RMM would like to congratulate Senior Partner Jim Moose on his selection to the Sacramento Business Journal’s Best of the Bar 2014: An Insider’s Guide to Top Local Lawyers. Published Aug. 29, 2014, the Best of the Bar 2014 directory recognizes Sacramento-area attorneys who are especially well regarded by their peers.
Jim has enjoyed a distinguished career as one of the state’s leading environmental attorneys. His expertise on the California Environmental Quality ACT (CEQA) has made him a frequent guest speaker, author, and educator on the topic for audiences that include not only attorneys and judges, but also planners, consultants, policy experts, and students. In addition to CEQA, his practice covers the State Planning and Zoning Law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, the California Endangered Species Act, and other relevant land use and environmental statutes.
Jim’s clients include public agencies and project proponents up and down the state, as well as consulting firms, nonprofits and individuals. He handles all phases of the land use entitlement process and permitting processes, including administrative approvals and litigation, and has had nearly 30 opinions published by the state Courts of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. Over the past two decades, he has participated in drafting amendments to CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines. Along with Tina Thomas and Whit Manley, he is co-author of Guide to the California Environmental Quality Act (11th ed. 2007, Solano Press Books).
A native Sacramentan, Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and History from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall). Jim joined the firm as an associate in 1986, became a partner in 1990, and is now a senior partner at RMM.
To develop its Best of the Bar 2014 listing, the Sacramento Business Journal encouraged attorneys to nominate their peers. Nominees then were awarded points based on a formula with two factors that were equally weighted. One was the number of nominations received, with nominations from attorneys in firms other than the nominee’s counting for more points. The second was based on the opinion of 20 well-known lawyers who served on a peer-review panel. In all, 96 attorneys were included in the listing.