CLEMENT, FITZPATRICK & KENWORTHY

Stephen K. Butler

Steve Butler is the head of the firm’s land use department. Prior to joining the firm in 1992, he was for many years the Chief Deputy in the Sonoma County Counsel’s office in charge of the land use section. While there, he was responsible for the legal work in developing and implementing the County’s General Plan and Zoning Ordinance.

In his practice with the firm, Mr. Butler represents national and local developers, ranchers, farmers, wineries and individuals in land use matters. He has led teams of professionals in securing approvals for shopping centers, wineries, multi- and single-family residential projects, golf courses, surface mining operations and other business ventures.

Mr. Butler graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Davis, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. He also taught land use law at Empire Law School.

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Clayton E. Clement

Clay Clement is a business trial lawyer. His practice is largely devoted to real estate litigation, including property tax, broker liability, eminent domain, partnership and other business disputes involving real property. He has also handled contract, anti-trust, unfair competition, false advertising, title insurance and employment litigation.

He has handled major property tax cases throughout California involving oil, gas, geothermal and refinery properties. He has also handled escrow and title insurance disputes, contract cases and many cases involving the wine industry. He has tried over 100 cases before state courts in more than 15 California counties and federal district and bankruptcy court and before assessment appeals boards and state administrative agencies.

Mr. Clement is an honors graduate of the University of the Pacific and received his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. In addition to his practice, he has taught real estate and litigation subjects at Kennedy Law School, Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College and the Hastings College of Law Business Litigation Institute.

Mr. Clement is a member of the panel of ADR neutrals at Resolution Remedies, a major Bay Area provider of mediation and arbitration services.

Mr. Clement is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, two organizations where membership is available only by invitation and only to the most capable and experienced trial counsel.

In September of 2004, Mr. Clement was selected as one of the Top 100 lawyers in Northern California in a broad survey of lawyers conducted by Law & Politics Magazine and published in San Francisco Magazine. His biography has appeared in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law and Best Lawyers in America.

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Anthony Cohen

Anthony Cohen is a senior member of the firm’s litigation department whose broad experience in the resolution of complex, high-profile, high-stakes disputes involving both private parties and governmental agencies also renders him highly qualified to head the firm’s Indian law section. Tony’s experience includes state and federal litigation and negotiated resolution of business, land use, construction, real property, and environmental disputes, and advocacy for a wide range of clients in federal, state, and local governmental negotiations. In addition to his non-tribal work, Tony currently represents three northern California tribes and a tribal consortium health clinic. A substantial part of his work for them is devoted to issues of tribal sovereignty, internal self-governance and regulation, and entry into intergovernmental agreements, including tribal-state compacts, pertaining to tribal gaming.

Mr. Cohen is a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of San Francisco School of Law. He has taught courses on Indian Law at Sonoma State University, and has participated in symposia and lectures on the subject at other institutions.

Our Sovereignty's Not For Sale from Tony Cohen on Vimeo.

In the late 1990’s California's Governor Pete Wilson and the federal government conspired to try to force California's Indian Tribes either to shut down their thriving grey-market casinos, putting tens of thousands of people out of work and killing the only industry that has ever given tribes real hope of self-sufficiency, or to accept a take-it-or-leave-it bad deal Class III Gaming Compact that Wilson had convinced one desperate Tribe to accept.

This 1999 half-hour documentary by tribal attorney Tony Cohen depicts a critical portion of the struggle of California Tribes to resist those short-sighted government efforts, a struggle that was ultimately taken to California’s voters with great success.

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Peter DeGolia

Pete DeGolia is a senior member of the firm’s litigation practice. He has over 15 years of experience in business and real estate litigation. He is the principal lawyer responsible for the firm’s representation of the title insurance industry, where he has counseled national and regional title companies and has represented them in title insurance, escrow liability and other litigation.

He also has wide experience in real estate broker, commercial landlord-tenant, easement and boundary line disputes. Mr. DeGolia also has experience in other business litigation, including contract, employment and unfair business practice matters.

Mr. DeGolia is a graduate of Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco School of Law.

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Paul J. Fitzpatrick

Paul Fitzpatrick is of counsel to the firm. He handles business and real estate litigation matters. Before joining the firm in 1978, he was an Assistant United States Attorney in San Francisco.

He is a graduate of the University of Arizona and an honors graduate of Boalt Hall Law School at UC Berkeley.

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Randy Kenworthy

Randy Kenworthy is the business lawyer who heads the firm’s transaction and estate planning departments. He has broad experience in planning and documenting real estate and other business transactions, including the purchase, sale and leasing of large apartment houses, shopping centers, office complexes and such specialty properties as motor speedways, school campuses and mushroom farms.

