Brad Herrema’s forte and long-term focus include strategic water supply planning, water right permitting and regulatory compliance, litigation including water right adjudications, transactional negotiations and due diligence, as well as water quality, environmental and species concerns spanning every aspect of California and national water law. For nearly 15 years, Brad has been involved in many of the nation’s most significant and complex water matters, predominantly in the western United States. A strategic business partner to his clients, Brad serves as special water counsel to private corporations, water purveyors such as cities and special districts, investor-owned utilities and large landowners, golf courses, resorts and energy and infrastructure projects.

 

Brad has extensive experience in groundwater matters, including development of new groundwater supplies in adjudicated and non-adjudicated basins, groundwater right adjudications, local groundwater management, groundwater storage and complex groundwater litigation. He is actively engaged in implementation of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, including representation of groundwater sustainability agencies, development of groundwater sustainability plans, and protection of water users’ water rights and reliable access to groundwater supplies.

 

Brad serves as counsel to the Chino Basin Watermaster, an arm of the San Bernardino Superior Court, which oversees the implementation of a 1978 groundwater rights adjudication in the Southern California Inland Empire, central to the sustenance of the region’s $2 billion economy.

 

Brad leads the firm’s Water practice group and is a regular writer and speaker on water issues. For the last seven years, he has held a statewide leadership role in the field of groundwater resources as director of the Groundwater Resources Association of California.