Martin Stratte is an attorney in the Government, Land Use, Environment & Energy Department and a member of the Natural Resources and Mining Group.
He assists with the entitlement of complex projects throughout California in accordance with CEQA, NEPA, and the state’s ever-changing greenhouse gas and climate change regulations. His practice is focused on projects for the mining, construction, and building materials industries, and ranges from land use/environmental due diligence and permitting, to the reclamation and repositioning of property.
His experience includes work for large quarries and metallic mines, and the development of related infrastructure such as flood control levees and aggregate transloading facilities. He has worked on projects located in both urban and remote areas, including federal public lands, national parks, and national monuments.
He also defends permits and land use entitlements when challenged through litigation and, in addition to mining projects, has previously defended entitlements for multiple Supercenters, several million square feet of warehouse and distribution space, and large residential projects.
Martin has trial experience, maintains an active appellate practice, and was selected as a 2019 & 2020 Rising Star in Land Use & Zoning by Super Lawyers and recognized by Best Lawyers in its 2021 “Ones to Watch.”
HIGHLIGHTS
- Drafted briefs in two CEQA actions and the subsequent appeals filed in opposition to a large residential development that was approved in 2015 through an environmental impact report that had been previously certified in the 1980s. (27 Cal.App.5th 771 (2018); 2017 WL 6274420).
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a large egg and poultry ranch in a complex, years-long environmental action in which the plaintiff sought significant damages as a result of the alleged contamination of organic farmlands. Drafted and argued motion for summary judgment based on the Raw Supplier Doctrine, as adopted in Artiglio v. General Electric Co., 61 Cal.App.4th 830 (1998).
J.D., Thomas Jefferson School of Law, 2012
B.A., Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008
State Bar of Nevada
U.S. District Court, Central District
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA)
California Lawyers Association, Environmental Law Section
Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation
- Super Lawyers Rising Star in Land Use & Zoning, 2019 & 2020
- Recognized in Best Lawyers®: Ones to Watch 2021
- Environmental Law News: Protecting California's Disadvantaged Communities – An Examination of How the State's New Environmental Justice Laws May Affect the CEQA Entitlement Process
- The WLF Legal Pulse: California Appeals Court Upholds Legislative Workaround that Mooted CEQA Suit Targeting Development Project in Los Angeles
- Washington Legal Foundation: California Court Grants CEQA Defendant Discovery into Plaintiff-Group's Standing
- Environmental Law News: Environmental Law News: Coming Full Circle in the Fifth—Revisiting the Concept of 'Urban Decay' and its Increasingly Limited Role in CEQA
- Climate Change Law & Policy Reporter: California Court of Appeal Determines that EIR Prepared by SANDAG for Its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan Violated CEQA
- Sacramento Bar Association: New Environmental Justice Legislation
- CalCIMA: Mining Purposefully with the Promise and Peril of Environmental Justice
- California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA) 2017 Education Conference
- California Polytechnic State University: The Role of Science in Civil Litigation and CEQA
- Speaking Engagement: California Land Use Law & Policy Conference