Shockley, Rachel S.

Ms. Holman joined the firm in 1998 and is senior counsel at the firm. Ms. Holman represents public agencies, private applicants, and citizens' groups in a wide variety of land use and environmental law matters. Ms. Holman handles all phases of the land use entitlement and permitting processes, from local agency administrative approvals through trial and appellate litigation. Ms. Holman's practice includes the California Environmental Quality Act, the State Planning and Zoning Law, the Subdivision Map Act, the California Coastal Act, the California Endangered Species Act, the California Water Code provisions relating to water supplies for development, the National Environmental Policy Act, the federal Endangered Species Act, the federal Clean Water Act provisions associated with wetlands permitting, and the State Mining and Reclamation Act.

Ms. Holman regularly teaches on land use and environmental law topics. She is an lecturer of Environmental Law and Policy at Sacramento State University and has taught continuing education classes and seminars for professional organizations such as the Association of Environmental Professionals and the California Continuing Education of the Bar program.

Representative matters include:

• Represented prevailing amicus curiae Californians Against Waste, along with Jim Moose, in Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach (2011) 52 Cal.4th 155, in which the Court upheld the environmental review prepared by the City of Manhattan Beach to support an ordinance banning the use of plastic bags by local businesses.
• Represented the City of San Marcos as it prepared an EIR in conjunction with its approval of the San Marcos Creek Specific Plan. The project was approved, and there were no CEQA challenges.
• Represented the City of Salinas in its challenges to the adoption of extensive urban development plans in the County of Monterey adjacent to its borders. The matter was successfully resolved after the City and County reached a memorandum of understanding that would dictate how all long term planning disputes would be resolved.
• Represented the City of Suisun City in its review and approval of a commercial development project under CEQA. In 2008, Ms. Holman successfully co-defended the City against a lawsuit challenging the City's compliance with CEQA and the project's consistency with the airport land use plan.

During law school her article Re-Regulation at the CPUC and California's Non-Delegation Doctrine: Did the CPUC Impermissibly Convey its Power to Interested Parties? was published in ENVIRONS, Environmental Law and Policy Journal, Volume 20, Number 2, June 1997. Her article Environmental Cases in California's Courts: The Supreme Court's Depublication Practice Compromises the Integrity of the Judicial System in the Name of Efficiency was published in the Lincoln Law Review, Volume 25/26, 1997. After law school, Ms. Holman clerked for Justice Alexander Bryner of the Alaska Supreme Court.