Pasadena Law Firm Chosen As Preferred Provider Of the Year by California Rural Water Association

Pasadena-based law firm Lagerlof, LLP, has been recognized as the Preferred Provider of the Year by the California Rural Water Association (CRWA) for 2022, citing their “quality of work, ability to convey legal concepts to the membership in easily understandable ways, and the firm’s excellent responsiveness to clients.”

The law firm, founded in Pasadena over 100 years ago, practices municipal and water law and provides legal services to multiple water suppliers in the state. The firm represents CRWA as general counsel. 

The award was given during the 2022 CRWA Expo in Lake Tahoe in April. Lagerlof LLP last received the award in 2018. 

James D. Ciampa, partner at Lagerlof, LLP, who was in attendance at the Expo, spoke to Pasadena Now about the significance of this award, their water law practice and the most pressing issues around water laws today.

“We were fortunate enough to be named the 2022 Preferred Provider of the Year. That award is significant to us because it recognizes and affirms the high level of service we provide to our clients.  We aim to be very responsive to our clients and it is pleasing to know our clients and CRWA itself recognizes that responsiveness, as well as the quality of the services we provide,” Ciampa said. 

Ciampa elaborated on the pressing drought issue and various ways it is complicating matters for water suppliers in the state. 

“The most significant issue right now is the drought,” Ciampa said. “Outside of a brief respite a few years ago, the state has been facing a severe drought for almost a decade. Water suppliers need to worry about how to respond on several levels: their own water supply, especially if they are in a groundwater basin that has dwindling supplies or rely on imported water; what the state may impose as far as water use restrictions, which has revenue impacts and also places water suppliers in an enforcement position, to which they are not accustomed; and how to respond to the resulting revenue decreases when facing growing inflation and increasing regulations.” 

The drought really does not directly result in lawsuits, he added, but the lack of water in some areas has led to disputes between people who want to build new homes, and water companies that simply do not have the water supply. 

“That is part of an ongoing tension between the state’s push for more housing and the fact that individual water suppliers may not be able to continue to provide water service to increased demand,” Ciampa said. 

In their statewide practice, Lagerlof LLP has to deal with water suppliers who rely on different sources of water: surface water, such as from rivers, lakes and streams; imported water through the State Water Project or Colorado River Aqueduct; groundwater, and recycled water. 

For the firm, increasing regulations on water suppliers is a major issue as far as changes or trends in water law are concerned. Ciampa also sees that as technology advances for detecting ever smaller levels of contaminants, the regulatory limits are decreasing. 

“That enables the state to reduce the contaminant levels and results in more water suppliers having to install expensive treatment.” Ciampa said. “There is a huge legal issue with the state failing, in my opinion, to consider the economic feasibility of the limits it sets, which it is required to do under the law.” 

The drought has also directly impacted Pasadena and has led to reduced groundwater levels in the Raymond Basin, where the City and other local water suppliers have wells. But for the law firm, the drought is more of a northern California issue, Ciampa said. 

Lagerlof, LLP has done some special counsel work for the City of Pasadena and currently represents mutual water companies throughout Altadena and the Kinneloa Irrigation District in northeast Pasadena. For the moment, the firm has not had to handle direct water rights issues in the area. 

“The Raymond Basin in the Pasadena area and the Main San Gabriel Basin to the south and east of Pasadena are both adjudicated, meaning the water rights in those basins have been allocated by court judgments,” Ciampa explained. “Under those judgments, the water suppliers are limited in their production of the groundwater in accordance with each judgment’s provisions.”