Julie Jones

Julie focuses on environmental and land use counseling and litigation for complex development projects. She resolves issues that arise under the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, federal and state species protection statutes, and a range of other local, state and federal statutes and common law doctrines that affect land use. An experienced litigator in California and federal courts, Julie defends projects and uses this experience to help clients obtain the approvals they need while minimizing litigation risk.

Julie’s strategic problem solving has assisted private and public entities in permitting major university, traditional and renewable energy, water supply, maritime, and master planned community projects. Recent accomplishments include:

• Assisting Stanford University in obtaining approval of a 1.5-million-square-foot office, research and development and medical clinic project in Redwood City. The project involved complex traffic, air quality and greenhouse gas issues. No litigation was filed.
• Helping a homebuilder with CEQA compliance following litigation. Although some opposition remained, the new CEQA document was not challenged and the project has been completed.
• Conducting land use and environmental due diligence – including CEQA, NEPA, endangered species, Federal Land Policy and Management Act and local land use issues – for proposed acquisitions of utility-scale solar projects.

Litigation successes include overcoming challenges to a university/county agreement for trails, a transportation sales tax ballot measure, a city/county agreement for urban services, a transportation authority’s light rail extension, and a university development and roadway project. Julie also represented a port in the successful defense of major expansion and dredging projects against NEPA and Endangered Species Act claims.


Julie is the author of the sustainable development chapter of Curtin’s California Land Use and Planning Law and has co-authored the treatise's chapters on federal and state wetland regulation and endangered species protections. She is also a regular contributor to the California Land Use and Development Law Report, and frequently lectures on CEQA and NEPA for clients, professionals and industry associations.