Events and Seminars

Upcoming Events and Seminars

August 6, 2010

One of the featured CLE sessions at the American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco will be the Section of State and Local Government Law's session on the beach renourishment case, Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep't of Envt'l Protection, a case being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court involving "judicial takings" and ownership of beachfront land.

I will be moderating a panel discussing the case and its implications. Also on the panel will be Professor John Echeverria (Vermont Law School), Jim Burling (Pacific Legal Foundation), and Dan Stengle (one of the attorneys who argued the case). More details here.

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Past Events and Seminars

May 6, 2010

I presented a session on Are Courts Waking Up To Property Rights? at the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association's Spring Seminar.

April 30, 2010

I moderated a presentation of the recently published book Takings International by Professor Rachelle Alterman, the Chair in Architecture/Town Planning at Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

In addition to Professor Alterman, the panel included Professor Russell Brown (University of Alberta) and Professor Bryan Schwartz (University of Manitoba) who gave details and criticisms of Canada's approach, Professor David Callies (University of Hawaii) discussing the Asia and Pacific approaches, and Professor Tom Roberts (Wake Forest University) comparing our homegrown system.More on the panel here.

In a separate program on Land Use Hot Topics, I presented a paper Recent Developments in Challenging the Right to Take in Eminent Domain (draft available on SSRN here).

These sessions were part of the ABA State and Local Government Law Section's Spring Meeting in Miami.

March, 14, 2010

I spoke about about Eminent Domain: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly at the "Foolish Things Salon" hosted by Li Zhao and Ken Schooland. More information here.

February 4-6, 2010

I was on the faculty of two of the best CLE programs about eminent domain law, ALI-ABA's Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, and Condemnation 101: How To Prepare and Present an Eminent Domain Case, held concurrently in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The first course is designed for attorneys with some condemnation experience, while the second is an introduction or refresher to the basic concepts and techniques in a condemnation case. More information about "Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation" is available here, and about "Condemnation 101" here.

January 12, 2010

I was the guest of nationally-renown land use law experts Professor Dan Mandelker and attorney Dwight Merriam for the International Municipal Lawyers Association's teleconference series. The subject was land use Exactions. More information here.

September 30 - August 4, 2009

I attended the Fall Council Meeting of the ABA's State and Local Government Law Section in Austin, Texas. On Wednesday, September 30, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm, I was a panelist discussing Careers in State and Local Government Law. Also on the panel were Professor David Callies, Honolulu, HI; David Courreges, Austin, TX; Larry Hoyt, Boulder, CO; and Nikelle Meade, Austin, TX. Donna Frazier, Shreveport, LA moderated.

September 16, 2009

I was on the faculty of Practical Guide to Zoning and Land Use Law, an annual program dealing with zoning approvals, constitutional limitations on land use regulations, and administrative procedure. My sessions covered "Appealing an Administrative Zoning Decision" and "Current Case Law and Legislative Update."

July 30 - August 2, 2009

I attended the State & Local Government Law Section meeting at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. More here.

May 14, 2009

Along with my Damon Key colleague Christi-Anne Kudo Chock, I was on the faculty of Integrating Water Law and Land Use Planning in Hawaii in Honolulu. I spoke about "Water Rights, Property Rights and the Law of Settled Expectations." Materials and links are posted here. 

April 2, 2009

Hot Topics in Land Use Law 2009 - The 2009 version of this popular annual program covered the latest developments in several areas of the law related to land use regulation.  Among the topics were the ability of town boards to control obstreperous speakers; the latest law concerning ethical constraints on state and local officials and the citizens who appear before them; restrictions on the government's ability to limit religious land uses under  the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA); what's new concerning cell tower sitting; the use of pretextual public purposes to justify takings; new law about impact fees and exactions; and citizen input into brown fields restoration and the backlash against it. I spoke about about the latest developments in eminent domain and pretext.  Items I discussed are posted here.

April 1, 2009

Condemnation Hot Topics - The program examined new and important condemnation cases and trends, and also reviewed eminent domain as a backdrop for land use regulation. I spoke about pretext and public use in eminent domain cases. Also on the faculty were Robert Freilich, Mary Lynn Huett, and Edward Sullivan. Professor Steven Eagle moderated. Items I discussed are posted here.

February 20, 2009

Our firm's annual land use seminar, Zoning, Subdivision and Land Development Law. Materials from my session on "Supreme Court, Regulatory Takings and Eminent Domain Update" here.

January 15-16, 2009

I was on the faculty at the Hawaii Land Use Law Conference, and spoke about "Emerging Water Issues." My materials are posted here.

September 27, 2008

I spoke about about Background Principles and Paradigm Shifting: The Role of Property Rights in Historic Preservation Laws, at the University of Hawaii Law School's workshop on burial and landmark issues. A summary of the conference:

Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the University of Hawaii School of Law will be presenting a workshop "Hawaii State Historic Preservation Laws: Reclaiming the Past, Shaping the Future."  The other speakers will be Dr. Kehau Abad, Oahu Island Burial Council; Dawn N.S. Chang, Kuiwalu; Prof. Carl C. Christensen, William S. Richardson School of Law; Dr. Thomas S. Dye, T.S. Dye and Associates; Moses Haia, Esq., Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation; Dr. Holly McEldowney, DLNR, Division of State Parks; Nancy McMahon, DLNR, Historic Preservation Division; Kai Markell, Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and William M. Tam, Esq., Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing.  The keynote speaker will be Dr. Patrick Kirch, Departments of Anthropology and Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley.

Materials from my presentation are posted here.