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Michael R. Woods,
Partner Tel: +1 707 996 1776 |
Michael R. Woods has
extensive background in providing legal support to the development of
large-scale energy infrastructure projects. He has structured public-private
partnerships in both land development and energy contexts. His practice has also emphasized local
government, land use and planning law, and the California Environmental Quality
Act.
Michael has negotiated
development agreements, owner participation agreements and other contracts
associated with public and private development projects. He has been involved with legal,
regulatory and organizational issues concerning the gas and electric industries
and the development of new utility enterprises, while providing general and
special counsel services to development companies, cities, water districts and
consulting firms. Michael has assisted in the establishment of a new municipal
utility and its acquisition of a gas and electric distribution system from the
federal government, and in the creation of award-winning public/private
partnerships. He has recently been involved with representing the developer of
an undersea high-voltage transmission cable to serve San Francisco, structuring
the public-private partnership to address key regulatory issues and assisting
in environmental review, permitting and legal support for project management on
a wide variety of issues. He
continues to assist that project during the construction phase and as it
approaches commercial operation.
Michael is also representing the developer of a 480,000 square foot
office campus project in southern California, including structuring a
partnership with the local governmental agency and obtaining necessary land use
entitlements. He represented the
developer of a wind repowering project in California, assisting with
environmental review, public agency permitting and legal strategies to address
potential liability for natural resource damages.
Michael's practice has
emphasized public agency law. Through his private law practice and work with
other law firms, Michael has provided legal representation in one form or
another to more than twenty local public agencies in California. He represented
the League of California Cities in discussions with Pacific Gas & Electric
Company over new franchise agreements, the first such joint effort in
California since the 1930’s. He served as City Attorney for the City of
Pittsburg, California from March 1, 1993, until October 31, 2000. He also
served as interim city manager for Pittsburg from May 1995 to May 1996 and as
general counsel to the City's municipal utility entity, the Pittsburg Power
Company Joint Powers Authority. He has served as Interim General Manager and
District Counsel to the Valley of the Moon Water District in the Sonoma Valley,
and served six years as an appointed and elected member of the District’s
Board of Directors with two terms as president. He has served as litigation
counsel to the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation
Improvement District, successfully defending the District’s water
management ordinance and intervening in another matter to help protect the
District’s water rights.
From 1987 to 1989,
Michael was associated with the law firm of Burke, Williams, & Sorensen in
Las Angeles. With approximately 60 attorneys, the firm acted as City Attorney
for over twenty cities and as Special Counsel for approximately 30 other local
public agencies, primarily in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. Michael
served as Assistant City Attorney for the cities of Whittier and Santa Clarita.
He helped establish and was Assistant Special Counsel for the Pismo Beach
Redevelopment Agency. He was Assistant City Prosecutor for the City of
Paramount, and supervised the City's criminal municipal code enforcement
program. While with Burke, Williams & Sorensen, Michael participated in
representing several other cities in litigation or provision of other legal
services, including Palos Verdes Estates, Pasadena, Cypress, Moorpark, Bell,
Baldwin Park, Downey and Azusa.
From November 1, 2000,
until resuming his private practice on January 1, 2002, Michael was special of
counsel to Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May. Michael incorporated his law
practice in 1993.
Michael has made
representations before the League of California Cities and local city attorney
organizations on various topics, including the provisions of the Political
Reform Act regarding conflicts of interest for local public officials. He has
lectured on California land use regulations in a program co-sponsored by the
Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration, California State
University, Long Beach, and the Western Government Research Association. He has
also made presentations on utility industry restructuring at conferences
sponsored by the Association of Bay Area Governments, Infocast and the National
Association of Installation Developers.
Michael served on the
Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator, which has
operational control over approximately eighty percent of the state's electrical
transmission grid. Michael is also a former member of the Executive Committee
of the Public Law Section, State Bar of California. Since 2001, Michael has served as a
member of the board of directors of the Power Association of Northern
California, a non-profit trade organization.
Legal Education
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1986 |
J.D., John F. Kennedy University School of Law |
Professional Admissions /
Qualifications
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California
Court Admissions
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U.S.
District Court Northern District of California,
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U.S.
District Court of Appeals 9th Circuit