Client Successes

BB&K Attorneys Jason Ackerman, Fernando Avila and Jennifer Lynch Represented the City of Shafter

In the wake of a successful California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit on behalf of the City of Shafter, a team of Best Best & Krieger LLP attorneys secured a $185,000 post-judgment attorneys’ fees award. Attorneys Jason Ackerman, Fernando Avila and Jennifer Lynch represented Shafter in its CEQA lawsuit that challenged Kern Delta Water District’s proposal to shift a diversion of water historically diverted north of the Kern River to south of the river.

The BB&K attorneys began representing Shafter in 2012 when the Kern Delta Water District was attempting to adopt an environmental impact report for the Kern River Allocation Plan. The Plan called for the diversion of approximately 33,000 acre-feet of water.

On behalf of Shafter, the BB&K team argued that the EIR failed to analyze the groundwater impacts, the short- and mid-term impacts related to land subsidence and the impacts outside the project area – particularly how the groundwater basins that serve Shafter would be depleted.

In a ruling last year, a Ventura County Superior Court judge sided with Shafter on virtually all the arguments. The attorneys’ fees award followed.