He has represented public companies, governmental agencies, Indian tribes and private individuals in all aspects of major transactions for more than 25 years. He is also responsible for the firm’s estate planning practice, where he counsels clients on estate planning and estate tax questions and drafts wills, trusts and other instruments to put the plans into effect.

Mr. Kenworthy, a life-long resident of Sonoma County, is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law.

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Jeffrey S. Lyons

Jeffrey Lyons is an associate in the firm's litigation department. He joined the firm in January 2004. His emphasis is on real estate litigation, including matters involving easements, boundary lines, vineyard development and contract disputes. Jeff graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law, cum laude, where he was a member of the McAuliffe Honor Society and earned American Jurisprudence Awards for excellence in Legal Research and Writing I, Legal Research and Writing II, and Professional Responsibility.

In 2002, Jeff was recognized by the San Francisco Superior Court as a Court Mediator for its Small Claims Division. He has also participated as a party representative in EEOC mediations and is the author of “Be Prepared”: When Unsuspecting Employers are Vulnerable for Title VII Sexual Harassment Claims, 37 U.S.F. L. Rev. 467 (2003).

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Robert L. Quail

Robert L. Quail joined Clement, Fitzpatrick & Kenworthy after nearly a decade of service as Vice President/General Counsel for Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates and almost twenty years of practice. Mr. Quail has extensive experience with all aspects of real estate acquisition, leasing and financing for wineries and other businesses, developers, investors, landlords, tenants, and lenders. In addition, Mr. Quail also continues his representation of wineries and grape growers in the areas of general business and beverage alcohol law.

While at Kendall-Jackson, Mr. Quail provided advice and counsel for one of the fastest growing and most dynamic companies in the wine industry. He managed the legal issues in all real estate and business acquisitions, helping guide the company through the acquisition and development of thousands of acres of vineyards and several wineries on four continents. He advised the company on corporate compliance, human resource management and trademark development and protection, and on matters unique to the wine industry, such as the laws and regulations surrounding viticulture, wine production, and wine distribution throughout the U.S. and the world.

Mr. Quail received undergraduate degrees in business economics and political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1978 and his MBA and Law degrees from Santa Clara University in 1984. He is a board member of Children & Family Circle, a Sonoma County agency providing infant and toddler daycare services for at-risk children, and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Oak Grove School District in West Sonoma County. He has previously served a five-year term as a board member of the Lattice Foundation, a Sonoma County school serving autistic children and others with developmental and educational disabilities.

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Lauriann Tasker

Lauriann Tasker is a probate, estate planning and real estate transaction lawyer. She first joined the firm in 2001 after completing her duties on the staff of the Sonoma County Superior Court. Ms. Tasker is an honors graduate of the State University of New York, Albany. She received her law degree (cum laude) from the University of San Francisco, where she was a member of the McAuliffe Honor Society. In her practice, she assists individuals in planning their estates, drafting revocable and irrevocable trusts and drafting wills. She represents individual and institutional representatives in the probate of estates. She also represents individual, corporate and partnership real estate investors in drafting contracts, leases, loan documents and operating documents for corporations, partnerships, LLCs and other entities.

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Maureen Reilly Wahl

Maureen Reilly Wahl, associate in the litigation department, joined CF&K as a law clerk in late 2006. Her areas of specialization include easements, partitions, contract disputes, and vineyard-related litigation. Ms. Wahl also spearheads the firm’s efforts to increase attorney productivity and efficiency by incorporating high-tech resources into case management and trial execution.

Ms. Wahl is a graduate of University of California at Santa Cruz, where she was captain of the women’s water polo team, and Empire College School of Law, where she conducted mediations for low-income debtors, counseled parties on filing and defending small claims actions, and co-authored and published the article I Can’t Promise I’ll Try, But I’ll Try to Try: Current Changes in California’s Water Planning Policies for Large-Scale Land Developments, 3 Empire L. Rev. 45 (2008).

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Tina Wallis

Tina Wallis is in the firm’s land use department. Prior to joining the firm, she advised counties, cities, and special districts on land use, public works, general government, airport, and landfill matters. She has advised clients on many aspects of land use law including general plan updates, zoning code updates, compliance with California’s Environmental Quality Act, land use entitlements for residential and commercial projects, and conservation easements. Ms. Wallis does both transactional work and litigation and has represented clients before regulatory agencies as well as advising regulatory agencies. She has also advised public agencies on bidding and constructing public works projects and public-private partnerships.

Ms. Wallis graduated from Vermont Law School and completed her undergraduate work at the University of California, Davis. Ms. Wallis teaches Environmental Law and Legal Writing and Research at Empire College of Law, is a member of the Sonoma County Bar Association’s Board of Directors, and formerly served as small claims court judge for the Sonoma County Superior Court.

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