Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows Mike Berger. If you don't immediately recognize his name just check the reports of decisions because you certainly know his cases, which include: Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (2002), City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. (1999), Preseault v. ICC (1990), and First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles (1987) in the U.S. Supreme Court, and countless cases in the Federal and California Reports. A frequent speaker and law review author, Mike has been representing property owners in eminent domain, regulatory takings, and inverse condemnation cases for decades. I have considered Mike a guide who helped me start down the land use law path ever since I read his article "Happy Birthday, Constitution: The Supreme Court Establishes New Ground Rules for Land-Use Planning," 20 Urban Lawyer 735 (1988).
Last week at our annual meeting, the Owners' Counsel of America honored Mike with the Crystal Eagle Award for his "devotion to defending Americans and their private property in eminent domain, regulatory takings, inverse condemnation, land use litigation." OCA is the one-per-state association of the country's most experienced eminent domain and property lawyers (I am the Hawaii member of OCA). For more, including photos from the awards ceremony, visit OCA's Eminent Domain blog.
I'll share one anecdote, which should tell you a lot about Mike. At the tail end of a teleseminar on land use and regulatory takings a few years ago, the panel accepted questions from the audience. When one of the 50+ attendees asked a question about what the first step he and his clients should take having just lost a regulatory takings case in a trial court (the details of which escape me now), one panelist -- a government lawyer -- responded, "you mean after you call Mike Berger?"
Who among us hasn't thought the same thing?
