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Practice Areas
Business
Green Business
Land Use
Real Estate
Experience
Bruce is of counsel to the firm. He formerly was a partner in the firm's business, land use and real estate groups.
Bruce is the General Counsel of firm client Clif Bar & Company (the maker of energy bars and other great-tasting foods for athletes, women, children and people on the move) and the Clif Bar family of companies.
As a real estate, land use, and business lawyer for over 26 years, Bruce has represented companies and entrepreneurs in a very broad mix of matters and in hundreds of real estate and business transactions. Bruce also has an in-house counsel’s perspective on the operating and legal challenges faced by a successful and growing business.
Bruce was a founding member and head of the firm’s Green Business Practice Group. He also was one of the first lawyers in the US to become a LEED® Accredited Professional., As a LEED® AP, Bruce understands green building practices and principles; is familiar with LEED® requirements, resources, and processes; and has the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in the design process, support and encourage integrated design, and streamline the LEED® application and certification process.
Bruce also serves as the Co-chair of the California State Bar’s Task Force on Sustainable Practice. The recommendations of the Task Force were adopted by the State Bar Board of Governors in September 2008.
Bruce's other experience includes stints as a geologist with the National Park Service in Yellowstone National Park, and as a criminal justice planner for Santa Cruz County. He has been a pilot and aviation enthusiast for many years and was a special deputy sheriff for the City and County of San Francisco, where he served as the Commander of the San Francisco Sheriff's Air Squadron.
In recognition of his professional accomplishments, in 2000 Bruce was elected to membership in Lambda Alpha International, an honorary land economics society.
Representative Work
California Supreme Court Relocation: Bruce represented the California Supreme Court and the Administrative Office of the Courts in their relocation to Marathon Plaza in San Francisco, which included a substantial tenant improvement construction contract. At the request of the Chief Justice of California, Bruce also represented the California judiciary on other real estate and contract matters.
SFPUC Real Estate: For many years Bruce has represented the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) in the negotiation of real estate transactions. In 1995 the SFPUC, which administers thousands of acres of land and rights-of-way and hundreds of leases and land use permits in connection with the operation of the Hetch Hetchy water system, asked Bruce to undertake a review of its real estate operations. Bruce has identified a substantial number of leases and properties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area that presented immediate opportunities for revenue enhancement, and he has negotiated dozens of transactions relating to those properties. Through these efforts, Bruce and his team have obtained millions of dollars of increased lease and sale revenues for San Francisco. Bruce's current work for the SFPUC includes the development of housing projects on SFPUC land located in various cities throughout the Bay Area.
Bernal Property Development: The SFPUC also asked Bruce to be the lead negotiator in its 500-acre mixed-use Bernal Property development project in Pleasanton, California. For the last two years of that project, Bruce acted as the project manager, and under his leadership land use entitlements were obtained and the property was sold. The Bernal Property transaction was named a "Real Estate Deal of the Year" for 2000 by the San Francisco Business Times.
Education
University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law; J.D. (1982)
University of California, Santa Cruz; B.A. (1979), Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies
Accreditations
LEED® Accredited Professional, United States Green Building Council | 