Michelle Ouellette

In 28 years at Best Best & Krieger LLP, Ouellette has had time to gain perspective.

"When you've been doing this as long as I have, you have losses but you also have wins," said Ouellette.

This is especially true in the area where Oullette has made her name: the California Environmental Quality Act. CEQA cases are notorious for being long and complex. Even big wins aren't measured in big settlements but in technical changes and "making good case law."

Make no mistake, Oullette has been winning. An example is a series of six cases filed in 2012 and 2013, known collectively as the "Cadiz cases." They arose out of a proposal to pump groundwater from an aquifer in the Mojave Desert, on land owned by Cadiz Inc.

Ouellette's client, the Santa Margarita Water District, was the defendant and winner in two cases, and a real party of interest in the others. Plaintiffs claimed the district was improperly named the lead agency for the project. If they were successful, it would have forced the project to undergo the long, expensive process of getting a new environmental impact report.

The 4th District Court of Appeal allowed the project to go forward and affirmed the district, was the proper lead agency. This result could potentially help fend off future litigation.

"In my mind it did not make sense for these other agencies to be the lead agency because it is not their project, even if it is in another public agency's jurisdiction," Ouellette said.

Ouellette said she is most proud of her work in another area of intricate environmental law: habitat conservation plans.

She cited two in particular: The Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan - first signed in 1997, with ongoing monitoring - is best known for protecting the endangered Stephens' kangaroo rat. The Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan was permitted in 2008, partly with the goal of preserving habitat for bighorn sheep.

Its hard work, less focused on litigation and more "transactional," balancing the interests of various parties. But with development spreading across previously open areas of inland Southern California, Ouellette said, this work is vital.

"My true love in terms of my practice is habitat conservation plans," she said.

— Malcolm Maclachlan