Professor Frank speaks at California Water Law Symposium

Professor of Environmental Practice Rick Frank spoke at the California Water Law Symposium, held Feb. 2 at the UC Hastings College of the Law.  

Professor Frank participated in the symposium keynote address with former California State Sen. Fran Pavley and State Water Resources Control Board Chair Felicia Marcus, discussing water law and policy challenges facing California.

He also spoke on a panel focusing on the connection between surface and groundwater supplies in California, where he analyzed a recent California Court of Appeal decision (Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th 844), in which that appellate court upheld Professor Frank’s legal argument that California’s public trust doctrine applies to the state’s groundwater resources.

The Water Law Symposium is an annual event organized and sponsored by six Northern California law schools, including King Hall.  Entirely planned and administered by law students from those schools, the Symposium has emerged in recent years as California’s preeminent water law and policy conference.  This year, King Hall students led by Class of 2020 members Justine Massey and Peter Jansen organized a separate panel discussing how equal access to clean, affordable groundwater can be assured for all Californians under the state’s landmark 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.  (Massey moderated this Symposium  presentation.)

Professor Frank ’74 is a leader in the field of environmental law, Professor of Environmental Practice and the founding director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.