Adam Gravley, Program Co-Chair, is a
partner at Buck & Gordon LLP where he
practices water law, local government and
public utility law. Recent projects include
representation of the Washington Water
Utility Council and the City of Yakima
Acquavella adjudication.
Matthew D. Wells, Program Co-Chair, a
partner at Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP,
focuses his practice around environmental
and land use law counseling and litigation,
and emphasizes marine and fresh water
issues.
John B. Arum is a partner at Ziontz,
Chestnut, Varnell, Berley & Slonim where
he practices in the areas of federal Indian
law, water law, and environment and land
use law.
Hal Beecher is instream flow biologist for
the Washington State Department of Fish
& Wildlife, where he is lead for the Water
Team. He was a co-author of “Instream
Flows for Riverine Resource Stewardship,”
published by the Instream Flow Council in
2002.
Joseph A. Brogan was Program
Coordinator in the King County
Department of Natural Resources, Water
and Land Resources Division before
joining the Land Use Practice Group and
the Environmental Practice Group at
Foster Pepper & Shefelman PLLC.
Russell C. Brooks is the Managing
Attorney of Pacific Legal Foundation’s
Northwest Office in Seattle, WA. Mr.
Brooks represents natural resources
advocates and service providers by
litigating trial and appellate cases in state
and federal courts involving environmental
and constitutional issues, including the
Endangered Species Act.
Harry Chesnin is General Counsel to the
Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis
Reservation and General Counsel to the
Upper Skagit Indian Tribe consisting of a
full range of Indian Law and related
representation including inter alia,
governmental affairs, gaming, economic
development, banking relationships, fishing
rights litigation, and treaty rights.
Mark A. Clark is Executive Director of the
Washington State Conservation
Commission, and was previously the
Conservation Reserve Enhancement
Program (CREP) Coordinator.
Kathleen Collins, Lobbyist with Capitol
Strategies, is a government relations
consultant who provides lobbying and
policy development services for private and
public clients, including the Washington
Water Policy Alliance.
Gerald “Jerry” W. Cormick is a Principal
in The CSE Group offering mediation,
consultation and training services. His
current assignments include endangered
species and water issues on the Lower
Colorado River. Dr. Cormick is on the
faculty of the University of Washington.
James Darwin “Dar” Crammond, a
hydrologist and lawyer, is the Water Rights
Program Manager for the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation in Yakima.
Charlie de La Chapelle is the founder of
the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance. Along
with his father he is a farmer raising apples
and pears in the Lower Yakima Valley.
Fred R. Disheroon is Special Litigation
Counsel for the U.S. Department of
Justice’s Environment and Natural
Resources Division. He has been with the
Department of Justice since 1975 and has
handled many major environmental law
cases. Before coming to the DOJ, he was
Assistant General Counsel for Litigation
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Peter Dykstra is Project Director with
Washington Water Trust, a private,
nonprofit organization whose mission is to
restore and enhance streamflows in
Washington State’s rivers and streams by
acquiring existing water rights from willing
water right holders and protecting those
water rights as instream flows.
Sarah Mack is an attorney with Mentor
Law Group, PLLC where her practice
emphasizes complex project permitting,
including water rights, water supply
planning, and administrative and judicial
appeals, for both public sector clients and
private developers.
Jay J. Manning is a partner with Brown,
Reavis & Manning PLLC, where his
practice includes all areas of environmental
law. Previously in the Attorney General’s
Office, he was chief counsel for the State
Department of Ecology.
Lawrence E. Martin, a partner at
Halverson & Applegate, PS, practices
general law with an emphasis on litigation
and water law. He serves on the firm’s
Recruiting, Training and Associate
Committees.
Joe Mentor, Jr. is the principal of Mentor
Law Group, PLLC, where he concentrates
his practice in the areas of water resources,
land use, and natural resources development.
Mason D. Morisset, Morisset, Schlosser,
Jozwiak & McGaw, has been a natural
resources litigator for over 35 years,
including three successful cases in the U.S.
Supreme Court, Antoine v. Washington
(1975); Washington Fishing Vessel
Association (1979); and Arizona v.
California (2000).
Thomas “Tom” D. Mortimer, Jr. is an
attorney with over 17 years of experience
working for public utilities and private
sector entities on matters relating to state
water law. He currently serves as special
legal counsel to numerous western
Washington municipalities, special districts
and private sector development firms.
Shirley Waters Nixon is Staff Attorney for
the Center for Environmental Law and
Policy (CELP) where her advocacy for the
Columbia River includes heading CELP’s
Columbia River Team and litigating CELP
vs. Ecology and the Quad Cities.
Darryll Olsen is principal for the Pacific
Northwest Project, a regional planning/
resource economics consulting firm. He
has 18-years of experience working on
Columbia River Basin water, energy and
environmental resources issues. He is also
a Board Representative to the Columbia-
Snake River Irrigators Association.
The Hon. Sidney P. Ottem, Court
Commissioner for the Yakima County
Superior Court, presides over the Yakima
Basin Stream of Adjudication. He is also a
member of the Water Disputes Task Force.
Alan Reichman is an Assistant Washington
State Attorney General for the State
Department of Ecology. He counsels the
Department’s Water Resources Program
and currently serves as lead attorney for the
Department in DOE v. Acquavella.
Jim Rioux is Special Assistant to the
Director of the Washington State
Department of Health’s Office of Drinking
Water, where he is responsible for oversight
and coordination of the department’s
activities related to the implementation of
the 2003 Municipal Water Law.
John Shurts is General Counsel for the
Northwest Power and Conservation
Council. Dr. Shurts is the author of Indian
Reserved Water Rights: The Winters
Doctrine in its Social and Legal Context
1880s-1930s.
William “Will” W. Stelle, Jr., is a partner at
Preston Gates & Ellis LLP with over 20
years experience in environmental and
natural resource law and leads the firms
Endangered Species Practice Group.
Previously, he was Regional Director of the
National Marine Fisheries Service.
Dan Swenson is the Water Resources
Manager for the Washington State
Department of Ecology’s Northwest
Regional Office. He has been in this
position for six years and with the
Department of Ecology for 22 years.
Larry Wasserman is the Environmental
Services Director for the Skagit River
System Cooperative, a fisheries
management organization of the
Swinomish, and Sauk-Suiattle Indian
Tribes. He oversees environmental review
of land and water management issues
related to salmon protection throughout the
Tribes’ usual and accustomed fishing
areas.
Susan M. Williams is a shareholder in
Williams & Works, P.A., an Indian and
woman-owned law firm. She successfully
argued the Big Horn case before the U.S.
Supreme Court and serves on several
boards of directors and national advisory
committees on state-tribal relations,
resource development, and environmental
protection.
Laura B. Wishik is Director, Environmental
Protection Section, Seattle City
Attorney’s Office, and is the lead attorney
representing Seattle in an appeal by the
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe of the Incidental
Take Permit issued by NMFS for Seattle’s
Cedar River Habitat Conservation Plan. |
