Public Agency and Municipal Lawyers

Firm Overview

Founded in 1994, SBEMP LLP is a California law firm with a dedicated Public Agency and Municipal Law Practice Group that serves as general and special counsel to cities, special districts, and joint powers authorities statewide. 

We deliver the broad municipal-law knowledge and wisdom every California public agency is seeking, including open meetings compliance (The Brown Act) and transparency (Public Records Act), along with specialized expertise in contracts, complex public works matters, planning and land use, real estate transactions, revenue laws, and code enforcement. Our team also assists you with the Political Reform Act and conflict-of-interest issues that routinely arise in city governance.

Beyond day-to-day counsel, we deliver a potent and extremely responsive team of litigators fighting for your interests. We also offer the comprehensive workplace support your team needs and expects, including a strong practice in labor and employment advice and negotiations, as well as state and federal court practice, tort defense, and workers’ compensation coordination. We pair this depth with practical guidance for your city council or district board, and staff leaders in a timely, solutions-oriented approach that keeps projects moving and protects your interests.

Legal Expertise Summary

CALIFORNIA’S OPEN GOVERNMENT LAWS:  Our legal team is highly qualified to provide counsel regarding California’s open meeting and public records laws. We advise clients on these laws daily and regularly provide innovative AB1234 training that is both interactive and entertaining. 

ETHICS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST LAWS:  California’s ethics laws provide merely the minimum level of acceptable conduct by public officials. Our approach is to advise clients to not only comply with the minimum requirements of the law but also to even avoid the appearance of impropriety. SBEMP attorneys regularly monitor changes in the Political Reform Act, Government Code 1090, and other specialized conflict of interest laws and regulations affecting public agencies to provide current advice to our clients. 

PUBLIC CONTRACTING:  Our services include negotiation, preparation, and review of contracts and purchasing policies, as well as the negotiation and drafting of professional service agreements, employment and relocation agreements and public works contracts. We develop client-specific (custom) model contracts to keep legal costs down for clients. When creating new documents for our public agency clients, we develop master agreements that staff can use on similar future projects. This ensures clients don’t need to reinvent the wheel for future needs. We have advised and assisted our public agency clients with large multi-million-dollar contracts and capital projects. 

PERSONNEL AND EMPLOYMENT:  Attorneys Lena Wade and Vee Sotelo provide labor and employment and human resources (HR) advice to public agencies. Ms. Wade will represent your agency if assistance is needed with collective bargaining. Ms. Wade and Ms. Sotello are both available to provide a full range of labor and employment legal counsel and litigation services. Our team is also well-versed on employee termination and discipline, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wage and hour issues, employee grievances, workplace investigations, and employee safety concerns. Our labor department provides monthly legal alerts to our clients on developments in the areas of labor and employment law. These updates are provided at no charge. We also provide sexual harassment training and anti-bullying training as required by law. 

LITIGATION EXPERIENCE:  One of the unique qualifications of our experienced senior-level legal team is that our team comprises experienced litigators with successful track records. Winning is paramount to our clients once they are involved in litigation, and we understand this when our team takes on litigation matters. We can pursue client objectives efficiently but aggressively without the financial drain that public agencies often experience with poorly planned litigation. Planning is everything in litigation. Before initiating or defending litigation, we will communicate with your leadership team and staff to clearly identify the risks, potential benefits, and specific litigation goals. We then develop and articulate a clear, cost-effective strategy for achieving the client’s goals. You will never have to ask about the status of a case we are handling, as we will provide consistent written and verbal status reports on all litigation matters. 

TRANSACTIONS:  Our legal team has closed transactions collectively valued in the billions, so we are confident that we can handle all of the transactional needs of our public agency and municipal clients. 

GOVERNMENT TORT LIABILITY:  We are experienced in representing clients in actions involving negligence, intentional torts, trespass, civil rights violations, assault and battery, false arrest, taking of property, dangerous conditions on public property, and failure to discharge mandatory duties. We regularly advise and represent our clients concerning the Tort Claims Act. 

LAND USE AND PLANNING LAWS:  For decades, our attorneys have advised clients essentially daily on major development, planning, land use, and CEQA matters. 

APPEALS: Our attorneys represent clients in state and federal appeals. We are well-versed in appellate procedures at both the state and federal levels, with several recently published opinions. Our attorneys have served as amicus counsel on cases of statewide importance for the League of California Cities, the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), and the California State Association of Counties.  

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE: Our attorneys inform and train public officials on parliamentary procedure. We are experts on Robert’s Rules of Order and Rosenburg’s Rules of Order. We also prepare custom-tailored parliamentary procedure policies for our public agency clients.