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Professional Experience
Ms. Higgins´s land use practice centers on entitlement processing, permitting, CEQA and environmental compliance. She serves both residential and commercial developers on a broad spectrum of projects, including mixed-use vertical development, urban infill, and master-planned communities. Ms. Higgins has also represented public entities in redevelopment, eminent domain, validation, and LAFCO proceedings. Her unique experience as developers´ counsel, together with public entity representation, has earned her distinction in working adeptly with local agencies, staff and key decision-makers to facilitate her clients´ projects.
When necessary, Ms. Higgins has successfully and vigorously defended her client´s projects in the court room, resulting in decisions that have set new precedents in California land use law. Representative clients include Lennar Urban Development; Washington Mutual; Los Angeles Unified School District; Lehman Brothers, Inc.; Credit Suisse; Kawada Company, Ltd.; The KOR Group; and the Los Angeles Airlines Airport Affairs Committee.
Ms. Higgins is the hiring and training partner for Weston Benshoof´s Land Use Group. She joined the firm in 2001 and received her Juris Doctorate in 1997 at UCLA. Prior to law school, she attended the Master´s Program in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago and is a former editor of the Great Books Foundation in Chicago, Illinois.
Education
University of California, Los Angeles, J.D., 1997
Distinguished Advocate: UCLA Moot Court
Chief Articles Editor: UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy (1995)
Vice President: American Indian Law Students Association
University of Chicago, Masters Program, 1987
University of Illinois, B.A., 1984
Professional Memberships and Activities
Member, State Bar of California; Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association; Vice Chair, California State Bar Zoning and Land Use Committee (Southern Chapter); Member, Central City Association, Housing and Land Use Committee; Board Member, Tierra del Sol Foundation; Member, L.A. Philanthropic Committee for the Arts.
Publications
Prop 46 Funds Alive And Well (February 2004)
Land Development: 2002 Legislative Update (October 2002)
Land Development: 2001 Legislative Update (November 2001)
Does California`s Energy Crisis Create Additional Burdens for Developers and Agencies Under CEQA" (October 2001)
Identifying & Analyzing Cumulative Impacts Under CEQA (April 2000)
Reported Cases
Vedanta Society of Southern California v. California Quartet, Ltd. (2002) 103 Cal.App.4th 1200.
Napa Citizens for Honest Government v. Napa County Board of Supervisors (2001) 91 Cal.App.4th 342.
Vedanta Society of Southern California v. California Quartet, Ltd. (2000) 84 Cal.App.4th 517.
G.L. Mezzetta, Inc. v. City of American Canyon (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 1087. | 