David Sandino

David Sandino is the Director of the Aoki Water Justice Clinic: Small Farmer Assistance Program. He served as Chief Counsel under an appointment by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and senior staff counsel for the California Department of Water Resources. He has worked on significant water, environmental, tribal, financial, and energy issues during his thirty-year public service career with the Department. The Department operates the largest state-built water system in the United States, which delivers water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. He also served as counsel to two State boards, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the California Water Commission.

His lengthy academic career has centered on teaching professional and undergraduate natural resource courses. He has taught at Santa Clara University School of Law, University of California, Davis, University of California, Santa Barbara, Texas Tech University School of Law, Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of San Francisco School of Law, Golden Gate University School of Law, Lincoln Law School of Sacramento, University of Redlands, and Sacramento State University. He has taught a variety of courses relating to his expertise, including water law, tribal water law, environmental law, environmental law in a practice setting, federal Indian law, energy resources law, renewable energy law, real property, international environmental law, and local government law. Most recently, he taught federal Indian law for the UC Davis Native American Studies Department and California environmental law for Santa Clara University School of Law. 

He also created and teaches courses for water and environmental professionals, including for the UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education program on California water law and policy, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Tribal water law and policy, and the law of California interstate rivers. He received a distinguished teaching award from the UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education for his contribution to natural science education. He received a 1999 Fulbright Fellowship to teach in Russia, where he taught international environmental law at the Moscow State Academy. He is an active member of the Fulbright Association. Last October he spoke at the 46th Annual Fulbright Conference about the United States and Mexico’s collaborative water management on the Colorado River. 

He served on the Board of Editors of California Environmental Law Reporter and has written numerous articles about natural resources issues. He is a co-author of the groundwater quality chapter in California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice, the leading environmental law treatise in California. He has been a frequent speaker and lecturer on water, Tribal, and environmental issues at universities and conferences. He served as the 2019 David Keith Todd Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Groundwater Resources Association, lecturing on current groundwater conflicts at universities in California and Nevada. Active on professional social media, he writes frequent updates on important environmental, water, and Tribal legal developments. 

He is a dedicated member of the Davis community, serving on different commissions, including the Finance and Budget Commission, Planning Commission, and Police Advisory Commission.