Daniel Brunton focuses his practice on environmental law, with an emphasis on helping developers obtain entitlements for large or controversial projects and defending those entitlements in court.
Mr. Brunton has extensive experience with California’s environmental-review statute and the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”). He often works with developers to ensure that their CEQA documents are litigation-ready and has successfully defended over 20 CEQA lawsuits challenging the environmental review for projects he has worked on. Mr. Brunton has broad experience with the other statutes that govern developments, including the Clean Water Act, the Subdivision Map Act, the Coastal Act, the Endangered Species Act, and local zoning and land use laws. He has also developed an expertise in tribal consultations under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and under California law.
Mr. Brunton’s entitlement practice focuses on large-scale infrastructure projects, including renewable energy projects, stadiums, rail and highway projects, and transmission lines. In recent years, Mr. Brunton has developed a specialty in projects related to renewable energy and is a founding editor of Latham & Watkins’ blog on clean energy.