Professional Experience

Kristina Daniel Lawson is a partner in the Land, Environment and Natural Resources Division in the San Francisco office.  Ms. Lawson’s broad advisory and advocacy practice focuses on all aspects of California land use and environmental law.  From the interpretation and application of local General Plans, specific plans, zoning ordinances, and the Subdivision Map Act, to local land use initiatives and referenda, to state and federal natural resources, air, and water law, her wide-ranging expertise adds significant value to land use projects throughout the state.

Ms. Lawson’s vast experience has included the representation of:

• White Wing Highland Associates, the owner of 1,580 acres in unincorporated Solano County where she served as lead counsel and successfully entitled the Rockville Trails Estates project in 2007.  The project consisted of a 370-unit residential subdivision, with on-site water and wastewater facilities, a proposed fire substation and open space preservation.  Following the project’s entitlement, she defended and settled a complex CEQA case challenging the project, facilitating the phased sale of a portion of the project site to the Solano Land Trust.
• A family with significant landholdings in Lafayette and Moraga, California, providing strategic advice and counsel when the client was faced with a potential downzoning of landholdings by a local initiative backed by the Sierra Club. Ms. Lawson drafted and qualified a counter-initiative that successfully blocked the proposed downzoning.
• A national retailer in obtaining local discretionary entitlements to allow the client to sell beer and wine at its stores in Contra Costa County, San Joaquin County, Sonoma County, and Monterey County.
• A multifamily residential developer in Walnut Creek, California, in developing a CEQA streamlining strategy that saved the developer significant time and expense.
• The owner of Depot Park (former Sacramento Army Depot) in Sacramento, California, in a lawsuit challenging the extension of a redevelopment area.  The successful settlement of the lawsuit provides for substantial investment in the Depot Park project.
• The owner of Villa Del Lago commercial center in Patterson, California, in connection with entitlements secured from Stanislaus County and subsequent annexation to Patterson.
• A Fortune 50 high-tech company, in a successful settlement of an enforcement action brought by the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District resulting from the operation of emergency standby generators following an unscheduled power outage.

Ms. Lawson regularly appears before state and local agencies throughout the Bay Area and California.  She has also served as special counsel to both the City of Palo Alto and the League of California Cities on complex land use and environmental matters, including matters involving California’s tidelands trust, the proposed high-speed rail project, and emergency water supply projects.

Education

Santa Clara University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2002.
Order of the Coif.

University of Arizona, B.A., 1998.

Memberships & Activities

Member, Contra Costa Council Land Use Task Force.

Contributing Editor, Environmental Liability, Enforcement & Penalties Reporter, 2008–2009.

Contributing Editor, California Water Law and Policy Reporter, 2008–2009.

Contributing Editor, California Land Use Law and Policy Reporter, 2005–2008.

Board of Directors, East Bay Commercial Real Estate Women, 2006–2011.

Member, Network Industry Research Committee for Commercial Real Estate Women.

Member, Urban Land Institute.

Member, International Council of Shopping Centers.

Member, State Bar of California (Public Law, Environmental Law, and Legislative Committee of Environmental Law Sections).

Member, Contra Costa County Bar Association.

Member, American Bar Association (State and Local Government, and Environmental and Natural Resources Sections).

Honors & Awards

San Francisco Business Times, "40 Under 40," 2012.

Northern California Superlawyer, “Rising Star,” 2010, 2011.

Publications

“CEQA’s Neverending Story – Post-Entitlement Enforcement of Mitigation Measures,” California Land Use Law and Policy Reporter, June 2008.

“Prohibiting Big Macs and Rollbacks: California’s Ever-Expanding Regulation of Retail End-Users,” California Land Use Law and Policy Reporter, December 2007.

“Climate Change: New Impact Laws Affecting Development Projects,” BUILDERnews magazine, July 2007.

“Thinking Globally When Acting Locally: How Will CEQA Adapt to a Changing Environment?” California Real Property Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2007.

Speaking Engagements

“Local, County and Federal Update on the Status of Public Policy on Business and Commercial Real Estate,” East Bay Commercial Real Estate Women Luncheon Meeting, February 2011.

“Developing Opportunities,” Miller Starr Regalia Land Use Breakfast Update, January 2011.

“CEQA & Climate Change,” California Water Law & Policy Conference, April 2010.

“From Formula Businesses to Drive Thrus to Docs-in-a-Box: Permitting Special Uses and Services in Today’s Complex Regulatory Environment,” ICSC Law Conference Roundtable, October 2008.

“Permitting Your Project: Basics of Bay Area Entitlement Processing,” East Bay Commercial Real Estate Women Brown Bag Series, July 2008.

“Real Estate Development From Beginning to End,” Lorman Education Services, February 2008.

“Air Quality, Water and Smart Growth,” San Joaquin Valley Housing Symposium, January 2008.

“Update on Laws Addressing Climate Change and Their Impact on the Industrial and Development Sectors,” Contra Costa Council Industrial and Environmental Task Force, August 2007.