategic advice to public agencies concerning compliance programs relating to Proposition 218, Proposition 26 and water capacity fees.
• Litigated multiple complex construction defect cases following landslides in Malibu and Calabasas.
• May/June, 2021 -- authored article on Perfluorooctanoic acid and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (“PFAS”) which appeared in the May-June 2021 issue of California Special Districts.
• Published “A California Local Public Agency’s Guide to Lawful Outsourcing” with California Public Employers Labor Relations Association.
Christine Carson will be publishing in the December 2022 issue of California Special Districts an article on new PFAS statutes and pending bills.
• California Special Districts Association Legal Advisory Working Group
• Association of California Water Agencies
• League of California Cities
• April, 2021 -- presented and moderated a panel of experts on PFAS for CSDA.
• December 3, 2019 -- presented and moderated a panel of experts on Assembly Bill 756 concerning PFAS at the Association of California Water Agencies Fall Conference.
• 2017 – presented “Not Everybody Must Get Stoned: Managing the Legally Savvy Marijuana User,” at the California Contract Cities Conference and the Public Employment Labor Relations Association of California conference.
• Loyola Law School, JD, 1996, cum laude, Order of the Coif, Academic Honors Scholar, Sayre MacNeil Scholar, Law Review Articles Editor and Staff Writer
• Boston University, BA, 1990, cum laude